Loyalty ≥ Business

 Ooh… I love inequalities…. 

Eating at Denny’s > Eating out of the trash 

Toilet paper > Sand paper

Doing the tomahawk > Getting tomahawked 

Giving mono > Getting mono 

Doing the alligator > The alligator doing you

 When a guy takes less money to stay with a team, mostly a team that drafted him.

Good examples are Dirk Nowitzki, Tim Duncan and I thought Manu and Tony Parker also took paycuts to stay with the Spurs.

 In the NBA it is all about business. There are some players dumb enough to believe otherewise but history has shown that it is rare for a team to really be loyal to you.  Lakers with Kobe is an example of team loyalty.

 Guys saying they want a good team around them but being prepared to take less to give Front Office more chance to bring better players in.

Look at Dirk and Russ. That’s what loyalty is

I don’t blame guys for doing what’s best for them or their business, family, etc., but I’ll always respect guys like Dirk for sticking with Dallas when he could’ve easily gone ring chasing and Russ will always be my guy

 Loyalty in sports is AI with the Sixers.  It’s AI coming back and kneeling down kissing the Sixers logo in his first game back.  It’s the Sixers years later when AI was having money and family troubles bringing him back and making him an "official ambassador"  as a way to keep him sound mentally and financially.

 You seem to forget they traded AI to get away from this contract when he got hurt and it was not loyalty to sign AI when he was struggling because they did not pay him much and AI would make the fanbase happy which meant it was good for business.

Also Dirk took less money and once again fans are happy he is back so Dallas made a good business move on that one.  I bet they would have traded him if he asked for the amount of money he could have on the open market.  I guess loyalty did not include trading away his best friend and MVP Steve Nash.

 I think players want to remain loyal, not so much to the owners and GM but to their fans and the city.  Paul Pierce wanted to retire a Celtic.  Dwayne Wade brought Lebron and Bosh over for some more championships, then the Heat screw him on a contract.

Lou Williams signed a cheap 3 yr contract with the Clippers.  Basically he said he has kids and got sick of moving around. He had played for 5 different teams in the past 6 seasons.

 Most Players probably define it as this:

They will be loyal as long as you do the following:
You get them ”Help”-In most players eyes at least allstar level gets the ball rolling.

You don’t consult them on big moves-See Harden trade as the begining of the end for K.D in OKC..

You don’t try trade them/them hear about it at least.

They don’t believe in the coaching staff/Management team/Ownership/Team..

Players will bolt due to the above reasons See K,D and Lebron as examples of this.

Teams will move on if due to the following:

Injury concerns.

Pay differences-What they feel they are worth vs what is offered.

They believe they can get a better player if they trade them.

and

If they believe the player is becoming a cancer in the locker room.

However the most ideal situation for both is this:

A player that will take a discount to stay.

The ownership/ management team try put the best available team around their stars every year-See Spurs,Kobe and a lesser extent russ and Dirk with the Mavs.

The player always trys their best and gives 100% at least 80% of the time(off games is the 20%)

The honest truth is this though: Their is only loyalty as long as your useful(with the odd exception-Kobe,Dirk and other aging stars)

Lou Williams could have gone to a contender or got big money by being a veteran leader on a rebuilding team or taken a short term contract like JJ Reddick, KCP did this season. But he probably likes life in LA and had been there with the Lakers before a brief stay in Houston so staying settled with his family makes sense.

 Screw loyalty get paid and take care of yourself. Isaiah Thomas was loyal to Boston so they took advantage played him injured,  ruined his hip and traded him thus robbing him of a likely max contract. Thats around $200 Million. Kyrie saw that and said "hell nah" got his knee taken care of this year.