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TIM Duncan and Kobe Bryant. Dwyane Wade and Kevin Durant. Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah.


Players synonymous with their cities and their franchises are now gone in a summer of upheaval the NBA has rarely seen before Andre Gomes Portugal Jersey , and the teams left behind begin their searches for new identities after saying the hardest of goodbyes.


“You never would’ve been able to convince me a couple of years back that Wade wouldn’t finish his career in Miami or Durant would have moved on in his prime from that great Oklahoma City team, or Rose after his MVP year, four years later he’s not in Chicago anymore,” ABC analyst Jeff Van Gundy said. “It just shows you. It’s a hard league. It’s hard to keep your group together.”


Count the San Antonio Spurs among the chosen few. Duncan fell in their lap when the Spurs won the draft lottery in 1997, and coach Gregg Popovich has long credited that bit of luck for the franchise’s run of success. Five championships, two MVPs for Duncan Adrien Silva Portugal Jersey , the most enduring success story in American sports.


“Leadership can come from many different areas, but when your best player is the best leader, it’s amazing how everybody else falls in line,” said Timberwolves GM Scott Layden, who was an assistant GM with the Spurs for the previous four seasons. “The other thing is how he’s done it with such humility and modesty. Not looking for any attention and accolades. It’s more of what is good for the team.”


Bryant beat Duncan out of the door by a couple of months, ending 20 colorful seasons with the Lakers with a 60-point outburst in his final game. The consistency wasn’t the same as Duncan’s Portugal World Cup Jersey , but the Lakers captured five titles as well during Bryant’s time and vaulted back into the league’s hierarchy.


Wade left the Heat for his hometown Bulls after 13 great seasons and is perhaps the biggest sports hero in Miami history, having delivered three championships to South Beach and serving as an ambassador for the glitzy city by the bay.


“Moments like this, it sucks,” Wade said on Saturday after taking a two-year, US$47 million deal from the Bulls over Miami’s two-year, US$40 million offer. “The business side of the sport Portugal Soccer Jersey , sometimes it just sucks. That’s what we’re dealing with.”


Durant stunned the NBA by leaving his beloved Oklahoma City for the juggernaut in Golden State, ending a nine-year love affair between the low-key superstar and a city he and Russell Westbrook put on the basketball map.


“Kevin was a part of the renaissance,” Oklahoma City mayor Mick Cornett told ESPN. “This city has come so far, so fast, probably further, faster than any city in American history. Kevin was right there with us. There’s a slight sense of panic.”


And finally William Carvalho World Cup Jersey , the Bulls traded Rose, a former MVP and one of the city’s favorite sons, to the New York Knicks. Noah followed his friend to the Big Apple in free agency, meaning two of the players who embodied the franchise’s grit and determination are now elsewhere.


The departures came under different circumstances and by different means, but they have served to upend the NBA. Player movement is one of the league’s hallmarks, but Wade in a Bulls jersey?


All players see their careers end eventually. But Kobe and Timmy in the same summer?