At least one NBA general manager isn’t a fan of how powerful NBA players have become.
NBA players have hands down the most power out of all professional athletes and it’s not close. Over the course of the past 10-15 years, players have called the shots with increasing regularity, and that’s apparently an issue. (RELATED: David Hookstead Is The True King In The North When It Comes To College Football)
“Player empowerment is a catchall for the fact that the league has done a terrible job of empowering teams. The players have all of the leverage in every situation. I think it’s the worst thing that ever happened to professional sports on all levels,” an unnamed NBA general manager told The New Yorker for a profile about LeBron James’ agent Rich Paul.
New Piece: In this week’s @NewYorker, I profiled Rich Paul, the agent of LeBron James and many other stars, and wrote about how the NBA is changing, and the politics of the league. https://t.co/uLsHLPtyCH
— Isaac Chotiner (@IChotiner) May 31, 2021
It’s hard to disagree with the thoughts of this unnamed GM, and if you speak to older NBA players in private, they’ll more or less say the same.
The game is less about being a sport and more about entertainment and branding. Look no further than the bubble in Orlando.
It was nothing more than politics being jammed down our throats, and Adam Silver even admitted as much.
The fact of the matter is that NBA players are employees and they work for a business. It seems like we’ve all forgotten that.
Instead, we’ve been told that there’s nothing wrong with going out and protesting on company time, and it’s driven fans away.
NBA TV Ratings Continue To Tank To New Lows. The Numbers Are Embarrassing For The League https://t.co/WNX4oRJdOH
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) May 23, 2021
We’ll see if the NBA ever gets back on track, but I’m not holding my breath.