“No warning, no heads up, not even a conversation that it could be a possibility. Just, its done. Now move on because ‘it’s not personal, it’s business’”. That is a quote from Lauren Holiday, former USWNT soccer player and the wife of NBA player Jrue Holiday, currently with the Boston Celtics, when opening up about her Husband’s trade from the Milwaukee Bucks. Loyalty from both sides (organization/team and the player), has always been a contentious topic, but at the end of the day, sports is a business, and sometimes being loyal can handicap all those involved. Lauren Holiday went on to explain how that trade “crushed” her, despite it being far from the first time Jrue had been traded. From her daughter just starting first grade, to relationships both she and Jrue had formed in Milwaukee, she stressed how at the end of the day they are still human, despite the elevated social status that comes with being pro athletes. Holiday was an all-star, all defensive player and NBA champion during his time with the Bucks, but at the end of the day, ‘”it’s business”. The Bucks had expected to form a sort of dynasty and build on their 2021 NBA title, and yet, they have not contested the finals since. That relative failure has prompted Superstar and franchise player, Giannis Antetokounmpo, to suggest that even his loyalty has limits, and if he feels he cannot win in Milwaukee, he ill consider leaving. So despite things being such a perfect fit between the Bucks and Holiday, when the chance to pair Giannis with another superstar arose, the Bucks did not hesistate, and Holiday was gone before he knew it. “It’s business’. It remains to be seen if this gamble will pay off. Damian Lillard, the star they traded for, is off to an ‘ok’ start, but Holiday’s new team, the Celtics, are early favorites’ to make the finals from the east. In the past, being loyal has hurt player and organization alike, and sometimes it works out for both, or neither.
The first example of this that I will use, is when Phillipe Coutinho wanted to leave Liverpool FC for FC Barcelona in 2018. Despite Liverpool doing all they could to convince Coutinho to stay, he was eventually sold for close to 150million pounds in January 2018, leaving for greener pastures from a club in transition to one near the top of the sport. Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp was famously quoted as saying to him ” Stay here and they will end up building a statue in your honour. Go somewhere else, to Barcelona, to Bayern Munich, to Real Madrid, and you will be just another player. Here you can be something more.” In what may have sounded like a desperate attempt to keep him, ended up being an ominous prediction, with Barcelona becoming open to selling him barely a year later. With superstars such as Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez, Coutinho never stood out, and faded into relative obscurity from the point onwards. As for Liverpool, barely a year later, they were hosting Coutinho and Barcelona in the second leg of their Champions League semi final, where they completed one of the greatest comebacks in modern day football. As much as they wanted to keep him, selling him probably could not have gone better, as they used the gargantuan fee they got for him to recruit two players in their weakest positions, centre back and goalkeeper, with the additions of Virgil Van Dijk and Alisson Becker respectively. Both have gone on to become one of if not the best in the world in their positions, while Liverpool have enjoyed their best period of success since the 80s. Being loyal would have probably slowed or even stopped Liverpool’s rise, so they owe Coutinho for reminding them that ‘it’s business’.
The opposite happened with the Toronto Raptors and star player DeMar DeRozan, where the player was loyal and the club was not. DeRozan had been with the team for his entire career up to that point, being drafted in 2009, and becoming the first star player to commit to Toronto long term, and refuse to move elsewhere. Despite that, in the summer of 2018, the opportunity to acquire an even better player arose in the disgruntled Kawhi Leonard. DeRozan was so upset and blindsided by the move that he refused to talk to the man who traded him, General Manager Masai Ujiri. Despite his feelings and the feelings of several of his adoring fans and the media, Ujiri ended up making the right call, as Leonard led the Raptors to a maiden title in his only season with the team, in 2019. The ultimate goal of any NBA team is to win a title, and having not done so before and not since, it was a masterstroke by Ujiri to remember that ‘it’s business’ over sentimentality.
There are occasions where both being loyal work out, or fail as well. The previously mentioned Giannis was contemplating his future with the Bucks before, but ultimately decided to re-sign with the team. Shortly after he was winning his first NBA title, and the Bucks’ first since the early 1970s. On the other end of the spectrum, going back to Liverpool, legendary long-serving captain Steven Gerrard, rejected approaches from other top clubs such as Real Madrid and Chelsea, despite Liverpool’s continued failure to build a team capable of winning the English Premier League around him. A domestic league title ended up being the only thing at club level that Gerrard did not win, and during his years at Liverpool, both Chelsea and Real Madrid won multiple such titles. Now, being a legend for his boyhood club, I am sure Gerrard has no regrets. However at the end of the day, sports is a business, and we cannot shame either the player or the organization for doing what’s best for them, whether it fails or turns out to be a masterstroke. Hindsight is 20-20, and all involved should be encouraged to do what they deem best for themselves at the time. The only compromise that should happen is that both sides should conduct themselves with more respect and consideration for the other, such as not throwing a tantrum like Coutinho did, or not even warning a player about the possibility of a trade so they can prepare their family, such as what happened with Holiday and DeRozan.