I have some mixed feelings about all this.
Would AD feel better about playing here if the arena was more than 30% full?
And with respect to Jeff Van Gundy last night, he is spot on. What’s interesting to me is that the reason the league is twisting the Pels arm is for TV ratings so they play Marquee players. JVD is a television commentator. He’s part of the quilt and he’s willing to speak out. Good for him.
The way I see it is that I don't think anything has to be mutually exclusive.
It is both true that the organization failed to put a consistently good team around AD in the 7 years he has been here. That it is justifiable to come to the conclusion that what is best for his legacy, his well being, and his wants and needs are to seek a new start somewhere else.
But it is also true that AD has so far gone about this is in an incredibly callous, selfish, and destructive way that is going to likely have knockdown effects on our short term team and organizational culture, our long-term prospects of recovering in the post-AD era, and that AD's outright embrace of this strategy and indifference to the harm he has actively brought to fans and the organization is justifiable grounds toward being highly critical and angry at AD.