Disrespect is realtive - in a league where Bogut gets 72.5 million for the next five years, is elton brand only worth 65 million? He may not be as flashy or as noisey and he may not have been surrounded with as much talent, but he compares favorably as one of the best power forwards in the game today when healthy...and there's no indication from him or the doctors that he isn't 100% healed...what exactly has andrew bogut accomplished except having the good fortune to be drafted by a team that seems to make GMs a bit stupider.
Additionally, earlier in this thread Corey Maggete was metaphorically bitchslapped (by people who know him very well no less) for taking money over a chance to win a title.
Yet here people are insulting Elton Brand for going to a team, and possibly taking less money than offered by the clips and DEFINITELY by the Warriors that has a better chance of winning a title...yes, the sixers have a better chance of winning a title cause to win a title you got to GET to the finals, and the east is top heavy with an aging celtics team a pistons team seemingly on the verge of imploding a cavs team that has lebron and some guys. Maybe the magic are ascendant, but maybe they could use a real PF, maybe the bulls get it together under del negro, but who knows, maybe jermaine o'neal gets healthy and he and bosh become a monster combo...the east is not as good top to bottom as the west. Heck adding davis and keeping brand probably doesn't make the clips anything more than a six seed in the west...adding brand to the sixers and people are talking top 2/3 in the conference (record wise)....plus there's a heck of a lot more developing youth with upside on the sixers than on the clippers.
Not to mention, Elton Brand is from the east coast, and as someone who grew up in philadelphia and has lived in santa barbara for almost 14 years now, trust me, there's a big difference, and east coast people MISS the east coast, i can't wait to move back there (hoping options become valuable one day)...and the same applies to other players, andre miller has said he's an west coast guy, and a lot of us sixers fans assume he might leave, for less money, after next season to go back to california (but maybe now that brand is here he can be persuaded to stay for a 2 year deal, since the sixers have no other options on the roster right now)
The only person who truly knows elton brands motivation (or corey maggettes for that matters) is elton brand, and any one who posts on an internet message board who claims to have insight to the psychology of a professional athlete without ever having a conversation with them for more than 5 minutes, it's just not right.