Klay Thompson, Paul George and when business gets personal

Both legends left their teams in free agency due at least in no small part due to disrespect. There's a lesson there.

Good morning. Let’s basketball.

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The Icebergs; Frederic Edwin Church; 1861

In the aftermath of Klay Thompson leaving the Warriors in a sign-and-trade to the Dallas Mavericks, The Athletic’s Anthony Slater unfurled a long piece documented how the messy break-up happened. There’s a lot about the instantly memorable game in February where Klay came in and intentionally fouled Russell Westbrook down three with 40 seconds to go. There’s some about Klay having his worst game of the season in the play-in, and about his indirect postseason spat with Draymond Green regarding the Warriors taking care of their own.

To me, these all feel like symptoms of the real malady here. From Slater:

Controlling owner Joe Lacob led a front-office effort to take a cold, mostly uncommunicative approach to Thompson’s next contract in his three summers of extension eligibility, league sources said, which isn’t separate from their norm. Lacob has done similar in the past with Curry, Kerr, Bob Myers, Andre Iguodala and Green, using dwindling time as a weapon but ultimately paying up (he put a substantial offer on the table for Myers) after a staring contest.

But Iguodala’s (in 2017) and Green’s (in 2023) are the two parallel situations that have popped up most in conversation about the split with Thompson that blindsided some Warriors’ executives in recent weeks. Iguodala and Green, both sharp and versed in the corporate world, used leverage to exact a better deal from the Warriors. Iguodala took his decision deep into free agency.

Thompson operates on his own wavelength. The Warriors’ decision-makers were warned that a drawn-out negotiation into July during this free-agent cycle wouldn’t be met the same way.

The Warriors treated Thompson’s extension talks like a business deal, after all that Thompson had been through and — in fairness — after the Warriors had paid him a lot of money. Thompson took hardball negotiation as insult in a way the other Warriors did not. As a result, Thompson eventually walked.

Here’s Paul George on his podcast talking about the process that led him to leave the Clippers to sign with the 76ers in free agency.

The biggest takeaway is that PG felt disrespected by the Clippers’ initial offer before the James Harden trade last fall — two years, $60 million, plus apparently (based on what Zach Lowe has said on his podcast) an opt-in for $49 million for next season. So essentially three years, $109 million was the initial offer from the Clippers. He ended up getting four years, $212 million from the Sixers. There are probably at least a half-dozen teams that would have tripped over themselves to give him that if possible.

The way PG tells it, the initial lowball offer — a business negotiation tactic from the Clippers — soured the whole thing, to the point where George’s camp felt the need to push for a no-trade clause once L.A.’s offer rose to the same level as to what they gave Kawhi Leonard in a midseason extension (three years, $150 million). The Clippers and most NBA teams are allergic to no-trade clauses. PG had very good reason to insist on one if he was going to take $62 million less than he could receive on the open market. No one has forgotten what happened to Blake Griffin. And notably, PG would not have been eligible for a no-trade clause had the Clippers extended him before free agency: you can only add a no-trade when signing a new contract. There’s a strong case this could have all been moot had the Clippers just offered in February what they offered in June.

In making important decisions about one’s future, it’s often important to strip emotion from the process to the extent possible. This applies at all levels of humanity. It’s also really, really difficult. For folks wired the way that modern pro athletes have to be wired to make it at this level, it might be impossible. This is a business, we hear that constantly when it comes to players signing free agent deals with new clubs, when it comes to teams trading beloved players, when it comes to teams letting beloved players walk. Personal attachments and feelings and strong emotions are still a major factor. And in the end, the players’ business is personal. It’s them. They are the business. And when you disrespect them, there’s a real chance alienation will follow.

And that’s how you end up with a messy exit and a scramble for Plan B, which in Golden State is De’Anthony Melton, Kyle Anderson and Buddy Hield, and in Los Angeles is Derrick Jones Jr., Nicolas Batum and, uh, Kevin Porter Jr.

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Warming Up

Team USA traveled to Abu Dhabi to cool off (seriously, it’s a half-dozen degrees cooler in Abu Dhabi this week than Las Vegas) and warm up for the Olympics. On Monday they had a friendly with Australia. It was pretty close.

