“I think everybody kind of dreams and hopes that they can play with another great player, another star player. It’s a star player’s league,” Anthony said. “I think that’s what we talk about when we all get together — ‘I want to play with you, I want to play with you.’ Even here different guys say, ‘Come play with me, come play with me.’ So that’s always the mindset. Sometimes it happens, sometimes it don’t. But I think everybody that’s in my situation, that’s in my position, they all want the load off especially the older they get. Because you realize you just can’t do it all by yourself. Everybody knows that.”
This league is full of betas now
Magic Johnson never would have done that!
"I wouldn't have played here," Johnson said on the eve of Game 2 of the NBA finals between his team and the team that could have been his. "The only reason I came out was to play with Kareem and the Lakers."
Magic Johnson would have returned to Michigan State rather than play for the Chicago Bulls.
"I'd have stayed in school," he said here Tuesday, standing alone outside Gate 3 1/2 of Chicago Stadium, the house that could have been his. "A coin toss changed the course of my whole life." Chicago called heads in a 1979 coin flip with Los Angeles for the No. 1 pick in the NBA college draft. It came up tails.
Johnson signed with the Lakers after his sophomore year of college and proceeded to win five championships. The Bulls picked second, took UCLA's David Greenwood and have won no championships.
Say you would have stayed out of the entire league if you didn't get the chance to join forces with the reigning MVP and top-3 all-time great right out of the gate.
Chamberlain forced a trade so he could go to LA and join forces with Elgin Baylor and Jerry West.
Bill Russell and Larry Bird had absolutely stacked rosters full of HOFers right from the get go.
Kareem and Oscar Robertson are supposed to be two of the greatest players in history, but they both got their first ring by teaming up together. After that Kareem went 9 years without a 2nd championship until he teamed up with Magic.
Jordan did wallow on a shytty team for a while, but Pippen was drafted only 3 years after Jordan was, and it wasn't like Jordan had much of a choice before then.
Ya'all have been snorting that "magic era dust" again. The only difference between those players and today's players is that those players had FAR less power to determine their own destiny, and nostalgia. Real free agency didn't even come into the NBA until all these "heroes" were already in the league.
Now they trying to talk about shyt they were forced to do like it was noble.
They were running for the big money teams and begging for good teammates any chance they could get. They just got fewer chances.