The Show.

I don't know what's going on right now, but the way it used to go in sports was something like this: a star player would get drafted/signed by a team, and the team would then proceed to build around that player. Once this happened, the team would grow, mature, and possibly become contenders, and from contention would potentially come a championship. That's the way it was.
Now, we have something different - particularly in the world of basketball - that goes a little bit like this: a star player will get drafted/signed by a team, and the team proceeds to build around that player. As this happens, the star player determines whether the team has a shot at contention or not. If the player believes they do have a shot, he'll most likely ask for better players around him. If the player does not believe his team has a shot at contention, he'll do what Chris Paul did just recently and ask to be traded so he can play alongside another superstar.

Does this seem wrong to anyone else?

I singled out Chris Paul only because this happened recently with him, but he's not the only one bailing on his squad for hopes of playing somewhere better. This seems to be happening a little too frequently in the NBA, and there's something unnatural about it all. When a team selects a franchise type player, they're offering more than a spot on the team and a contract. They're giving him their trust. They're putting their beliefs in him. They're saying, "We think you can give this team, and this city, what it has been striving for - a championship." And that's what this all comes down to. Winning championships. But isn't there a line that differentiates winning a championship from earning a championship? When LeBron James soiled what little legacy he had with "The Decision," it was clear that he was quitting on Cleveland because he knew he couldn't win there. Now, there's nothing wrong with going somewhere if you want to win, but LeBron's situation is slightly different. He left a team, which he turned into a contender, and a city that proclaimed him as a savior so he could join forces with other superstars. Now, the only reason he did this was so he could win championships, and the reason he wants to win championships is so he can be in the conversation when people talk about the best players in history. We all know, including LeBron, that he would never be in that conversation if he didn't win. Now he's going to a place where he will most likely win, but this takes us back to the difference between winning and earning a ring. Imagine what a story it would be if LeBron had won with the Cavs. If he, the hometown hero, brought that team up from the ashes and gave that city - probably the most championship-deprived city in the country - what they've wanted for so long. It would have been like a fairy tale. That story would be great, but that story no longer exists. The story now is of a player who manufactured a championship (or championships) which will cause his legacy to be tarnished. If that's what he wants to do then it's fine, but he can't expect to be in the same conversation as Michael Jordan, even if he does win 6.

It's as if players are picking teams when it should be the other way around. With this system, all the front office of a team needs to offer is a working printer and a pen so they can slap a big contract in front of a player. With players essentially coordinating their destinations with each other, a lot is taken away from the natural attainment of a player: the negotiations, the plea's, the cries for help that a team would normally have to display if they really wanted a player. Now, if a superstar wants to win, he doesn't have to carry a team and a city. He simply has to jump on a plane so he can share the load with other superstars.

When you look at the legacies of some of the greats - the Jordan's, Johnson's, the Russell's, the Bird's, the Bryant's - one of the best things about their legacies is that they were true franchise players. They stuck with their teams, through good and bad, and their legacies will live on with their team's colors forever. They carried their teams to the promised land with hard work. They wore their colors with pride because those colors were a part of who they were as players. No one looks at Jordan as a member of the Wizards, because he is and always will be a Chicago Bull. That's where his legacy was formed. People will see LeBron as a member of the Heat, but no one will forget how he failed as a Cavalier, and how he abandoned a team and a city for something he thought was better. He may be part of a winning legacy in Miami, but the legacy he left in Cleveland will never leave him.