The move from DeMarcus Cousins to the Golden State Warriors shocked the NBA world. The player has to take hard criticism for it, the Warriors are despised by many fans anyway – and the league is long broken, they say. All this is completely absurd, comments NBA editor Thorben Rybarczik.
The commitment of DeMarcus’ cousins by the Warriors caused similarly high waves as the LeBron deal to the Lakers. But unlike this one, the tenor was completely different: how can cousins dare? And how dare the warriors? To hell with them!
It was said that the NBA was broken (whereby… it was already broken in 2016 after the Durant change, so now it is rather “still broken”), Cousins is a “Snitch” and a “Ringh***”, the league has to change the salary cap rules, because such deals make him look ridiculous and at all: Why didn’t this stupid Commissioner Adam Silver prevent the deal with a veto?
Let’s go through these classics, starting with the “broken league” – in which new records are set year after year in terms of sales, global ratings or busy arenas. The level of playfulness is also increasing, and in every draft many international talents join the league that contribute to the globalisation of sport.
Economically, the Association is probably hardly ever doing well – but isn’t it boring that “the Warriors have already booked the title for 2019”? Firstly, there is still a long way to go. Two, if they actually make the Threepeat, what’s the big deal? The history of the League is marked by dynasties. Funnily enough, the’90s are often used as the great age in which everything was better – and in which the Bulls won six titles in eight years and in which about 85 percent of all teams had no player in the squad suspected of halfway defending Michael Jordan.
In the 80s, the Lakers played in the finals four times in a row and three times against the Celtics. Speaking of Celtics and Lakers: 33 Championships collected these two teams together, in 71 years NBA. That’s almost half of all titles for just two teams – so if the league is broken, it’s never been cured.
Let’s get to the next point: Cousins’ Move is that of a traitor who only looks to dust off a title as easily as possible. However, a look at his situation raises the question: What was he supposed to do? According to ESPN, he had not received a single (!) serious offer before the negotiations with the Warriors. Now he finds himself in a situation that is ideal for his sporting circumstances: “The team will get along quite well anyway, there is no hurry in his rehabilitation.
When he comes back, he can increase in minutes, the stars around him will make room for him, he can find his rhythm in peace and win by the way. The man hasn’t played a single playoff game at the age of 27 – can you blame him for wanting to change that? The Warriors’ Way is certainly the most pleasant. But as I said: As a 27-year-old All-Star, he had no real alternative offer. In a way, the 29 other teams made this commitment possible for the Warriors.
Many now demand adjustments to the salary cap in order to change such moves in the future. After all, it is ridiculed when an All-Star signs in his Prime for 5.2 million instead of 25 million. But how can this be prevented? Should there be minimum salaries for players of Cousins’ caliber? There is simply no basis for this, since stats and all-star nominations only ever tell half the truth.
It would be unfair to players who fail to meet these criteria, and it is much easier to become an All-Star in the East than in the West. In any case, such a rule would need hundreds of exceptions: The age of the player would have to be taken into account or various injuries (which in turn would have to be categorized). That would also lead to great injustices. And anyway, how absurd would be a rule that requires players not to forego a salary?
The trend is that superstars no longer focus on pure player content. There are plenty of sources of income outside of it, which in turn increase with sporting success. Paradoxically, therefore, it can lead to higher income being generated as a player if you do without a salary. And, remember: The Salary Cap has the same rules in all teams!
Finally, there is the demand for a veto from Commissioner Silver. This demand should gain legitimacy because once David Stern had prevented Chris Paul from moving to the Lakers. Once again the short form: At that time the Hornets were in the possession of the league. So the franchise acted in the interest of the franchise and made use of its veto right that every team owner or president has his own. This was a unique situation in league history – and cannot be compared to the cousins deal.
Taking all this into account, you might ask yourself: Why not acknowledge the warriors’ ability to build such a team? Why not accept that every player has the right to act as he sees fit?
And as a neutral basketball fan, why not just be curious about how this new Warriors team works? A Starting Five of Curry, Thompson, Durant, Green and Cousins would be one consisting only of All-Stars – an absolute novelty. It will be exciting to see how Coach Kerr manages to form this team into a unit – just as it was exciting when Durant arrived in 2016.
No one needs to like the warriors, that’s out of the question. But to react with anger and contempt and to close oneself off from the fascination of this new team would be simply wrong – because it is great fun to watch how other teams prepare themselves and prepare to overthrow this super team. That the Warriors want to prevent this and react with their own moves is their right – and only makes the matter more multi-faceted.
In the end, you can only congratulate Cousins and the Warriors on this move. The NBA is by no means broken – rather, it benefits from all the stories that the Warriors are writing and will continue to write.