An unnamed NBA GM says the league has done “a terrible job empowering teams”

In a lengthy New Yorker profile on Rich Paul, a general manager speaks about the player empowerment era as an issue that goes beyond the NBA’s best players choosing where they want to play. “Player empowerment is a catchall for the fact that the league has done a terrible job of empowering teams,” a current NBA general manager told The New Yorker’s Isaac Chotiner. “The players have all of the leverage in every situation. I think it’s the worst thing that ever happened to professional sports on all levels.”

The profile, however, follows up the quote from the general manager with one from ESPN’s Bomani Jones that puts the situation in a different way. “The NBA has a problem, which is it’s got some bad real estate,” said Jones. “They put a lot of teams in places that young Black men don’t necessarily want to live.”