Remaining loyal to an NBA team is a very difficult job for players nowadays, as several factors influence the player or the team’s decision to let an asset go at some point. Right now it is hard to see players doing the same Dirk Nowitzki, Kobe Bryant or Tim Duncan did, playing with a single organization throughout their entire careers.
To put things into perspective (H/T redditor ‘Watchadoinfoo‘), the only two players in the league who have spent 10 years with their original teams are Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors and John Wall of the Washington Wizards.
Curry was drafted by the Warriors with the 7th overall pick in the 2009 NBA draft. Wall was the first overall pick of the next edition of the draft, coming out of the University of Kentucky. This says a lot about how things are done in the current NBA. There are a lot of movements around the association, and stars don’t doubt looking for a new team if things don’t work quickly with their first franchise in the association.
Unless something extraordinary happens, Tristan Thompson and Klay Thompson will reach the 10-year mark next year, with Tristan playing with the Cleveland Cavaliers and Klay being Curry’s wingman in the Warriors.
For the 2012 draft, we have Bradley Beal, Wall’s teammate in Washington, Damian Lillard in Portland and Draymond Green in Golden State.
This is something curious, to say the least. It was already hard to see a player staying his whole career with a single team, but now it’s even hard to think about them staying more than five years with the organization that originally drafted them.
