On the TunneySide of Sports July 11, 2016 #601 Up next… Free agency building a dynasty!
The 2015 NBA World Champions Golden State Warriors have lured, with great financial incentive, Kevin Durant 6’ 9”, 240# and a 10 year NBA veteran super star into their fold. Durant was drafted by the Seattle Supersonics in 2007 (whose franchise then moved to Oklahoma City to become the Oklahoma Thunder). Durant has been with only one NBA T*E*A*M in his entire carrer, yet he has never won an NBA championship. Is he exercising his free agency: 1) for the money ($54.3 million/two years); 2) because he’s unhappy with the Thunder; or 3) for the chance to play with a team that set an NBA record winning 73 games?
A dynasty, it is said, is a “sequence of rulers from the same family, etc. with a more formal definition based on feudal or monarchical systems, The TunneySide assumes that’s what the Warriors intend to accomplish. I guess Durant liked what they do — along with least two of the three above. Could you blame him? Are dynasties really good in sports?
You may have, or have had, a sports dynasty? In the NFL would it be Lombardi’s Packers, Shula’s Colts/Dolphins, Madden’s Raiders, Noll’s Steelers, Walsh’s Niners, Belichick’s Patriots or another club that you followed and admired? There have been those types of dynasties in all professional sports, as well as in colleges and high schools. However, colleges and high schools don’t have the luxury of free agency that professional sports do – thank goodness! The Tunney Side has never been a fan of free agency!
The draft system established by professional sports was designed to maintain a balance of competition. That thinking is sound! If one team dominates the player market and is allowed to monopolize the available talent, the other teams, and their fans, become disheartened with their attendance and income diminishing. That team and their fans suffer.
Free agency is simply defined as a player, who signs a contract for a given number of agreed years, must remain with that team until the end of that contract before being allowed to seek employment from another team in that sports league. There are many, and always will be, exceptions to the argument that a player should remain loyal to the team that originally obtained that player. In today’s sports money-world that argument falls short.
Will you log-in on your opinion of free agency as well as dynasties?
To contact Jim go to www.jimtunney.com or email him jim@jimtunney.com.
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