Why are superstars made to feel like total failures if they don't win every year?

[Baller234]

The news of Giannis threatening to leave Milwaukee inspired this thread.

Even if he's bluffing I don't care, it's still a bad look.

This team just won the f*cking championship a year and a half ago. You have a solid roster full of seasoned role players. You have a very capable go-to guy and borderline star player in Middleton. You aren't some scrub team. Don't just tell us you're contemplating leaving because you wanna win a championship. If you wanna win, f*cking play better.

It's like everyone wants to win like Mike, but they don't wanna put in the blood sweat and tears like Mike. They just wanna hop onto a ready made situation. They don't wanna tough it out and endure. Because god forbid they don't win a title every f*cking year or every other year.

Has the constant media scrutiny become too much for these players to handle or are they just giant pu$$ies? Maybe a bit of both?

[RRR3]

Mike's GM always gave him the best supporting casts in the league once he hit his peak, why would he leave?

[Baller234]

Mike's GM always gave him the best supporting casts in the league once he hit his peak, why would he leave?

Giannis already has a good supporting cast.

[RRR3]

Giannis already has a good supporting cast.

It's not really a championship level supporting cast. He managed to win one anyways due to all the teams that would have beaten them dealing with injuries, but he knows that was lightning in a bottle.

[Wardell Curry]

Because the media and sports fans don't understand that basketball as a team sport and arguably the best player ever, Jordan, happened to get a really good team around him, so therefore in their minds winning a championship is the only thing that matters and if you don't do it, you aren't the best, regardless of your team.

The 1994 Bulls won 55 games after losing arguably the best player ever for nothing/to retirement. If people can't extract the fact that he had a really good team around him from that, there is no need to discuss anything with them as their minds are already made up and nothing you say matters.

Basically if Jordan hadn't gotten the team he had, we wouldn't be having this conversation, and you wouldn't be posing that question.

[Xiao Yao You]

Because the media and sports fans don't understand that basketball as a team sport and arguably the best player ever, Jordan, happened to get a really good team around him, so therefore in their minds winning a championship is the only thing that matters and if you don't do it, you aren't the best, regardless of your team.

The 1994 Bulls won 55 games after losing arguably the best player ever for nothing/to retirement. If people can't extract the fact that he had a really good team around him from that, there is no need to discuss anything with them as their minds are already made up and nothing you say matters.

Basically if Jordan hadn't gotten the team he had, we wouldn't be having this conversation, and you wouldn't be posing that question.

had a great coach anyway

[SouBeachTalents]

It's not really a championship level supporting cast. He managed to win one anyways due to all the teams that would have beaten them dealing with injuries, but he knows that was lightning in a bottle.

Is it really not a championship level supporting cast? He has 2 all-star caliber teammates and even Lopez wasn't too far off from producing at that level while finishing runner up DPOY. You put Giannis as the centerpiece of that roster and that's absolutely a championship level team.

Yes, they benefitted from injures during their championship run, but the flipside is they honestly probably win the title in 2022 if Middleton isn't injured, and last year was a fluky result of Giannis getting injured and missing most of the series, and facing an "8 seed" with Finals potential and Butler legitimately playing like Michael Jordan over those final 2 games.

[Lebron23]

His 2nd scoring option is aging and injury prone.

[sdot_thadon]

Mainly because sports has become such a big business that these guys almost enter the league with plans and brand strategy. Rangz culture is the worst thing to happen to basketball and sports in general and it's on us, the fans. Mj will always come to mind without making the hindsight admissions that plenty of conditions had to go a certain way for him to reach those milestones.The nearly unanimous belief that he likely wouldn't replicate it in any other time period should tell us we can't expect others to do the same. But we do, to an extreme level. We are quick to understand and yell the differences in Russell's era to rationalize why he was able to win so much, meanwhile we were SOLD Mj doing what he did as one of a kind. In boxing it's actually even worse, guys are so afraid of not only losing championships but fights in general. So lots of matchups that should happen for historic reasons either happen too late, or not at all. Almost all great fighters would lose historically, now if a prospect has a loss coming up in the ranks he isn't as marketable. If a champion loses a fight, he's washed up. I hate it but watch as Mahomes career is analyzed through the he better win as many as Brady scope, and these guys only impact 50% of their game at the absolute most.....

[ShawkFactory]

The news of Giannis threatening to leave Milwaukee inspired this thread.

Even if he's bluffing I don't care, it's still a bad look.

This team just won the f*cking championship a year and a half ago. You have a solid roster full of seasoned role players. You have a very capable go-to guy and borderline star player in Middleton. You aren't some scrub team. Don't just tell us you're contemplating leaving because you wanna win a championship. If you wanna win, f*cking play better.

It's like everyone wants to win like Mike, but they don't wanna put in the blood sweat and tears like Mike. They just wanna hop onto a ready made situation. They don't wanna tough it out and endure. Because god forbid they don't win a title every f*cking year or every other year.

Has the constant media scrutiny become too much for these players to handle or are they just giant pu$$ies? Maybe a bit of both?

You kind of answered your own question. Mike set a bar that a lot of fans a media members won't have anything less than. That and obviously social media puts infinitely more pressure on a basketball player now than there was 20-30-40 years ago.

[90sgoat]

If you bring a championship to a club, then you're free to leave, do whatever you want.

If you never win anything and then being to whine, then I think that's worse.

[FultzNationRISE]

So far nobody has correctly identified the answer.

It is because rings is the ONLY realistic scenario in which a player today can hope to surpass Lebron in legacy supremacy.

If rings arent in the equation, the GOAT debate is shut down permanently and forever. Nobody will ever do the things Lebron has done and dominate the way he has and build cultures the way he has and elevate teams the way he has.

Players know they have to wind up in the right place at the right time to win enough rings to say “hey, I have an argument!” Because without that, there is no argument for any player in history over Lebron, and there never will be.

The end.

[Jasper]

I will use Gannis as OP example:

He can walk in the door and talk to the owners , and quite probably has already not only thru his agent , but himself.

Giannis is smart , and he is very loyal.

But he wants to win , and he will use every avenue to make sure it happens. Pressure on the owners from fans and media and even other teams, drives that nail home. Make changes when they need to be done , to make me a winner.
-------------------
Super stars don't feel , or we think we make them feel a failure if they don't win NOW.
The pressure of big bucks , makes us think now or never. Took Bucks 7 years around Giannis to develop a winning way in the franchise.
That takes time alone. Look at Spurs.
No failures IMO.
Its called Development.

[FilmyCogTurner]

Another question is why do NBA players need to be validated so badly by the fans/media?

[Norcaliblunt]

Because every superstar has rival fan bases. DUH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!