...value of its best players. The Warriors will pay Mr Durant $27m a year, the most the CBA allows. But FiveThirtyEight estimates that Mr Durant’s performance last year was worth $54m to an average team. In other sports, free agents usually claim half-heartedly that their decision is not about money, but ultimately sign with the highest bidder. In contrast, basketball’s contract ceiling means that every club save a player’s previous employer offers the exact same deal. This forces stars to make their decisions based on non-financial motives...
Basketball’s labour market: If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em | The Economist
7 years
Far more than in any other team sport, NBA championships increasingly seem to be determined by the whims of superstars choosing which city they would like to bestow a title upon. In part, that is because a single player has far more impact in basketball than in baseball, ice hockey or football in both its association and gridiron formats. When Mr James left the Cavaliers in 2...
Basketball’s labour market: If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em | The Economist
7 years
...ver, the current iteration of the club became a national fan favourite because of their revolutionary, exuberant, aesthetically-pleasing style of play, and because of their development of unheralded, underappreciated players like Draymond Green, who wasn’t even chosen in the first round of the NBA draft. When the team declined the opportunity in 2014 to swap Klay Thompson, whom nine other clubs passed on in the 2011 draft, for Mr Love, only ...
Basketball’s labour market: If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em | The Economist
7 years
..., let’s get together and play on one team’...In all honesty, I was trying to beat those guys.” Not everyone can be as fierce a competitor as Mr Jordan, but Mr Durant appears to be his polar opposite. Stephen A. Smith, a commentator for ESPN, called Mr Durant’s relocation “the weakest move I’ve ever seen from a superstar.” For once, it’s hard to accuse Mr Smith of hyperbole.
Basketball’s labour market: If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em | The Economist
7 years
...eady a juggernaut. If Golden State proceeds to reel off a Jordan-like three championships in a row, how much of that can be credited to Mr Durant? Maybe they would have done just as well without him. He is also joining forces with the exact club that just defeated him in one of the most gripping, heart-wrenching playoff series in history. How does Mr Durant not despise them? When asked about Mr James’s move to Miami in 2010, Mr Jordan said, “There’s no way, with hindsight, I would’ve ever called up Larry [Bird], called up Magic [Johnson] and said, ‘Hey, look, let’s get t...
Basketball’s labour market: If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em | The Economist
7 years
... Durant’s decision will surely set off celebrations around San Francisco, helping to salve the wounds from Golden State’s devastating defeat two weeks ago, and make him persona non grata in Oklahoma. (Local fans have already begun burning his jerseys in disgust.) It should also provide some joy to statistical analysts of basketball, who will be treated to an unprecedented natural experiment. How close can a team get to being undefeated over an 82-game season,...
Basketball’s labour market: If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em | The Economist
7 years
... shots than any other club in the league, and help them match up on defence against teams that rely on size and strength. Playing against Mr Durant, the Warriors were arguably the greatest team ever. Next year, with him on their side, it is hard to fathom how they will lose a game.
Basketball’s labour market: If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em | The Economist
7 years
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...workforce. But employers are terrified of them — with good reason. They’re serial job hoppers. According to Gallup, in 2016, 21 percent of the commitment-phobes left their job after less than a year. Sixty percent are open to it. The “Where do you see yourself in five years?” question has never been more redundant, because the answer is almost definitely “Not here.”
I’m a millennial and my generation sucks | New York Post
7 years
This is my number one rule: Do whatever millennials don’t. Definite no-nos include quitting a job or relationship the moment my mood drops from ecstatic to merely content; expecting the world to kowtow to my every childish whim; and assuming that I am always the most fascinating person in the room, hell, the zip code.
I’m a millennial and my generation sucks | New York Post
7 years
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