NBA Thread 2011-12

[Mofoticon]

This does it for me and the NBA, nothing else to root for in that league.

When a guy like LeBron gets rewarded for the shit he pulled, it's not a league I want to waste my time with.

...Wait, wut? What shit he pulled?

Quitting on the Cavs in a playoff series, then going on National TV and telling the whole state of Ohio to go fuck themselves.

[Fait Accompli]

I just remembered...Eddy Curry got a ring now.

Edited June 22, 2012 by Fait Accompli

[gunnar hendershow]

I can see it now on the ESPN scrawl. BREAKING NEWS: Shaq will come out of retirement to re-join the Heat.

If it gets him off TNT I completely support the move.

[Plubby]

This does it for me and the NBA, nothing else to root for in that league.

When a guy like LeBron gets rewarded for the shit he pulled, it's not a league I want to waste my time with.

...Wait, wut? What shit he pulled?

I'm guessing The Decision.

If it's the decision then you have got to be shitting me. Two of the best players in the league and another who's towards the top of his position? You have SIXTY PERCENT OF YOUR STARTING LINEUP AMONG THE BEST IN THE LEAGUE!?

OF COURSE he was rewarded for that! That's what is SUPPOSED to happen!

[Mofoticon]

This does it for me and the NBA, nothing else to root for in that league.

When a guy like LeBron gets rewarded for the shit he pulled, it's not a league I want to waste my time with.

...Wait, wut? What shit he pulled?

I'm guessing The Decision.

If it's the decision then you have got to be shitting me. Two of the best players in the league and another who's towards the top of his position? You have SIXTY PERCENT OF YOUR STARTING LINEUP AMONG THE BEST IN THE LEAGUE!?

OF COURSE he was rewarded for that! That's what is SUPPOSED to happen!

Except, colluding to play together 2 years before it actually happened is against the rules, but Stern turned a blind eye to it in order to get this team together for the "good of the NBA". Stern is as shady of a commish as there is in sports, and I have no doubt he flat out encouraged these three guys to team up. The NBA is a joke of a league at this point, where 3 or 4 teams will be relevant every year, and the rest go into the season with no chance at all of winning a title.

[naiwf]

The best part is that Stern will make sure no other team can ever do this again to teach everyone a lesson. Only he can manipulate the league (CP3 trade revoked, Hornets win the lottery) damnit!

[GoGo Yubari]

I'm not sure why I was even worried. Once a Seattle team, always a Seattle team.

[Benjamin]

This does it for me and the NBA, nothing else to root for in that league.

When a guy like LeBron gets rewarded for the shit he pulled, it's not a league I want to waste my time with.

...Wait, wut? What shit he pulled?

I'm guessing The Decision.

If it's the decision then you have got to be shitting me. Two of the best players in the league and another who's towards the top of his position? You have SIXTY PERCENT OF YOUR STARTING LINEUP AMONG THE BEST IN THE LEAGUE!?

OF COURSE he was rewarded for that! That's what is SUPPOSED to happen!

Except, colluding to play together 2 years before it actually happened is against the rules, but Stern turned a blind eye to it in order to get this team together for the "good of the NBA". Stern is as shady of a commish as there is in sports, and I have no doubt he flat out encouraged these three guys to team up. The NBA is a joke of a league at this point, where 3 or 4 teams will be relevant every year, and the rest go into the season with no chance at all of winning a title.

I hate this kind of shit talk about only a select few teams being relevant. It's what happens in just about every damn sport. There are big teams, and there are small teams. Get over it.

[naiwf]

I hate this kind of shit talk about only a select few teams being relevant. It's what happens in just about every damn sport. There are big teams, and there are small teams. Get over it.

It's a salary cap driven league that essentially starts every season with only 3 or 4 relevant teams, and teams like Washington making awful trades to try and get from 25 to 40 wins since no one of any value will ever sign there willingly. This Heat team came together the same week that Toronto and Cleveland were both set back at least a decade since the best player either franchise had ever drafted walked away and didn't have to leave any money on the table to do so. The model is broken.

If this were baseball, we can accept that the Yankees will always have a team that starts at 90 wins and builds from there and that Kansas City just takes up space. It shouldn't be that way in the NBA, but since 1980 only 9 franchises have won titles, Lakers 10, Bulls 6, Celtics/Spurs 4, Pistons 3, Rockets/Heat 2, 76ers/Mavs 1. With the exception of the 2004 Pistons, every other team had at least one guy you could argue was the best player in the league at some point in their career. If you're a small market team you'd better get lucky and draft Robinson & Duncan, or have Olajuwon in a Jordan free window, or be content to watch your former players win a title playing in a big market after they leave via free agency.

[Blaze09]

[LL!]

Yeeees! Great win for the Heat!

[Mofoticon]

This does it for me and the NBA, nothing else to root for in that league.

When a guy like LeBron gets rewarded for the shit he pulled, it's not a league I want to waste my time with.

...Wait, wut? What shit he pulled?

I'm guessing The Decision.

If it's the decision then you have got to be shitting me. Two of the best players in the league and another who's towards the top of his position? You have SIXTY PERCENT OF YOUR STARTING LINEUP AMONG THE BEST IN THE LEAGUE!?

OF COURSE he was rewarded for that! That's what is SUPPOSED to happen!

Except, colluding to play together 2 years before it actually happened is against the rules, but Stern turned a blind eye to it in order to get this team together for the "good of the NBA". Stern is as shady of a commish as there is in sports, and I have no doubt he flat out encouraged these three guys to team up. The NBA is a joke of a league at this point, where 3 or 4 teams will be relevant every year, and the rest go into the season with no chance at all of winning a title.

