I agree with everything you posted.
it’s only Handful of Superstars in the league.
The list is debatable and depends on what you’re factoring in, marketing and your ability to draw like how you pointed out with Bron and KD plays a big part.
Bron
KD
Steph
Harden
Kawhi
Giannis
AD
Kyrie
Etc
Would be considered 2nd tier
Bron after winning the 1st ship in Cleveland open the door for the MJ talks to start happening again. I forget his exact comments but you know what I’m talking about.
KD has always envy Bron on the low. We’ve all seen the infamous tweet from when he was on OKC about “everybody teaming up”
Once the initial hate for Bron going to Miami went away and the rhetoric change for Bron, especially after Bron went back to Cleveland., KD saw that from a distance and realized I can’t go out like Melo, I have to make a move now.
I think he went to GSW with the thought process “ I basically did the same thing Bron did” which it wasn’t. Even after giving it to Bron in the Finals and winning MVP, he still hasn’t gotten the respect he thought he would get.
Bron flexed his muscle and got AD
Kawhi flexed his Muscle and got PG
KD doing the same now.
this is the make-up of today’s superstar
KD wanna go out as the GOAT same way Bron does, so he feels this is the game that has to be played.
Bron laid the foundation
There’s more things that were in play that we must knowledge that the league itself has a lot of control that they exert in small ways like rounding out the draft percentages yet giving New Orleans Chris Paul then Anthony Davis then Zion meanwhile the Knicks been horrible for so long they haven’t had many top five picks.
As a regular NBA rookie over the last 15 or so years your contract was four years with restricted free agency after the fourth restricted with the team that drafted you or has your bird rights can match your contract from other teams without you saying yes. It’s not until the seventh year when you see real free agency. That alone creates a situation where guys of a certain level are held hostage. Once you get past role players, young guys, vets, and others that make up the majority of the league you cut the fat of people who really matter game to game on the court. That’s why when certain player types get traded yearly like spot up shooters and rebounding bigs often many times after signing multi year contracts.
Back in the day the salary cap was much harder so if we were on the same team and you got the big contract that’s taking money out my pocket as a teammate and it means I got to leave the team or else I’ll be put in the position of making less money because I’m seen as a role player to you. (Example Marbury leaving the Timberwolves and T-Mac leaving the Raptors) today the league is younger than ever even considering they made jumping straight from high school illegal the top of the league made the league younger by making vets minimums cost more why give a 27 yr old role player 1.5 million when I can give three g-leaguers under 25 500k each.
Certain places are horrible for black people to live in and especially play for example Utah. Utah was founded by Mormons who believe that people with darker skin were cursed by God. Also size matters historically since the beginning of the game the big man was the most important position as the game has become more diagonal the big wing is the most important player only a few times was a team that won under a guy under 6’4 the Steph Warriors before KD and The Zeke Pistons and even they had amazing big men.
Players are broken down into many subsets (big man vs tall man, free players vs program players, Iso vs team, 82 Gamer vs 16 Gamer, and the most important for the discussion Skill vs Will). Early in their careers KD and Lebron were both saddled with rosters of Will guys and got stopped by squads of skill guys.
In both cases before they went to new teams there was always a list of five teams that could get one of them out of a league of 30 teams. Bron in 2010 gave the NJ Nets, New York Knicks, Miami Heat, Clippers, Bulls, CAVS, and the MAVS a chance. Think about those teams at the time and add Bron plus Wade as we later found out. Bulls would’ve been the best especially considering they had Rose and Noah on their rookie deals and they had money to get Bosh too. Now in 2016 KD met with OKC, the Warriors, The Clippers, the Spurs, The Celtics, and the Heat. it’s a funny story now but the Los Angeles Lakers were sad that KD didn’t want to meet with them. Using the hindsight of where we are today signing to GSW was the best decision and I’ve argued before on here that it would’ve been even better if they had fired Steve Kerr after he cost them the finals. The Warriors wanted to meet with KD if he ever became a free agent since 2013 years before Kerr got hired.
Fast Forward Lebron didn’t become King really until the Heat repeated and I feel the same way about KD. I look down on Tim Duncan, Dirk, Bird others who never repeated but have the audacity to be in top five conversations.
You mentioned Kawhi with him he exceeded expectations and was underpaid for a long time and the Spurs wanted him to take less money when he could’ve gotten a super max because of him winning DPOY TWICE. he’s a great example of the seven years shyt because he knew San Antonio wasn’t going to give him what he deserved, Pop was aging into a political figure, they weren’t able to get guys, wasting his time with G-leaguers. When he declined the offer from the Raptors when he went into free agency to sign with the Clippers think about all the bullshyt he went through to have freedom. In 2016 he lead the Spurs to 67 wins and Pop said he wasn’t a leader. Kawhi went from making 1.4 million to making 34.4 million a year. Kawhi gets my respect and props and last season must’ve been very very hard on him like we all know Paul George wasn’t his first choice and Kobe’s death was big on him. The pilot Ara Zobayan was Kawhi’s pilot as well so last season when he was attacked for being late to meetings in LA he should’ve had a pass from the death of Kobe, his pilot, and the pandemic.
Steph’s luck has run out and it’s only so much longer he can play mr.nice light skin smiley face man before he or them Cacs leave the Warriors.
Harden situation was an offshoot of the KD shyt when they traded him after the finals to a team that they met in the playoffs the next year when Pat Bev injured Russ. Besides the bad IQ Russ hasn’t been the same since that injury.
So as a whole you have a situation where a few black men were blessed with gifts that they worked on to be crafts that they were then held in place and were forced into media trainings of ways to appease White people on the condition that it would make them money to help their families (in 1000 years the story of Bron could be a religion a drugged out teen mom gets blessed with a kid who from age 15 could’ve brought home millions but ended up bringing home billions moving his mother out of Akron to Miami then to Los Angeles while making a family of his own and being a role model to countless kids and now having his name held in the highest degree with people he watched growing up when he was at other’s people house because his mother couldn’t feed him we ain’t even mentioned how his hairline resurrects every 4 months) but having to deal with the quadruple talk of cac’s lying not only to them but about them leading to distrust and then anger when all their praise is given to someone else who then able to say they were a kingmaker to the guys coming up after you (Think Pat Riley he became coach because a guy fell off a bike and Jerry West ain’t want to coach) which feeds into their narrative that you were missing something beyond basketball something in your soul and they continue to discount your intelligence and humanity while a group of tens of thousands are able to thrive off the energy you create from podcasts, radio shows, sneaker companies, food companies, beverages, actual politics (think about Rodman and North Korea), newspapers and their shift to digital, technology that tracks their bodies, video games, social currency, speculation, venture capitalism, racial symbolism, and distractions like the world laughing at you for caring about the little things.
First they love you then they hate you again until you win but you can’t win too soon or else they will hate you longer but if you lose it makes the winning you did before not matter and also when you win do it again and act like you’ve been there before because soon as you win a new season begins the King is dead long live the King while jesters all day chat about cats who won’t ever be dukes heavy is the crown on these Kings.
Kobe was on the cusp of it all until Colorado happened bytch had the semen of many men in her panties. Kobe’s big moment was pushed back years and he looked like he had the opportunity to make it all back plus more if he didn’t die that Sunday morning because he went through it in a way that only certain people who have to hold the league understand. Jordan went through bullshyt but there was more respect and not as much cynicism.
