(SP) – With the 2017 NBA Finals set to begin between the Cleveland Cavaliers and Golden State Warriors, the organizations have come to an agreement that will make players on both teams feel comfortable if they should lose the series.
“I am pleased to announce today that, in conjunction with the Warriors, we have struck a deal in which the players who fail to win a championship this year will be placed on the championship-winning team,” said Warriors owner Joe Lacob, “allowing players on both the Cavaliers and Warriors to have the opportunity to play for the best super-team in basketball.”
Both Lacob and his Cleveland counterpart, Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert, admitted they faced the same issue: a roster of players unhappy with their fate and wanting to depart if they failed to win a title.
“Let’s be reasonable: Kevin Durant signed here to win a championship,” said Lacob. “If we lose, he would be miserable and hard to deal with. But now he has the option of joining the Cavaliers, which is great peace of mind for him. It gives the star players on both teams an insurance policy. This player-sharing program we have set up will allow the NBA’s balance of power to remain between the Warriors and Cavaliers and no one else.”
Durant actually has a player option to stay with the Warriors next year and would likely opt-out and go to the Cavaliers if Golden State loses. Steph Curry and Andre Iguodala are also free agents. But other stars like Klay Thompson, Draymond Green, LeBron James, Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving would all move via trades based on the outcome of the series.
“And to be clear, these would not be trades in which we swap stars for stars,” said Gilbert. “We’d acquire Klay Thompson for someone lousy like Iman Shumpert.”
The other 28 NBA teams have reached out to the league office over the partnership to claim collusion, but so far league commissioner Adam Silver has not commented, instead doing that thing where he sort of stares into the middle distance with a creepy smile on his face.
