NBA ... Doomsday Defense

I love the media coverage of the NBA.

I swear, there are literally dozens of media members who refuse to ask their older brothers, check the Official NBA Encyclopedia or the sports history books and the NBA Guide for simple facts before they type off their negative opinions and doomsday stories, many coming from erroneous pre-conceived notions.

Read this story from the Wall Street Journal published earlier this week. (PS: At no point in the story did the writer mention the financial situation that my boy, Rupert Murdoch, finds himself in these days).


The Year NBA Teams Quit Early
Why Revenue Concerns, Bloated Contracts and Dreams of LeBron Are Quashing Competition

By MATTHEW FUTTERMAN

This season in the NBA, there are five teams who can still be considered legitimate title contenders. The other 25 are a mix of the unproven, the banged-up, the raw, the disappointing, the apathetic and the catastrophically bad.

More than 80% of the league's 30 teams have no realistic shot at winning the championship, even with more than a quarter of the season left to play. Beyond the Los Angeles Lakers, Boston Celtics, Cleveland Cavaliers and Orlando Magic -- all of whom have won at least 70% of their games -- only the San Antonio Spurs have better than a 10% chance to win the NBA title, according to lines offered by Las Vegas oddsmakers. Four teams are on track to lose at least 75% of their games, which hasn't happened in 11 years.

For the first time in NBA history, team owners, executives, and fans in numerous markets say they have resigned themselves to the idea that their teams are not going to be competitive this season and that, given the state of the economy, they could not make the sorts of expensive moves that would help them improve. "We all want to win, but we have to be aware of the uncertainty of our future revenue," said Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban.

Beyond the obvious disappointment for fans, what's most troubling about this situation is that for the first time in the long history of North American professional sports, the majority of the teams in one league have no financial incentive to improve. Most will be better off financially if they do nothing, and in many cases, will fare even better if they make personnel moves that are certain to make them worse.

Adding to the trouble is the fact that next year, an unprecedented number of the league's best and most desirable players will become free agents -- a group that includes young superstars LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh and Amar'e Stoudamire.

Last month, Rod Thorn, the president of the New Jersey Nets, called around the league looking for a team that wanted to acquire Vince Carter, one of the NBA's bona fide stars. The result was clear and decisive. Most teams had no interest in adding any player if it meant taking on an expensive contract. "I'd say there are 25 teams in that category," Mr. Thorn said.

NBA commissioner David Stern insists the league is still enjoying one of its most competitive seasons. He says he's encouraged by the addition of the Orlando Magic to the NBA's group of elite teams and by the improvement of the young and talented Portland Trail Blazers. Still, he acknowledges that owners are rightfully hesitant to make "moves whose outcome is uncertain, other than that it costs them a lot more."

In the last two decades, the NBA has exploded in size, popularity and profitability. Revenues have risen to $4 billion from about $400 million in 1989. The value of a top-end NBA franchise grew over that span from less than $100 million to more than $400 million. The average player salary also jumped from $275,000 in 1982-83 to $5.6 million today.

In boom times, the league liked to hold up these figures as points of pride. Teams that wanted to build themselves into contenders generally did so by spending large sums of money to acquire a few great players. Orlando, the newest of the league's elite teams, has earned this position largely by committing more than $40 million, about two-thirds of the team's entire payroll, to its four top players.

But as the economy sours, NBA teams are increasingly concerned about their ability to raise sponsorship revenue and to sell expensive premium seats and skyboxes. Last week the league secured an additional $200 million credit facility to lend money to teams. Suddenly, the magnitude of the dollars in play has induced a wave of moves that don't seem to be aimed at winning games.

In November, the Detroit Pistons, who were second in the Eastern Conference in wins last season, traded arguably their best player, Chauncey Billups, to Denver for the oft-injured guard Allen Iverson. The Pistons started the year 21-12 but did not acquire any of the available top-tier players at last month's trade deadline.

The Pistons have won only eight of their last 25 games and are now a .500 team. The Billups trade was an economic coup: when Mr. Iverson's contract expires at the end of this season, the Pistons can lop off $21 million from their payroll. If they hadn't traded Mr. Billups, the team would have owed him the final three years of his four-year $46 million contract.

Competitively, the move has been less successful. In a game last week, after Mr. Iverson left with an injury, Pistons fans were treated to this spectacle: the honor of taking a game-tying three-point shot landed in the hands of guard Walter Hermann, whose 33% success rate from beyond the arc doesn't crack the league's top 100. Joe Dumars, the team's president, declined to comment.

The New York Knicks, who have won just over 40% of their games, say they are not as concerned with winning this year or next as they are with clearing payroll room to make a run at some premium free agents in 2010.

"It's what you have to do if you want to be a contending team," said New York team president Donnie Walsh, who recently saw Mr. James score 52 points with 11 assists and nine rebounds against his team at Madison Square Garden.

Mr. Walsh estimated that rebuilding through trades and draft picks would take him seven years, but signing stars like Mr. James could cut the process at least in half. For now, his sense is that fans are willing to put up with the pain. "There are a lot of people who come up to me and say, 'All right, that's where we are,'" he said.

