James Harden leaves Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook for Houston. The Super Friends scenarios are gone, replaced with the NBA's vision of talent spreading out to the have-nots. For him, the economics of the sport keep reaffirming that three's a crowd now, that James will have to choose a partnership with one superstar teammate. The problem I have is that Woj argues that the Gay trade means the end of the super team.Īs a Western Conference contender disassembled out of frugality and panic on Wednesday, Miami Heat star LeBron James should've been recalibrating the realities of the free-agent frenzy awaiting him in 2014. I have no problem with Woj writing amazing deconstructions of ESPN, and I have no problem with anyone critiquing an NBA executive. Me? Criticize basketball opinions for being overwrought? My tea kettle is not black, y'all. Calling the Butler move a "disaster" is hilariously overwrought, but. He was the next Michael Sweetney, after all!) But I honestly don't mind the digs at ESPN (four letters Woj will never type or say in succession), and once you take a job making personnel decisions for a team, your previous decisions are open game. (Many of us, not just John, were fooled by Jackie Butler. Woj refers to Hollinger as a "statistician who worked for a cable sports company" and lays into him ( unfairly) for telling the San Antonio Spurs to sign Jackie Butler years ago. Most of the focus on the column in question has been in Woj's welting of new Grizzlies exec John Hollinger, a former ESPN scribe. PRADA: Grizzlies win by losing Gay | THE HOOK: Raptors are brilliant! He's the don of a strong NBA reporter set.Īnd man, he is so very wrong about what the Rudy Gay trade means. And given the extremely high quality of reportage in the NBA - Marc Stein, David Aldridge, Sam Amick, Howard Beck, Marc Spears, Steve Aschburner, Michael Lee and many more I'm leaving out - that says something. It's not a surprise when Woj breaks a big NBA story.
He broke the Rudy Gay trade this week because of course he broke the Rudy Gay trade. (What a bold statement.) If I had easy access to him, I'd ask him what I'm having for dinner tomorrow, and were I an NBA player, I bet he'd know.
Full disclosure: I think Adrian Wojnarowski is the best NBA reporter on the planet.