If I got offered to be on a team where I could be first option vs 3rd, I would take that. My personality would want to be top dog.
Same in the real world, if a company wanted me and offered me less money to be third on the chain of command vs leaving for a company who would put me at the top and on top of this, offer me more money, I would leave and take that bigger role. Once again, this is my personality. Just the same, if at my current place, they brought in 2 people higher than me and I was moved down the chain, I would leave as well for a bigger opportunity.
It is hard to fault anyone. This is not simply about money. It is about being somewhere you can have a larger role. For some people, winning is not everything but rather personal worth and what you want in a role is the most important thing.
Good for Gordon, as top dog, he should be back in the 20's. I hope he has a great season. i do not fault him for his choices but of course as a fan, I wish his desire for winning the finals outranked his desire for more responsibility but that is just not a realistic expectation from me.
Fair enough; people have to make their choices. To finish the analogy, I would add: you’d be leaving a company that is competing to be the very best, where you work with elite teammates and are still very, very well paid — in order to go to the bush leagues where you’ll lose again and again because the company isn’t very good and you can’t carry it by yourself. Also, that big salary they’re paying you is more than the company can really afford ($40M/year, when you include the deferred salary!) and limits their future. He’ll be a big dog in a small yard, and the other packs are going to take his lunch.
I agree with what I think you might be saying - he wanted the money and to get star treatment. He might find he doesn’t enjoy it as much as he thought he would.
Yes, you bring up valid points. My confidence would probably lead me to think I could alter the new companies trajectory and get them back on the road to winning in the future. I was actually made an offer 3 times my current take home from a very large company that was established and chose to stay at a smaller company that I am in the process of growing. Money is not always everything as well. I love to lead and build from the ground up.
You are also right, he might not enjoy not competing for a title in the beginning. I would view it is a big challenge to right the ship under my command. I have no idea how he will view that task ahead of him.
Also worth noting is the fact that if Hayward has another 4-6 seasons averaging something like 25/7/5 with the Hornets making the playoffs a few times towards the end, he's all of a sudden a legitimate candidate to be in the Hall of Fame. That trajectory was not going to happen if he stayed in Boston any longer.
To add to the analogy, the "lesser" company he is joining is also guaranteed to remain solvent, with larger growth potential than his previous company, and there is no guarantee that his previous company will be the industry leader in the next 10 years. In addition to his higher salary, there's better weather, lower taxes, and a lower cost of living & it is a place where his growing family will feel more comfortable. I honestly completely understand why he left.
To use a real-world example, after Tim Cook succeeded Steve Jobs at Apple, I'd have rather been Ron Johnson than Jony Ives. Even though Johnson failed spectacularly, he did his own thing and can be proud of the risk he took. There are fewer "what if's" left. And they both remain spectacularly rich.
