The Reasons KD should receive no hate should he chose GS: Sam Presti's Genius

[MASH Transit]

Everyone's getting primed to bash KD should he choose GS over OKC or other suitors, but have we all conveniently forgotten this?

"After everything we established – everything we had done – you give me an hour?" Harden told Yahoo! Sports on Monday afternoon. "This was one of the biggest decisions of my life. I wanted to go home and pray about it. It hurt me. It hurt."

Asked if additional time might have caused him to accept a deal several million dollars short of the $60 million maximum contract Harden had long sought, he responded: "Who knows? Another day, who knows what another day would've done?"

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/nba--ja...-06561809.html


Or, more recently:

"I have confidence," Ibaka said Wednesday, per ESPN's Royce Young. "Where he going to go? Tell me. After what we did in the playoffs this year, where? If he gonna go somewhere, where?"

http://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/ke...e-okc-thunder/


Mind you, these two were an integral part of the team that took OKC to the finals back in 11-12. Do you recall OKC's fans reactions upon these trades happening?

They supported them completely and almost instantly began bashing the players involved. Harden became a selfish no show because he wanted more than an hour to contemplate 4 years, $54 million(how cheap does that look now?) while Ibaka had allegedly regressed to the point(at 26 years old, no less) where he no longer had value to the team despite showing otherwise against Golden State.

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All Sam Presti had to do with the team he drafted was nothing. Just let them grow, but for whatever reason, he couldn't. Hell, OKC had the chance to be GS before GS elevated themselves to this level, but the latter trusted in and stuck with their assets while the former dealt there's for cap space & "roster flexibility".

So, today after KD announces his decision, and you jump online to start dragging his name through the mud(should he leave), remember that it was Sam Presti, the genius that he is, that prioritized Kendrick Perkins over James freaking Harden while the OKC fanbase remained silent and repeated the mantra of "In Presti we trust!".

[IGOTGAME]

the Harden trade was one of the worst I can remember. Its like they had no idea what they had.

[ArbitraryWater]

Lmaoo... back then before the Harden/Ibaka call, the consensus was to let go off Harden... now everyone is like 'WOAT TRADE!'

[DMAVS41]

the Harden trade was one of the worst I can remember. Its like they had no idea what they had.

Presti knew exactly what they had though. He knew three ball dominant perimeter players that don't play a ton of defense naturally aren't going to be a great fit long term considering the cap situation.

Now, Presti has made some big mistakes imo...I'm not saying he hasn't, but I just find it a little funny that so many people hate on the Harden trade...when we all know that if the Thunder had traded Ibaka/Adams for Harden a week ago before the Magic trade...everyone would laugh at them and say "why do they need another ball dominant no defense playing guard?"