LAS VEGAS — We no longer need a why. Only a when.



The ever-evolving player empowerment era has made irrelevant the quest to find the reason, or reasons, why a superstar decides it’s time to switch teams. At a time when potentially franchise-altering talents refuse to be tied down, rush to dump their employers before they get dumped, and react to any and every impulse to secure what they believe will yield immediate pleasure, trying to unearth the motivations for these decisions feeds the hunger for soap operas and controversy but not much else.



Blame isn’t all that important. Charge it to the game.



We’ve reached the stage when an exit should be the expectation — especially for players who have already moved on before — no explanation required. For fans who are angered or confused about why their respective teams couldn’t keep their favorite players, they just have to accept this breakup was an inevitability. For...