In the post-LeBron age of free agency, Terry Pluto wonders if the NBA ever see a "true" franchise player again?
View full size"I guess you'd always hoped a guy like that would stay in Cleveland," a reflective Stan Van Gundy said of LeBron James and the Cavaliers before Tuesday night's game at The Q. "I know it really hurt the fans here because it's like one of your own saying that 'Cleveland isn't good enough for me anymore.'"CLEVELAND, Ohio -- As Stan Van Gundy talked about LeBron James leaving the Cavaliers, his face showed real pain and he searched for the right words.
"I guess you'd always hoped a guy like that would stay in Cleveland," he said. "He's from here. He's a special player and people just loved him. I know it really hurt the fans here because it's like one of your own saying that 'Cleveland isn't good enough for me anymore.'"
Remember that Van Gundy is the coach of the Orlando Magic. He has no Northeast Ohio connections. But he is a basketball purist, a guy like many of us.
We want franchise players to be just that -- franchise players. They are guys who are identified with a franchise because they spent most of their career in one place.
As Cavs coach Byron Scott said, "It's like Magic [Johnson] will always be a Laker. Or Larry Bird is a Celtic. I know Michael [Jordan] played with Washington, but that was at the end of his career. He will always be a Chicago Bull."
Scott and Van Gundy faced each other at Quicken Loans Arena Tuesday night. Both are "old school" coaches, and proud of it. They speak their minds. They also know there are times when they feel like basketball dinosaurs.
Van Gundy wonders if we'll ever see the days of John Stockton and Karl Malone playing nearly all of their careers in Utah, Malone only spending a final season with the Lakers. Neither won a title. Both are revered in Salt Lake, even if they never received the national acclaim that their Hall of Fame careers deserved. They played 1,412 regular season games together from 1984-2003.
"I sense they are a dying breed," said Van Gundy.
Scott mentioned Tim Duncan (13 years) and Tony Parker (9) playing together in San Antonio, and how they are faces of that franchise. David Robinson spend his entire Hall of Fame career in that Texas city, which rivals Salt Lake as the smallest NBA market.
"You take Shaq [O'Neal] winning [three titles] in L.A.," said Van Gundy. "But Kobe [Bryant] will always be bigger with the Lakers. He stayed there. He is an icon guy."
View full sizeKobe Bryant has had plenty of drama during his career in Los Angeles, but both Stan Van Gundy and Byron Scott say there can be no doubt Bryant is the modern face of the Lakers because of his longevity with the franchise. Bryant has spent 14 seasons with the Lakers.
"When you think of the Lakers now, you think of Kobe," said Scott, who knows something about that organization. "Stan is right. Shaq is a great player, but he's not identified with one franchise."
Spending 13 years with Boston has led Celtic fans to embrace Paul Pierce as one of their all-time greats. Kevin Garnett spent 12 years with Minnesota before realizing he needed a trade to compete for a title. But he gave those fans a tremendous effort for a dozen years, and didn't come nearly as close to a title as James did in his seven years with the Cavs.
"I remember the excitement in Cleveland when we played here in the [2009] playoffs," said Van Gundy. "It was electric. It was like one of their own was going to lead them to something special."
"I think it comes down to loyalty," said Scott. "It's just my opinion, but when you are a great player in the prime of your career, you pressure your team to get better players around you."
Scott and Van Gundy stressed that James had "the right" to leave as a free agent for Miami. But "I hated the way he did it with that hour show on ESPN," said Van Gundy. "But ESPN is to blame as much for that. Truthfully, no matter how he left, people here would be really ticked off."
Van Gundy also said he was "a Mike Brown fan" and how it bothered him to see the former Cavs coach fired last summer "to placate the players; only LeBron left anyway."
He shrugged, realizing that is the modern NBA.
Scott never wanted to leave the Lakers. "After 10 years, [General Manager] Jerry West called me in and said they couldn't re-sign me," said Scott. "He had traded for me. I was playing in my home town. I loved it. When he told me that, I started to cry. Then Jerry did, too. I know I played for some other teams, but I'll always be a Laker. I never wanted to leave."