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The Canadiens are getting their money's worth.

So I wonder, for the anti-KD's career choice crowd. How about now? He's just had an injury that Kobe, Dominique, Boogie, others have not fully come back from. Not sure I can name an NBA player who has ruptured an achilles and got back to full speed. Virtually impossible if you're 30+ and 7 feet. He had 2.9 seasons in GS. He got two rings, something people like Barkley and Malone and Ewing never got, plus two Finals MVPs. He's literally done it all, but he did have to go to GS to do it all. But if he never comes back from this achilles he can still say "I accomplished everything you can accomplish. Titles, MVP, Finals MVP, scoring titles, everything."

Can you still begrudge him his decision?

Also: How awful are the Toronto fans who cheered his injury? Would that happen in any other arena, including Philadelphia?

I'm sure there are dozens of teams that will still line up around the block to give him a super max, as well they should, but what this does to the Kawhi Leonard sweepstakes and the trickle down effect it will have on the AD/Kyrie/J Buckets market is going to be interesting. There's no longer two instant contender signings out there. Do the Knicks do a sign & tank? Move the goal posts until yet another lost season plays out?

As much as I'm bummed at how predictable he made the league and how much more interesting he was as an antagonist to the Warriors than part of their team, this dude has had an all-time interesting career. Starting in Seattle and everything that's happened since. The next chapter will be interesting. He's up against the odds if that achilles is as bad as it looks.

This is also the end of the player rushes back from injuries to step up in the playoffs era. That's a wrap on that. No more gutting it out at the risk of your long-term future.

I would still take him in Phx in a heartbeat. Even if he can't play a game next year.

KD is a better player than Barkley and Ewing and Malone were. I don't rate him any higher because he jumped on board a championship team in the prime of his career, though.

He has a ring. If it makes him happy, then that's between him and his conscience. I still think that what he did shows something about his competitive spirit.

That being said, I hate that this happened NOW. I truly wanted to see what he could do under different circumstances, and I think the league will be less fun without him next year.

Fell asleep watching the game last night before the injury. But, it seems pretty clear that Toronto will win one of the next two games if KD is out which...I mean, he tore his achilles almost undoubtedly and even if he didn't it seems likely he's out regardless.

Feel bad for the guy. Achilles injuries are no joke, probably about as bad as it gets for basketball players, no? A year out then another year to get 'right' if that's even possible. All for a guy going into free agency.

I don't know if I was ever anti-KD though I can't remember that far back and did like OKC so I guess it was possible. And, GS did kind of make the NBA predictable. Regardless, I certainly don't begrudge him anything at this point. On a weird side note, I play basketball with a guy whose buddy slid into KD's DMs on twitter? Ended up becoming buddies. I would have never believed it, but I've got pictures on multiple occasions of the guys hanging out. Just eating lunch or something. Weird as [expletive]. 50ish year old guy too. Not an athlete or anything. Apparently just hit him up saying he was a fan and they ended up becoming friends. Twitter is a weird place.

They will line up, but KD will not likely win another ring as the alpha dog on a Great Team. Because he went to GSW he got to experience that, and I submit to you that because of that--and because of the temporary nature of an athletic career--we should not judge jocks on their career choices, should not burn jerseys, should not use emasculating terms to talk about them. KD did everything an NBA player can do, and he got to do that because of his career choice.

Re Kawhi, lots of talk about him taking a one and one on Sports Shouting and every Raptors blog. He won't. And he won't because he doesn't make a ton of dough on sneakers and the Kawhi Brand, and he's had leg issues and just saw KD get hurt. He won't risk a one and one and that he has another big injury, he's going to take a max deal either in TOR or in LA to get his two hundred million dollars. If he takes a one and one it's the dumbest, most reckless choice he can make--I'm sure the anti-KD crowd will love it since he'd do it for a bunch of "fans" who cheered the game's best player rupturing his achilles in front of them.

I kind of expect:
Kryie - Brooklyn
KD - Knicks on a max deal where they gamble on the back end being great (possibly another catastrophic Knicks deal) and yeah another high pick
Kemba - Knicks, he's a Bronx guy, he's also not as good as Klay or Beal and stole their supermax money but whatever
Russell - Brooklyn signs, trades him. Phoenix for the six pick and Josh Jackson would work well.
Boogie - Just take a ton of money on a bad team and be done with it. That includes the Lakers
Kawhi - Raptors because you can always move to LA, but you can't make a NBA Legacy on the Clippers
Klay - stays
Butler - I think HOU makes a ton of trades, Morey does like Masai did Derozan, HOU gets cap space and puts Jimmy with Harden

One guy who's a wild card is Vooch. All-Star. Can seriously hoop. Is way under the radar. Could maybe be had for less than the max as a complimentary player. Hits 3s well enough that I'd be interested in seeing him in LA with LeBron.

That would happen the same exact way in literally every other arena in the NBA.

Disagree with the last statement, respectfully. He never led a team to an NBA championship. Golden State was already a championship team. Very few will ever remember the Warriors as Kevin Durant's team. Kevin Durant is not more or less of a player because he won championships. He's an incredible player......... an all-time great, but not because he has a ring.

Would we think more of Karl Malone if he had joined the 1999 San Antonio championship team? I doubt it. He never won a ring, but he was a great player. That's how I remember him. Elgin Baylor? An all-time great player. Never won a ring. Doesn't matter one lick.

Basketball is a team game. Players don't win NBA championships. Teams do. I judge players, individually, on their performance and how they approach the game.

Karl Malone was too afraid to play in the primetime. He was happy to rack up stats in the middle of nowhere because he was all about himself and not a team player. Win or lose he was getting his 25 and 10 and going to the HOF. Gutless. Unwilling to commit himself to the spotlight and carry, yes, carry a team to an NBA Finals victory like NBA Finals MVP (that's short for MOST VALUABLE PLAYER) Kevin Durant (Who did that TWICE, the same amount as Larry Bird!)