My two notes at this point are that I’m not totally convinced of this version of Joel Embiid in this context (though yes, you really only need him for a few opponents and also yes, he was the only starter with a positive plus-minus) and that Team USA really could use a healthy Kevin Durant.

Australia beat Serbia in another warm-up on Tuesday (highlights here), and looks pretty good. My main question about Serbia is when Jokic is going to get a haircut.

Serbia vs. Team USA on Wednesday at 12 PM Eastern on FS1.

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Oh Non

A reasonable Wizard fan’s list of modest expectations for No. 2 pick Alex Sarr in his first NBA Summer League:

1. Block some shots

2. Show flashes of raw brilliance waiting to be unlocked

3. Block some more shots

4. Earn a “House of Highlights” reel

5. Don’t go 0/15 from the floor in a game

Well we have good news and we have bad news. The good news is that Monsieur Sarr unlocked Achievement No. 4 after Tuesday’s game against the Blazers. The bad news is that he unlocked it by also hitting Achievement No. 5.

He had three blocks and is averaging three blocks a game in Vegas. He rebounds OK. He had some nice passes. He’s getting to spots where shots look open despite the Summer Blazers paying him respect he hasn’t earned. But the threes are not even remotely close. Straight up clanks.

It probably doesn’t help that the 0/15 night came against Donovan Clingan, the other notable lottery center, who is a year older but looks a decade more comfortable than Sarr in this setting so far. If the Summer Blazers’ defense is doing this to Sarr, what’s a real NBA team going to do?

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Links

The Bucks signed Gary Trent Jr. to a 1-year deal, apparently for the veterans’ minimum. That’s a huge coup for a cap-strapped team after adding Taurean Prince earlier this offseason. And I think that makes Trent a victim of the Apron Era, joining Caleb Martin and The Hope Of Klay Thompson Retiring As A One-Team Star.

Knicks supreme leader James Dolan wrote a pissy letter to the NBA Board of Governors that Woj got ahold of. Basically, Dolan — whose company owns a lucrative regional sports network — is mad that the massive new media deal that Board approved this week includes more games on streaming services, which could undercut the revenue potential of RSNs. Notably, most of the RSN business is crumbling due to the death of the cable TV bundle. You have bankruptcies here and access battles there. I’ll probably write more about this later, but I think Dolan might have a point about the NBA using the media deal to consolidate some more power. I just don’t think the RSN angle is a good example there. Plus, it’s so nakedly craven for Dolan to object to that element that it undercuts the other arguments he’s making.

Meanwhile, Adam Silver confirmed that once the media deal is final — we’re waiting right now to find out if David Zaslav can put enough money together from his trip to the pawn shop to push Amazon out, and if the NBA rejects his bid anyway — the league will turn to expansion. He said the league office will study the issue this fall. I’m starting to think the new teams won’t start play until, like, 2027-28 at this point.

In other media rights news, The Athletic’s Mike Vorkunov reports that the NBA also negotiated media rights for the WNBA recently with the same partners winning the men’s league bids. And the WNBA rights deal will quadruple … at least. The WNBA commissioner was hoping the deal would double. DREAM BIGGER.

Ricky O’Donnell ranks the Olympic men’s teams’ chances of winning gold. I’d probably put Greece over Spain (and perhaps Australia, this is all off the strength of Giannis and their shooting potential around him), would definitely put France over Germany, and … the top three might be a toss-up. Maybe the top four if there’s a legit home advantage for France.

Tom Haberstroh

on Bronny James’ NBA readiness.

Rest in peace, Joe “Jellybean” Bryant.

Really stirring story from Baxter Holmes on Nate Robinson’s quest for a kidney transplant.

Lindsay Harding joins J.J. Redick’s staff in Los Angeles. I’m pretty convinced she will be the NBA’s first female head coach.

And finally: Jaylen Brown appears to be caught on camera courtside at Summer League declaring that he doesn’t think Bronny James is a pro, which goes viral on the internet, leading Jaylen Brown to … say something nice about LeBron and Bronny’s future without denying what he is alleged to have been caught saying. Legitimately funny initial video and follow-up statement here. Brown could stand to learn the LeBronian tactic of always covering your mouth when talking around cameras!

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Back on Friday. Be excellent to each other.