Brotherhood Over War

As a 80’s baby that grew up on 90’s NBA basketball I can vividly remember how much more physical the game used to be. As fans we grew to love that aggressive competitive style of play. It sparked rivalries between stars and in a few cases actual brawls. Just like the average person with a pulse I was entertained by the madness and could never get enough. Now whenever there’s an on-court altercation that results in a technical foul or ejection someone somewhere in the world is saying or tweeting “the league soft now” or “I miss the old school NBA. Now these dudes wanna be friends.” Maybe I’m alone on this but, I don’t see a problem with the league heading in that direction.

You take two players like Joel Embiid and Andrew Wiggins for example. In the one and done era people lose track of how fast these guys go from being high school kids to the cornerstone of a franchise. In 2013 the 2 players were teammates on the World team in the Nike hoop summit then went on to become teammates at Kansas university the following year. After one season of playing college ball together they both went into the NBA draft where Wiggins was selected 1st by the Minnesota Timberwolves and Embiid was selected 3rd the the Philadelphia 76ers. This was the first time the duo were split up since meeting as teenagers. Fast forward to today. Both players have reached the final year of their rookie contracts and agreed to extensions. You can catch them liking and commenting on each others instagram post and laughing it up in the pre-game together when their teams meet up. Personally I like seeing these brothers in the NBA keep these bonds as the grow as men. What would be the purpose in them becoming enemies because they play for a different team when they were just kids dreaming of getting their names called on draft night? Do we really want to see them clotheslining each other like Kurt Rambis and Kevin McHale because they have a team rivalry? Players are past that silly way of thinking now. I mean look at the Lakers vs Celtics rivalry back then vs now.

Times have changed and there are a few factors in the reason why. First the age of the players. Generally they enter the league so young now that they aren’t even a full 2 years removed from playing together in AAU where they became childhood friends. Also guys have just gotten more wise. 7 billion people on the planet and less than 500 are active NBA players. Draymond Green’s post game speech after the 2017 Finals hit the nail on the head. Why should these guys rip into each other when the billionaire owners are having drinks together in their suites?
This era of NBA players treat the league like they still hooping in the hood. Everybody just trying to get a run and a little drama goes down over fouls from time to time but nobody is standing for a bunch of unnecessary drama because they protect each other. I’m all in on this era of treating the league like a brotherhood opposed to trying to paralyze someone because they play for a different team. It’s evolution. This is how these guys interact off the court.