I hate this kind of shit talk about only a select few teams being relevant. It's what happens in just about every damn sport. There are big teams, and there are small teams. Get over it.

This is complete crap. The NBA is the exact opposite of a parity league, while the NFL is the posterchild for parity. Guess what? The NFL is as popular as any sport has ever been right now because fans believe their teams can come back and win from one year to the next...something that is literally impossible in the NBA, especially with these new "super" teams. I don't see how alienating 25 fan bases is good business for the NBA, but I guess we'll see. I'm sure I'm not the only fan the NBA lost for good tonight.

[Benjamin]

This does it for me and the NBA, nothing else to root for in that league.

When a guy like LeBron gets rewarded for the shit he pulled, it's not a league I want to waste my time with.

...Wait, wut? What shit he pulled?

I'm guessing The Decision.

If it's the decision then you have got to be shitting me. Two of the best players in the league and another who's towards the top of his position? You have SIXTY PERCENT OF YOUR STARTING LINEUP AMONG THE BEST IN THE LEAGUE!?

OF COURSE he was rewarded for that! That's what is SUPPOSED to happen!

Except, colluding to play together 2 years before it actually happened is against the rules, but Stern turned a blind eye to it in order to get this team together for the "good of the NBA". Stern is as shady of a commish as there is in sports, and I have no doubt he flat out encouraged these three guys to team up. The NBA is a joke of a league at this point, where 3 or 4 teams will be relevant every year, and the rest go into the season with no chance at all of winning a title.

I hate this kind of shit talk about only a select few teams being relevant. It's what happens in just about every damn sport. There are big teams, and there are small teams. Get over it.

This is complete crap. The NBA is the exact opposite of a parity league, while the NFL is the posterchild for parity. Guess what? The NFL is as popular as any sport has ever been right now because fans believe their teams can come back and win from one year to the next...something that is literally impossible in the NBA, especially with these new "super" teams. I don't see how alienating 25 fan bases is good business for the NBA, but I guess we'll see. I'm sure I'm not the only fan the NBA lost for good tonight.

I can't really say anything about that, I don't follow the NFL because it's not shown here often (and is such a boring sport).

Small-market teams are teams that are going to get short-ended, though. Players shouldn't be faulted if they want to play in a bigger city with better players, that's just stupid. No one should fault LeBron for wanting to play with other great players. It makes his job to win a championship easier, which is what the ultimate goal of a basketball player should be.

The way he did it was stupid, sure (The Decision, his stupidity last season and his antics against Dirk), but for wanting to play with better players? Especially the best players possible? Why not? Wouldn't you?

[Plubby]

The parity thing is surely at least in part a byproduct of the sport of basketball though. Sports like hockey and football (both of which have sixteen different champions since 1980, to refer to an early point) require squads of dozens. Meaning that the talent is more diversified - The gulf in talent between player 1 and player 23 in a hockey team or players 1 and 50 or whatever in a football team would be much more than players 1 and 12 on a basketball team.

When the talent floor of teams is closer to the ceiling, the ceiling is made more distinct. So when you have a team like Miami that gets three of the best, that's (as I said earlier) 60% of your starting roster and something like a quarter of the total roster that you carry on a game-to-game basis. It should be expected that for the years a team can maintain something like this that they would naturally perform better.

[gunnar hendershow]

I would personally want to play against the best players, not with them. Call me old fashioned, but I crave a challenge. I want to have the person opposite me be every bit my equal, not my lesser. Being in a position where I can easily succeed is so boring.

Also, the NBA had a ton of parity in the 1970's, between the Celtics dynasty and the establishment of the salary cap. It was a fluke, in the sense that there was no truly dominant player and the league had a lot of depth in talent. We had a lot of that depth in the early 90's too, but we also had the greatest of all time playing at this absolute peak. Nowadays the league has more depth in talent than ever before, if we didn't have super teams we would have probably a new Finals matchup every year. It's easy to maintain consistent success in basketball when you only need to change your bench every year.

[Maxx]

The reasons for a lack of parity aren't hard to understand, but that doesn't make it suck any less. Why be a fan in Sacramento or Charolette? Even if you luck out and get an amazing player in the draft, they will eventually leave. Unless the team that drafts them has a boatload of cap room, but even that won't matter if you're considered small market.

I'm not sure English fans get it, due to promotion/relegation and transfers they see in soccer. Players start with small clubs and move to bigger clubs, that's just the way it is. Well imagine that happening, but every club is playing for the same title. Does that sound like fun if you're a fan of any club not currently in the Premiereship?

[Quom]

That is what happens thought. There are the same 2-3 teams who win year in and year out failing someone super rich buying your team.

[gunnar hendershow]

As I said, this is the first instance since the 1970's where the league's stars are so spread out that we can actually have parity. A hard cap would have helped create that and a contract structure that would make it very hard to leave the small market team that drafted you. But we got nothing in that CBA that changes a thing, and we're stuck with this status quo. In a few years this generation of young stars will all look for their way to start a dynasty, and probably collude with a team to make it so. Nothing's going to change, but with the talent in the league right now we could have a lot of parity and it would be a truly thrilling league to watch.

[Maxx]

Yeah, and in that regard, OKC should be upset. If the league was operating in a pre-big 3 mode, this would have been their title for sure. It's incredible that the team they have was built largely through the draft. You never get that lucky. Unfortunately, their jackpot came at the same superstars decided to start doing insider trading.

[Blitz]

Anyone else think Tony Parker suing that New York club for $20M is funny? If you don't want your eye getting effed up, stay out of bar fights.

Dummy.