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Message: [QUOTE="RF2044, post: 311991, member: 40"] Give me a ing break. Qualitatively, there is absolutely no comparison between those two situations. Lebron was on the cusp of being an UFA, and forced the Cavaliers's hand [ditto Bosh and Toronto]. Cleveland took a crappy, back loaded trade that they haven't even received any benefit from yet if I'm not mistaken in order to avoid losing an irreplaceable asset totally uncompensated. That wasn't a "trade," it was a hostage negotiation, and to claim that the situations "aren't all that different" because of Lebron being a sign and trade is pedantic and splitting hairs, while conveniently missing the point I was making in the post you responded to. KG wanted to remain in Minnesota for his entire career--he wasn't looking for a new team, and he wasn't "friends" with either Paul Pierce or Ray Allen before getting traded there. He was devastated and insulted when the Wolves began to shop him, and his name began to surface in trade rumors. One guy cherry picked his destination so that he could play with his friends. The other reluctantly got traded, relenting at the 11th hour after expressing that he didn't even want to go to the team that he eventually got traded to. One group of players colluded behind the scenes to play together [legally, within the rules of free agency--not suggesting otherwise]. The other came together due to management, with very little interaction between the players beforehand. One situation was about amassing three max players who were universally recognized as being among the top players in the world, in their prime. The other was an enormous risk, putting together three players who were considered past their prime and hadn't collectively played much meaningful basketball--and there was certainly no guarantee the players would even be compatible. Granted, Boston did win the championship that first year, so it obviously worked out for them--but let's be honest: nobody foresaw the team coming together defensively like that, or could have predicted that players like Pierce and Allen would be willing to sacrifice shots of sublimate egos, because nothing in their careers up to that point suggested that would be the case. [/QUOTE]

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