1) Relying solely on the comments of Haywood — who hates Thomas — for the proposition that Thomas set himself apart from the team, and thus that the team won’t miss him, is dubious. We all know that Thomas is a different sort of guy, but is there any evidence beyond what his enemy said about him that Thomas’s eccentricity or activism hurt team chemistry?

2) “To achieve the ultimate goal of a championship, everyone from the trainers, to the towel boys, to the front office, to the coaches, and especially the players need to be active participants in a ’same page’ environment.”

A nice platitude, but it has the drawback of being untrue. For instance, the Lakers won three championships in the early part of the decade despite having a fractured locker room. Other teams have won titles despite being something less than a big group of BFFs.

3. “Etan’s social activity, which assumingly had a bearing on his locker room inactivity, need not apply.”

Assuming that you meant what I think you meant by this illiterate sentence, what evidence is there that, if Etan really didn’t fit in with the team, it was his social activism that did it, and not his general eccentricity? Luol Deng is socially active. So is Dikembe Mutombo. Has their activism caused similar problems?