***

Here's a few points to consider after reading this story by Matthew Futterman - who is a very good writer and an even better person who enjoys a lot of respect in the industry and from me, personally.

Re: For the first time in NBA history... Well, I can remember the turmoil created in the late '70s and early '80s when teams that were among the league's worst would be in a strange position. If they won games, they might improve enough to 'miss the coin flip' and the chance to draft the likes of Lew Alcindor (KAJ), Magic Johnson, Ralph Sampson or Hakeem - then Akeem - Olajuwon. (I could write more names and instances...)

The NBA concieved the NBA Lottery to address this situation and in 1985 instituted the system where the non-playoff teams all had their logos in a cylinder and the order of the first sseven picks of the draft were picked at random.

(Of course, many writers have since conjured up a ridiculous theory where the NBA Commissioner had some way of picking the NY Knicks logo envelope to have the NBA's NY franchise benefit. They leave out the one little tidbit, of course, and that is that they are actually accusing all of us of a crime. By all of us, I mean the NBA staff who worked our asses off for 25 years to make the NBA what it is today (on a global basis).

Let me tell you, during my NBA career, I worked long days, long hard days for years on years. I missed family functions on Mother's Day, Memorial Day BBQs and many a graduation and reunion, etc to do my best to make the NBA a better league. Every minute of every day was spent to make the 21-to-30 NBA teams compete on a level playing field. We worked hard to help the teams at the bottom of 'the ladder' and would always treat EVERY single team evenly and fairly. The very rules and the constant willingness to improve upon those rules (change and sometimes change back - re: new ball, three-point line, illegal defense guidelines) is living proof of how progressive the NBA is in the most important part of the game... THE GAME ITSELF.

During the mid-80's, the NBA would be criticized in the same manner in which Mr Futterman wrote this week. I can remember the NBA Previews in the '83-'84-'85 seasons where the media would state - "they might as well just stage the NBA Finals between the Boston Celtics vs the LA Lakers right way." Everyone else might as well go into rebuilding mode.

And, the truth of the matter was that in those years, LA was dominating the West and only San Antonio could give them a run. In the East, it was Boston, the Philadelphia 76ers and Milwaukee Bucks who were legit contenders. Everyone else was trying to win games and sell tickets, but they had little chance of making a run at the title. For some, the Lottery had to be the more realistic destination.

And, of course, there is no other sport where ONE ankle turn or ACL injury can end a season for an NBA team and turn a contender into THE VANISHING in one split second. Think the Spurs are going anywhere this year if Tim Duncan gets hurt, think the Celtics could compete for a championship without KG or Paul Pierce, think the Cavs can make the Conference Finals if LeBron goes down?

Think the fans of the 1976-77 New York Nets might've been a little disappointed when the "Tiny A and Dr. J in the NBA" preseason slogan turned into the star player of Bubbles Hawkins leading the team to a 22-60 record after Tiny tore his Achilles and "Doc" was dumped (sold) to the 76ers in a $ decision move that devastated the Nets franchise on Long Island?

But, guess what? The players and coaches are the key. An NBA player and his coach are race horses. COMPETITIVE beyond your wildest imagination. When the ball goes up, their competitive instincts take over and look out. They want to WIN. That '77 Nets team had the great Kevin Loughery and Rod Thorn on the bench and they are two of the most competitive people I have ever met. Then, there's Mike Bantom. You put Mike on a court with four grandparents from Petersburg and Mike truly believes he can win a game. He is that good and that competitive. Plus, he's smart. He doesn't want some hot-shot Lottery pick to come and take his job or minutes away for the next season.

So, to land this trans-con column tucked neatly into The Blog @ TerryLyons.com, where do I go?

I tell the writers to look back beyond their years. I urge the TV reporters and print/on-line writers to ask some more questions of people who remember. Don't sit at the computer screen, using the wiki and Facebook and the Internet as your only sources. Get two sides of the story and present them to a reader, then let the reader draw his/her own conclusion from the very premises and historical facts you put in front of them.

Was the NBA better when Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain were the dominating forces and only Rick Barry and the SF Warriors could give them a run? What happened when Barry jumped to the Oakland Oaks and later played for the Nets? How were the Cincinnati Royals with Oscar Robertson drawing those years? How did The Big O somehow get traded to Milwaukee alongside Kareem?

Was the NBA better when Magic and Bird were lighting up the TV ratings and only a few teams could challenge them?

Was the NBA better when some guy named Michael Jordan came along? MJ and the Bulls took on a string of legit contenders: (see Utah Jazz, Seattle Sonics, LA Lakers, Phx Suns), nevermind the Detroit Pistons and the NY Knicks (who Riley somehow convinced the players and the public that HIS team could compete with a couple of guys from the CBA chasing down Jordan -- See Starks and Mason).

No, the NBA is just a great, great basketball league. It provides the most competitive platform on the planet for teams to compete evenly and fairly on the playing field. It has a Salary Cap system to try to level that field from the financial and basketball operations standpoint. It has the best referees in the world - any sport, trust me. And, it has the world's greatest athletes. period. No comparison. And, trust me again, they want to win games.

Food for Thought: Along the lines of the story above....what ever happened to the 2003 World Series champion Florida Marlins?

-TL-