You don’t know what is implied by the use of the term “professional”, do you. Here’s a clue. The first time I wrote the word, the generation of cash as the primary goal was implied. Because you aren’t very good with words, you missed that, and started talking about naivete. You’re an idiot.  

For the same reason 90% of them were thrilled when Jordan came back and won three more.

Wait, you were going to write that James highest level of professional responsibility to his partners and himself was to maxmize the chance of winning a championship, because thats what would maximize cash flow? Why didn’t you write that hours ago, instead of writing it was naive to think that James highest…

C’mon, go for it. Tell me about the Knicks in the 90s again.

Good grief, you dope, my entire point was limited to the game’s  best players; the 3 or 4 top superstars. In response, because you’re an idiot, you start brinnging up examples of teams that contended for titles without such players. Read very carefully. I am not talking about generic brand promotion by generic players…

Given you ignored the other words I wrote, which more fully detailed the point, in order to give the least charitable interpretation, resulting in examples of teams with a dearth of marketable superstars winning, as opposed the the one with game’s biggest superstar, yeah, you either don’t handle words well, or you…

You’ve already established that words are hard for you.

No, you are just dim enough to think it is naive to believe that winning is a reasonable synonym for optimal brand promotion. Are there exceptions to that? Sure. Stipulated: if a NBA superstar drowned puppies in a wash tub, while receiving his Finals MVP trophy, the brand optimization effect of winning may be…

Lusten, if you want a civil exchange, don’t attribute naivete to people whose arguments you don’t understand.. You still don’t get it. Except for the hardest of hard core fans (which is not where the profit lies) what is being sold is not the sport, but the stories that pull in the casuals that outnumber the…

It is ok for reporters to report a legitimate news story. The outrageous public behavior of the wife of Wichita State’s head basketball coach is legitimate news.

Outrageous behavior by public figures, and the wife of the head coach of a prominent basketball program is a publuc figure, in public, is legitimate news. When people who are paid to report legitimate news observe legitimate news, it is there job to report it.

I love people who are too dim to grasp that what made, for instance, Michael Jordan a global brand that spewed cash for the entire league like a volcano spews ash was in good measure due to the winning. The story (and make no mistake, as a business this is about the selling of stories) sells much better when it ends…

These are human beings, not horses or dogs. They don’t need anyone’s permission to not perform. All the have to do is say their back or hamstring feels to tight to play, and then they have a night off due to “injury”. There is no way to regulate this.

To be fair, players would oppose it as well, since reducing gross revenues would directly reduce the salary cap and max contracts; salaries would drop substantially, no doubt.

At least you didn’t write anything this time that clearly indicates that you read no better than my dog, so congratulations.

Somebody needs to educate you that an assertion made by you is not an empirical proof. Next lackwit, you need to learn to read. In no place did I write the primary professional obligation was to win a championship. I wrote that James thinks MAXIMIZING THE CHANCE to win a championship was the obligation, thus rendering…

When you consider the primary professional obligation to be the maximization of the chance to win a championship, then taking those nights off IS the professional thing to do. Now, if you think you can craft an argument that definitively disproves that this is not LeBron James’ primary professional obligation, hey,…

With the exception of maybe three or four games out of the entire NBA schedule, I can’t understand why anyone shells out big money for regular seaso n games. I love the NBA playoffs. The months long slog to find out who gets home court advantage, or grabs the number 8 spots? That just isn’t compelling enough to me, to…

It’s also ridiculous to think this is something that can be meaningfully regulated. The moment that is tried, you’ll just get a spate of players reporting “back pain” when they want a night off. What’s next, a subpoena for medical records, followed by testimony from the fans’ medical expert, stating that the player…

Yeah, he is,because you don’t get to seperate the player’s performance from the context in which the performance occurred, run 50,000 simulations, thus being able to make an informed statement about which player was “the best”. That’s how sports fans so frequently reveal themselves to be utter dumba$$ses; wasting time…