One-sided loyalty

JUST like love and marriage, loyalty is a two-way street.

But that is not happening in the National Basketball Association, where players have been at the mercy of their team ‘owners’ despite free agency and all.

Okay, I place the word ‘owner’ in italics because its use is despicable, according to outspoken Golden Warrior Draymond Green, for it allegedly connotes “slavery” and supremacy by white people over African-Americans, which compose 75 percent of the NBA players.

Of course, that is debatable. Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban defines the word “owner” as somebody who simply owns equity in a franchise. He demands an apology from Green but the latter is not likely to apologize any time.

Assuming there’s loyalty in the NBA, it’s usually one-sided. Team owners have the upperhand most of the time and the players don’t have a say on when and where they could be traded to, unless they have a no-trade clause in their contracts, which only three or four top stars own.

There was the case of Cleveland’s injured All-Star guard Isaiah Thomas last summer. Thomas, who is still recovering from a torn labrum in his right hip and won’t be available for action till late December or January, was jettisoned by Boston in a six-player trade with the Cavaliers last August 22 that brought Kyrie Irving to the Hub City notwithstanding the health and personal problems that the 5-foot-9 Thomas had to overcome late in the 2016-17 season.

The 28-year-old product of the University of Washington, who finished as the East’s leading scorer and the NBA’s third-best point-producer with a 28.9 average for the Celtics, originally hurt his hip in mid-March during a regular-season contest then suited up in the playoffs despite the emotional turmoil he was undergoing following the death of his younger sister in a auto mishap a day before the postseason began.

Thomas saw action for Boston in its series victories in the first two playoff rounds against Chicago and Washington but was shut down following the first two games of the East finals against Cleveland due to aggravation of his injured hip.

Thomas even voluntarily recruited Gordon Hayward (then a Utah free agent) for the Celtics during the offseason.

And what did Thomas get for being loyal to the Beantown outfit? A trade to the Wine City, that is.

Danny Ainge, the Celtics’ general manager and president of basketball operations, said it was a “business” decision to ship Thomas, noting that the latter’s chronic hip problems and his availability for free agency in July next year when he is expected to seek a maximum contract.

Expectedly, Thomas was terribly hurt by Ainge’s decision. Feeling blind-sided, he said he would refuse to talk to Ainge in the near future. Thomas also regretted that he continued to play for the Green while injured.

“We thank you for your services in the past and wish you well in your next destination” is the worn-out “consuelo de bobo” team declaration when it sends away a star player in a trade.

And yet, when a star player departs for another team through free agency, his former employer is quick to crucify him as if he had just sold his soul to the devil.

So unfair and so hypocritical it seems. And the easy-way-out alibi: It’s business as usual.

Former local star Francis Arnaiz from the 1970s and 1980s was right to question his forced trade to another team (expansion Beer Hausen) in the professional league Philippine Basketball Association following the disbandment of the fabled Toyota franchise in 1983, asking “Ano kami, por kilo?”

Yes, the players are, and will always be, no matter how hard it is to accept the fact.