Agree with a lot of that. Certainly for the PREMIERE players who can take their pick of any franchise. Or for old veteran ring chasers. Of course Shaquille O'Neal signed in LA for the glam and prestige. Dwight Howard might do the same. Its something other teams can't offer. I actually think its a recent thing where the Amare, Carmelo, Lebron & Bosh types just follow the marketing trail. But for emerging talents entering the PRIME of their careers and everyone else its about MONEY + PLAYING time + COMPETITIVE team. Joe Johnson coulda stayed in Phoenix for less money and played on a competitor in a decent city. He bailed for the big bucks in Atlanta. He could have LEFT Atlanta to LA and NY, and NY HAD the available money. But he resigned with Atlanta for bukoo bucks where he could stay the MAN. Chris Webber voiced his displeasure with Sacramento culture a few times. But when they offered him more money than everyone else it enticed him to stay. Elton Brand played in Chicago then in the great city of Los Angeles. Even with Baron Davis coming to his team, Brand LEFT LA to go to the hell hole in Philly. LA's bright lights didnt keep him in town. Corey Maggette bailed LA too, for the money.
Even with rule changes I still don't see guys wanting to stay in small places unless the team is doing a very good job building around them. I actually still see most of the free agents (the stars) wanting to go to big cities anyway. And I really can't knock them for that. I choose to live in Houston, over say San Antonio or Austin, for a reason.
I agree with you, San Antonio is pretty damn dull, but how on earth can you put Austin in the same category? =O That city is pretty much as crazy as it gets if you're there at the right times.
That's no lie. I'd much rather party in Austin than SA. Plus the best music is in Austin. Remember Austin City Limits? Is that even on anymore?
san antonio is a small market orlando is a small market gilbert, your ridiculous contract is the reason
This is sounding like the DHoward city wishlist thread. Ignoring current rosters, I'd guess the top teams NBA players would want to play for would be ranked: LAL NY Chi After that it gets fuzzy: with Houston, Boston, Atlanta, Dallas, and Miami bunched pretty close together. Based only on city lifestyle and team legacy (again ignoring current rosters), I'd guess that most players would order those as Houston, Miami, Boston, Dallas, Atlanta. But I could be wrong. I think a lot of it is tied to race, and I'm a different race than the majority of NBA players. Anybody else have a better idea of how that affects players' choice of city?
^^^^^^^^^ Hard to call because most of the big markets also happen to be the cities with a large black population (since we are talking about NBA players). I can't conclude that's why folks don't wanna go to Utah because Utah happens to be a small market as well.
Houston, Atlanta, and Dallas are relatively close in terms of demographics, with Boston and Miami deviating. Do you think black NBA players would tend to like the first three over the latter two?
Dallas and Houston are nothing like Atlanta, which is up there with DC. Boston is below them all but it's "the Celtics". Miami is in the ATL category, ahead of Houston and Dallas. All IMO.
Dunno. Take tons of money to stay in Minnesota? Or take less money and stay in NYC? Actually, I probably would take the money in this case, then ditch after 3 years, then go to an awesome city. I think we should discuss how the length of the contracts also affect the decisions of players to come to a city or not
