The ‘indecision’ fiasco has finally trespassed as Dwight Howard has been dealt to the Lakers. The four team trade also had Andrew Bynum being shipped out East to the 76’ers, Andre Igodaula will go to the Nuggets and the Magic will, two role players, some meaningless 1st round picks that are lottery protected and I think a greatest hits of 2 Chainz cd was thrown in the deal for them, as well. In all seriousness though, it’s deals like this where the small market team gives up their biggest player while the big market team only gets more and more powerful and said small market gets that much more smaller and smaller is the reason why the NBA needs to do some serious self reflection.
The NBA is unique because it’s a star driven league–even more so than the NFL which is heavily dependent on the Quarterback position. The NBA is ran in a way which is not conducive to pleasing fans from a wide spectrum and also from a common sense standpoint. What sense does it make to have teams in remote small markets that have no chance of competing just festering away in some blip on the map. The NBA parity myth is almost as laughable as the one MLB has; in fact, the NBA’s ‘parity myth’ is even more laughable. At least baseball had the good sense to not put in a salary cap so that even if a team is in a small market fans can just blame the owners for not digging into their own pockets and investing in talent, but I digress. The NBA parity myth is frankly a joke, a star driven league shouldn’t be ran under strict confinements of restraint with quotas and penalties for over spending–it’s quasi hypocritical in fact. The NBA(like every sports league) is so keen to mold itself exactly to the NFL business model that the NBA has lost sight of what would work for them. The NFL is successful because even a team in quaint Green Bay can churn a profit–meanwhile an NBA team in Miami with 3 stars still has pockets of empty seats day in and out. The NBA cannot run itself the way the NFL is ran, so why are they even trying?
I don’t scoff at the idea of the NBA getting rid of teams, because it should very well become the next plausible move. The NBA’s biggest excuse during the lockout were owners bemoaning about record loss in profits with the majority of the league not even breaking even. Well, if that’s the case then relocation or just getting rid of teams in general should be a no brainer. Also, the NBA season is too long and interrupts with the NFL season–start each season on Christmas and get the stepping. The NBA has become so rigid in their approach to running itself that it’s become the ‘High School’ of the sports world–the popular kids dominate, meanwhile the underlings suffer. The league is so star dependent that one would think Orlando, Florida as tantamount to Boise Idaho in terms of intrigue, just by the way Dwight Howard carried on in trying to leave, there’s this prevailing thought that if something’s not NY, LA or Chicago then it’s trash and not worthy of marquee names.
Far be it for me to give the NBA a blueprint on how they should run their multi billion dollar business, but as an observer this rigid game of monopoly playing out each season with big stars flocking to big markets is getting irksome. If the whole league is destined to be ran by the Lakers, Heat, Celtics and Bulls then why even try to pretend that teams like the Bucks, Raptors and Bobcats mean anything? There’s too much intentional ignorance going on with the idea that 30 teams can stand strong and compete as one, it’s just not possible. Like it or not there is a caste system in the NBA, and while David Stern can wave the white flag and say that the league is expanding do all these phony trade blocks (e.g Chris Paul) until some teams are plain put out of their misery then what’s the sense of even pretending?