Dennis Schröder on the NBA trade deadline: “It’s modern slavery at the end of the day. Everybody can decide where you’re going, even if you have a contract … at the end of the day if they say, ‘You’re not coming to work tomorrow, you’re going over there,’ they can decide that.“
“It’s like modern slavery,” Schröder said. “It’s modern slavery at the end of the day. Everybody can decide where you’re going, even if you have a contract. Yeah, of course, we make a lot of money and we can feed our families, but at the end of the day if they say, ‘You’re not coming to work tomorrow, you’re going over there,’ they can decide that. They got to change that a little bit.
“But still grateful that we’re here and that we can live this every single day. I think everybody who’s in here is blessed. But if you really think about it, it is kind of crazy that the organization can tell you, ‘We want you to be team-first, but you’re going over there.’ It’s a lot.”
The control, as Schröder continued to say, is all in the hands of the owners and organizations. Not every situation works out for a player. The wrong move to the wrong city, the wrong coaching staff and teammates, can change a player’s career. It can change a person’s future and financial situation, Schroder acknowledged.