The NBA in a handful of words...



David Stern has presided over the league for over 20 years. Stern has overseen a philosophical shift from marketing the team to the superstar. It all happened when Michael Jordan became the one man marketing tour de force. He made more money on endorsements than on the court. The league rode him all the way to the top. Instead of the Bulls versus the Lakers, it became Michael Jordan and the Bulls vs. Magic and the Lakers.



Now the NBA is obstensively a superstar league. The team concept is likely gone forever. The Lebron saga showed who really has power in the league: superstars and their agents. As a fan not living in a destination city, this is horrific to watch. The NBA is broken and needs to be fixed or blown up.



The new trend is for the stars to align. Lebron, Wade, and Bosh. Rondo, Ray Allen, PP, and KG. Now add Amare and Melo to the mix. I understand why the players would seek out these pairings. They want to play with their friends and they like their title chances with the constellation method. The Miami threesome came together via free agency. The others were/will come together with trades and FA. The Miami group felt like a fix months in the making. The Boston team was helped by a lopsided trade made by former Boston teammates turned GM's (Ainge in Boston & McHale in Minnesota). The New York group was brokered via Melo's agent (also Lebron's) Leon Rose holding Denver hostage.



I am not comfortable with the inmates running the asylum. The star players are too wealthy and too powerful. The previous collective bargaining agreements (CBA's) established a soft salary cap and rules that allow teams to pay its best players more than they could receive from another team in free agency. This is known as "Bird rights". The Bird rights have allowed teams to keep their star players for the most part. The trend was bucked this past off season by Lebron, Bosh, and Amare.



The Redeem Team, the 2008 Olympic gold medal basketball team, is seen as the catalyst for Lebron, Wade, Bosh, Melo and Amare deciding to set their manifest destinies in place. The '08 team was loaded with stars who spent an entire month together in Beijing and obviously bonded. This is a free country and these guys were free agents. As a fan of a city and its basketball team in the rust and snow belt, I feel powerless.

The idea of having a salary cap is to allow for a competitive balance between the teams in the league. The NFL embodies competitive balance the best. The word parity is thrown around with the NFL, but never with the MLB or NBA. When more teams have a chance of being a winner year in and year out, more eyeballs are tuned in to watch. The NBA is a heartbeat away from turning into the MLB. Just 4 or 5 teams have a chance to win big, while the rest are just going through the motions. Leagues need to have 30 (32 in NFL) equal partners instead of a 4 team oligarchy and 26 team fiefdom. History backs this up. How did feudalism turn out? How are the last few monarchies working out?

How long before NBA GM's become either a thing of the past or former/current player agents? The agents seem to be brokering the deals and dictating terms to GM's. Carmelo Anthony and his agent (King Leon) held a gun to the Denver Nuggets and handed over a list of demands. Actually there was only 1 demand: trade me to the Knicks. Denver did not get to make the deal they wanted (a trade with New Jersey).

I don't live in a glamorous city and now that the superstar players/agents are calling the shots, the also-rans are being put on notice. Detroit may have won the last championship for the rust belt. Now the playing field has been tilted, much like baseball. If money is not enough to keep a free agent, a team like Cleveland is in big trouble. It will have to rely almost exclusively on the draft for talented players. The team's only real hold on a player is the rookie contract. This rookie contract is for 2 years with more years that are team options, so essentially 4 years. Then what? In the new NBA, maybe it means leaving for a power team.

Death to the NBA.

Hear's hoping that a lockout wipes out 2011-12 and beyond. If there is no season, will the Cavs get the most ping pong balls for that draft as well? It's an ugly reality for the lowly Cleveland Cavaliers. Check back later to find out about the silver lining.

2010-2011: The Cleveland sports holocaust.

The Cavs go from first to worst. The Indians continue to be a farm team for the rest of baseball and had the MLB's worst attendance. The Tribe and Royals drag-raced for last in the AL Central and were able to gas past KC to hold on to 4th place. The Browns fired yet another head coach...Eric Mangini this time. The Brownies are working on coach #5 since the rebirth in 1999.

All three franchises are going nowhere. The Cavs are in the most immediate heap of crap. They went 0 for January(0-16) and are riding a 21 game losing streak. At least a top 4 lottery pick awaits them at season's end. The team is probably looking at a 3-4 year period where the lottery will be home. That is 3 or 4 chances of coming up with a new superstar. It will be a slow burn, but the NBA is a quicker rebuild than baseball.

The Indians are doomed because baseball is screwed up. It's the only major sport without a salary cap. The other sports don't have to sweat the whole big market small market thing as much as baseball. All the non big market teams need to pull the chair on the likes of the Yanks and Dodgers and Red Sox and say "we want a salary cap or we are all leaving MLB". That would leave a 6 team MLB where the heavy weights can all slug it out together. The other 20 some teams can form a new league with a salary cap. I realize this idea is ludicious, but it does shed light on the fact that a league without a level playing field will continue to drift off into oblivion

The Browns are back to their old tricks. A new coach on the sidelines, a defensive philosophy switch that calls for a major overhaul. I'm not holding my breath. The new coach, Pat Shurmur, has never been a head coach...on any level. He's barely been an offensive coordinator (2yrs. with the Rams) and now he wants to be head coach and call the offensive plays. I'm not seeing the silver lining for 2011. While the hated Pittsburgh Steelers are going for super bowl #7 (#3 since 1999), the Browns are looking for playoff berth #2.

I'm thinking of taking the next couple of years off from fandom. If that proves enjoyable, a may extend it indefinitely.