Andre Iguodala has grabbed a lot of headlines around the NBA trade deadline for his refusal to play for the Memphis Grizzlies after being traded there from the Golden State Warriors, ans as I was reading an article about that at the Big Lead by Stephen Douglas I thought he summarized the situation perfectly by stating this regarding the 2015 Finals' MVP:
"He's now the guy who cashed checks from a playoff team, but refused to play because he wanted to be on a better playoff team."
That's a slap in the face of every sports fan out there. The NBA has a big problem and Andre Iguodala is just the latest player to be involved in a situation like this. Whether it's players sitting out demanding a trade, load management or this new nonsense it just seems like there's always some reason not to play.
Andre Iguodala is currently a role player making 17 million dollars who refused to play for a Memphis Grizzlies team that's now competing for the playoffs in the very tough Western conference because in his mind he is too good to play for them. This single fact represents all that is wrong with the NBA.
I could give you countless examples of athletes with better character, players that actually want to earn their paycheck, but I am only going to give you one: Joe Thomas.
Joe Thomas was an all pro Left Tackle for the Cleveland Browns, he is going to the Hall of Fame, The Wisconsin product had a career record of 48 wins and 128 losses, never made the playoffs and outside of his rookie year the Browns never had a winning record during his time there. Thomas never complained, asked for a trade nor even considered refusing to play in order to get a trade.
Football and basketball are two different sports and more importantly the NFL and the NBA are such different leagues that they are the exact opposite of each other when it comes to player empowerment nevertheless the example still applies.
Sticking to basketball only, look at what Chris Paul is doing this season.
Does anybody think CP3 wanted any part of being with the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2020? He kept his head down and right now OKC is 31-20 at the sixth seed when everyone thought they'd compete for a top 5 pick. CP3 is averaging:
17.0 Points
5.0 Rebounds
6.6 Assists
Players can demand trades but to sit out under these circumstances it's inexcusable. Most of the time when they demand a trade they do it with leverage, meaning their contract is coming to an end, the team usually ends up trading the player, the thing is if a deal doesn't come to fruition you show up and play especially when you are Andre Iguodala and your team is fighting for a playoff spot. At this point in time nobody at the Grizzlies' locker room wanted him there and that tells you all you need to know.
If the former Warrior didn't want to be in this situation he should've negotiated a no trade clause into his contract with the Golden State Warriors. Clauses like that exist to keep a player usually a veteran from going to a situation where he doesn't want to go. For whatever the reason he didn't, which gave Golden State the right to ship him away.
Iguodala canan you make that sacrifice for us the fans and actually play to receive your 17 million dollar salary? Obviously no because Memphis isn't quite a championship caliber team like the Heat. The best running backs in the NFL can only dream of receiving those dollar figures. People wonder why the NBA has issues.
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