It’s been a couple of days days now, and I’m still not sure if I’m happy with the three-team, 11-player trade deal which landed Ben Wallace and Wally Szczerbiak in Cleveland. Truth be told, it really doesn’t matter if I
It’s been a couple of days days now, and I’m still not sure if I’m happy with the three-team, 11-player trade deal which landed Ben Wallace and Wally Szczerbiak in Cleveland.
Truth be told, it really doesn’t matter if I like it or not because it’s already done, and I have no say their fate. But, I’m as much a basketball fan as the next guy, and I like my teams.
I understand that the teams’ goals are to win championships, but what happened to sticking with your guys and winning with the team you have?
I didn’t think LeBron James needed that much help. After all, the Cavaliers played in the NBA finals last year, with recently traded away Drew Gooden.
Kobe Bryant was complaining he wanted to be traded earlier in the season, but is happy as can be now that the Lakers acquired and have been successful with Pau Gasol.
In the trade involving the most players this year, Cleveland sent off Gooden, Cedric Simmons, Larry Hughes and Shannon Brown to the Chicago Bulls for Wallace and forward Joe Smith.
Cleveland also acquired Szczerbiak and Delonte West from the Seattle SuperSonics in trade for Ira Newble and Donyel Marshall. Seattle then got Adrian Griffin from the Bulls.
Still with me? It was kind of a task trying to keep up with it. It feels to me like trading the players was as easy as trading cards. I’ll give you this guy, if you give me this and someone else.
I used to do that with my baseball and soccer cards all the time, although I was never good at trading. Somehow, I think the guys always ended up with the better cards.
But I like the Cavs. I didn’t think they needed to trade anyone. I do, however, like Wallace because I know that he’s a good player who was sort of trapped in Chicago. He wasn’t going to win a championship with them anytime soon. Nevertheless, having a three-team, 11-player trade is just weird.
There were other trades this season, such as Shaquille O’Neal from the Miami Heat to the Phoenix Suns for Shawn Marion and Marcus Banks, and Jason Kidd from the New Jersey Nets to the Dallas Mavericks.
Then, of course, there was the trade that started the craze early in the season: the trade that sent Kevin Garnett from the Minnesota Timberwolves to the Boston Celtics for Ryan Gomes, Gerald Green, Al Jefferson, Theo Ratcliff, Sebastian Telfair, a 2009 first-round draft pick and a return of Minnesota’s conditional first-round draft pick they received from an earlier Ricky-Davis-Szczerbiak deal.
I have to give the NBA credit, though. The NBA has been reporting that the ratings have dropped and people seem to be losing interest in the game. The trades have only helped the league shine the spotlight on it.
Some of the trades have definitely lived up to the hype. Boston’s Big Three have practically resurrected the Celtics. Friday night, O’Neal and Steve Nash led the Suns to an exciting victory over the Celtics. The Lakers are better, and now, maybe Cleveland will be too.
I would like to see Cleveland in the finals again, and I would like to see the Suns in it too. I think the James-O’Neal matchup in the finals will be an interesting one.
The good thing now is that the deadline has passed and there will be no more trades. Now we all can enjoy the games, once we get our team lineup straight.
