Why Playa's Play!

"I'm a hustla baby, I just want you to know!"

A few weeks ago a wrote a joint entitled "The Firm" which explained how players don't win titles, organizations do. My Twitter and Facebook pages went nuts with people telling me that I was completely off base and that I was crazy. My stance was and will always be that it's up to the owners and front office to put the right combination of players on the floor at the right time in order to win championships. The Lakers and Celtics have been better at doing that over the years that's why they've won more than 50% of all of the NBA titles.

The Orlando Magic is proving my point all over again. With the trade deadline looming on Thursday afternoon they are falling for the Oakey Doke with Dwight Howard. It's clear that he's not coming back next year because he won’t commit to a long term deal. Yet he's telling them that he wants to stay with the team for the rest of the season.

"We've been talking, like I said, for a while," Howard said after leading the Magic to a 104-98 overtime home victory against the Miami Heat. "I told them I want to finish this season out and give our team, give our fans some hope for the future. But I feel they have to roll the dice. It might be tough, but I feel we've got a great opportunity. But they've got to roll it."

Roll the dice bruh? Rich DeVos, owner of the Magic, reminds me of Cleveland owner, Dan Gilbert. He gambled as to whether LeBron would stay and didn't make a move to trade him and was left holding an empty Funyun bag. It doesn't make any sense at all to keep Dwight in Orlando. From an organization stand point he leaves them no choice but to trade him.

Sure, you're not going to get equal value for him if you trade him but you'll get something. You can’t just let him walk bruh! Most importantly, you don't let some lil' young cat hustle you at your own game. Dwight's smart because he's trying to convince the ole timer to keep him for the next couple of months so that he can become a free agent and CHOOSE where he'd like to play next year instead of being traded. I completely get what he's trying to do. He's like the cat that wants to break up with his girl but wants her to do it so that he doesn't look like the jerk!

However, as an organization it's a terrible move because they're going to get nothing for him at all if he becomes a free agent. Then DeVos will be writing ex-girlfriend letters like Dan Gilbert did while trying to rally the Orlando fans to hate Dwight too. C'mon bruh! We've seen this movie before and usually the second time around it's not as good. The fans won't be outraged because they've seen it before and the Orlando fans aren't as desperate to win as they are in Cleveland.

Sure, they've never had a championship team either but they don't care. It's Florida for crying out loud! There are too many other things to do and their lives aren't centered around hoping that they win a title. Let's keep it real, they've got great weather, Disney, Universal Studios, great golf, beaches within an hour’s drive, great night life etc. They could care less about whether Dwight Howard stays or leaves and the only person that will feel betrayed is DeVos!

Cleveland on the other hand, has diehard sports fans cause there's nothing else to do in that place but hope for a winner which they'll never have because the franchises are poorly run. I gotta give it up to Gilbert for diverting all of the blame to LeBron when he left. Had the locals been smart enough to figure out that Gilbert was at fault he would have had to sell the joint and move out of town ASAP! Luckily for him they couldn't see the forest for the trees and fell for it hook, line and sinker!

Hey, if I’m gonna to get played it’s got to be by some ole player that’s been around the block a few more times than I have. I’m not going to get hustled by some young cat that specializes in basketball bruh! Both Gilbert and DeVos should be ashamed to call themselves businessmen.

Holla At Ya Boy!
Jay Graves
Follow m on Twitter: @jaygravesreport