The Treatment of Professional Athletes Requesting a Trade
I'm writing this post after watching the Warriors game and listening to the post game interview by Draymond Green. If you can't tell by the title of my post what Draymond spoke about I will tell you; he spoke about how athletes are treated when they request a trade vs when a team announces they are trading a player. If you haven't had a chance to watch it I have a link to a youtube clip of it below the screen shot from his speech.
Draymond is completely and utterly spot on with what he is saying. We have seen it time and time again the sheer vitriol that descends on an athlete when they request a trade vs what happens when a player is traded by the organization. I've read the articles and I'm sure you have as well that say well trading player XYZ was a needed move by the team and we are glad to welcome new player to our team and look forward to the future. To then read the comments that cheer the team on and commend the front office for making the trade. As well we all see the massive amount of hot takes when a Player on a team requests a trade because they aren't happy with how the team is doing or honestly for what ever reason it is. The difference is that in those hot takes the Player is derided for asking for a trade and if they do it has to be hush hush not announced publicly.
In the NBA we saw this in 2019 when Anthony Davis publicly requested a trade and was fine $100,000 and lambasted in the media for wanting out of New Orleans. Then on the other hand we are seeing Andre Drummond for the Cavaliers (who I believe was the catalyst for what Draymond said) and Blake Griffon of the Pistons being benched while their respective teams are working on trades or buy outs and no one bats an eyelash. I mean come on people this is not how it is supposed to be, yes the Players make a lot of money but not more then the owners of the teams and they are employees so shouldn't they be treated with the same respect that they are supposed to have for their teams. The only answer to this rhetorical question is yes, yes they deserve the same respect.
Currently in the NFL Jameis Winston has requested a trade from Houston due to the in my opinion dysfunctional way that franchise is being run. Granted in his case the media is on his side but the management of Houston is not wishing to respect his request and have repeatedly said that they are planning on keeping him. This could be a ploy to get more for him but still it feels wrong and like he isn't being listened to at all.
On the flip side of all of this also is how many times Players have to hear the media or their teams discuss them publicly in trade talks or trade scenarios. How can that be healthy to the mental health of athletes? The answer is of course it isn't and of course it takes a toll on players. How can the media, fans, bloggers and etc create trade scenarios for teams and discuss the different merits of trades for teams but then go off on when a specific player requests a trade. We can't and I know I've made these comments myself regarding specific Players because of xyz reason and I am trying not to do that anymore. We have to respect athletes as much if not more then the franchises they are a part of because if we don't in this day and age then who are we as fans.
I hope you enjoyed this post and will keep following my love affair with sports.
Comments
Post a Comment