I remember when Lebron returned with Miami that first time and Mo refused to acknowledge him right before the pre-game. Don't think he ever really recovered from Lebron leaving that first time. He probably figured those were his prime basketball years and now he had no chance to get a ring. Well he got one but couldn't really contribute. Must be a sad realization. Thanks for the good years Mo but damn, get some class.
The thing is, he really did contribute. Not a whole lot, but he played a lot when Kyrie was hurt, and he hit a couple shots and honestly did more than Delly did in the Finals. He definitely was at least a part of winning that title.
Then he ruined it, wasn't a part of the ring ceremony and acknowledging the title, by pulling the shit that he did. I think he did it because he was mad that Delly was our back-up PG and phased Mo out for most of the year after Kyrie came back.
We were able to move him, which is fine/...and he obviously was never really going to play this year (he had serious knee surgery and still isn't close to ready). But he screwed us on the money probably because he didn't want to have to wait 3 years to get it all if we would have used the provision to spread the money out. He knew he wasn't coming back and purposely fucked with our roster and salary cap.
Luckily, we finally got rid of him, but it still ultimately hurts us a little bit. Even with the trade, we still have Birdman taking up a roster spot. If Mo would have been released, we probably could have dumped Birdman instead in this deal and our roster issues would be 100% solved.
On the bright side, we don't have to pay Mo another dime. Every peny that he makes the rest of this year will not be out of Gilbert's checkbook. And as petty as that is for me to care about, I'm glad. Also, Mo's ring will ALWAYS have an asterisk next to it now because of what he pulled. He made all of his teammates hate him for being such a whiny little bitch.