Ah, the old no show

Cd329 is right. James Hardens lazy ass didn’t want to play another series. He mailed it in. Hardens contact requires him to make the playoffs for full pay….  

He did just enough…..

In hindsight I believed this started happening about 10 years ago the seeds were planted. I was sort of oblivious to it but in the back of my mind I could kind of feel, subtly yet surely things would change not for the better. The games were still manageable to watch and bet on, however something was being lost in the process.. "professionalism". It feels like an almost totally different landscape now watching sports and gambling money on them, especially NBA. They don't try to hide the shadiness anymore as if they openly embrace their shortcomings. The talent level in NBA today is mediocre. 

@Digitalkarma

how can you really say this when teams have come back this year down 15+ at a historic rate. Thunder are the epitome of this; they did it this playoffs alone. Exact same spot game 3 down 30 against the grizzlies after 1h and somehow won. These situational spots are such a thing and we don’t realize how true it is unless we actually play in one of these games. 

@cd329

maybe this is true when they’re 50. Right now, they have immense pressure, always. They want to win because of this, but also because most basketball players just want to beat other basketball players, especially at this level and on this type of stage. 

They're not allowed to play defense like the old days  just breathe on a player and it's a foul. Flopping has always been around and a few players were notorious for doing it but it's called so much more liberally these days and more players are doing it because they see that it works. Teams are jacking up the 3 ball no strategy just chuck it up when in a big lead. Players are allowed to travel , occasionally double dribble but it will be called in certain circumstances that will affect the game and perhaps bets.

All this shit would not slide 10 years ago and especially 20+ years ago. There's a reason why you see all these 20+ pts leads evaporating. The work ethic is not there with these players, the conditioning. Players didn't complain back then they had to play an 82 game season they just suit up and ball. People pay a paychecks worth to see the stars play not be on the bench in street clothes

Basketball has lost its art form.

Like i said what i wrote is my opinion of what i see from watching this for many many many years and your opinion is different.  Hundreds of millions of guaranteed money for many year contracts make players lazy as hell.  Sure they all would love to win a ring, but that doesnt mean they want to do the work to do it.  Average NBA career is 5-6 years.  TAKE THE MONEY AND RUN

Very well written post.  Exactly what i said.  Players get the big money and then dont give a shit.  They just want to go spend their big money and have fun, not go to work everyday and travel everyday, when they have all those guaranteed millions sitting in bank. Thats why you see so many players everyday on the inactive list for all kinds of bullshit, including fake injuries just to take the day off

that whole nuggets series looked like okc carried their ass. There was no way in hell you could picture okc blowing out the nuggets after watching all the other games. OKC can't hit open 3 to save their lives until they were dead in the water. Then Dort turned into steph curry in game 5. In game 7 jokic was losing the ball like he was a bum all of sudden because of that little white guys "AMAZING" defense