Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo brings the ball up court against the Utah Jazz; Photo Credit: Michael McLoone
Trade or no trade? That is the question. For over a year now, the basketball media have been speculating on whether the Milwaukee Bucks would keep or trade their superstar power forward, Giannis Antetokounmpo. It has often seemed like a slow-moving breakup where the couple knows that a divorce is inevitable, but emotional attachment prevents either side from coming out and saying, it’s time to end the marriage.
On one side, at 31, Giannis can feel his career ticking away, and he really wants to be able to compete for championships right away. On the other hand, the Bucks realize that they don’t have the assets to be competitive and a rebuild is necessary, but they can’t seem to come to terms (at least publicly) that a rebuild means trading Giannis.
Trading Giannis is the right thing to do for two reasons. First, the Bucks can maximize their trade value and get as many young players as possible before that value diminishes with age. Secondly, Giannis has shown great loyalty to the only NBA team that he’s ever played for. He led the Bucks to their only championship in fifty years, and this loyalty should be paid back by trading him to a team where he can compete for championships immediately.
This second reason begs the question. Should loyalty even be a consideration in sports?
A major complaint that many college sports fans have had over the last few years is that it’s hard to support their team when it becomes a revolving door of players through the transfer portal. It is bad for business when fans stop feeling connected to the players on the teams they follow. How can you really stay loyal when it seems every player on the team is different every season? (There’s that loyalty word again!)
Fans typically blame players who leave to enter the portal. They state opinions such as, “He only left for more money,” or “She didn’t want to compete for playing time when the coach didn’t make her a starter.” While these things might be true, there’s also a dirty little secret that many college coaches don’t want you to know. They often encourage some of their players to enter the portal so that they can clear roster space to bring in new players who they think will be better. It goes both ways.
So, in this era of free agents and the transfer portal, is loyalty even important anymore? The answer is a resounding yes. In fact, in this era of transactional relationships, being the loyal one can provide a player or a team a competitive advantage.
Why does loyalty matter?
Let’s start with the player. Imagine a player with 5-Star athletic ability who has played for three or four (or more) teams during their college career. Do you think on draft day this will help or hurt their prospects? Do you think, armed with the knowledge that this player can’t stick with one program, they will slide up or down the draft board? Nobody will trust him or her.
On the subject of trust. Let’s use Giannis as the case study for how a team’s loyalty impacts their organization. If the Bucks do wrong by a player with great integrity, like Giannis, will other high-caliber players want to play there? Will the kind of guys that you can build a winning program with want to go there? What about the current Bucks players? How will they feel about the culture of an organization that mistreated their best player? Culture matters. Why do you think some teams always seem to win and others miss the playoffs year after year?
You either build an organization with transactional values or one that has a strong culture of care. In the GameChange digital class called Building Championship Culture, high-performance mindset coach, Dr. Michael Brown, explained, “In my 25 years of working with organizations and athletic teams at high school, collegiate, and national professional levels, I have found that without a healthy culture, without being very intentional about creating culture, there is no success.”
Connection and care are the foundation of building a championship culture where, as Dr. Brown stated, “You will literally see athletes be willing to run through the wall for you.”
Loyalty matters.
