Yesterday I drove from Natick, MA to Harrisonburg, VA and pretty much listened to sports talk radio on the Sirius all day. To be specific the Mad Dog Radio channel. While listening to the afternoon/evening line-up, Chris "Mad Dog" Russo & Dino Costa, there was a lot of talk about the NBA lockout. Even this morning there's more talk about it with Mike & Mike in Morning (Stern was just interviewed earlier this morning). Since there's more buzz, I'm going to chime in with my relatively worthless opinion.
It was no secret that the NBA was going to have labor issues not too long after the Mavericks came back to beat "the Heatles." It's another topic for sure but I watched the finals, Miami should not have lost that series and LeBron deserves a lot of the flack for his play in the 4th quarter. Michael Wilbron mentioned it while the NFL was negotiating their new labor deal over the summer, http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/commentary/news/story?page=wilbon-110630.
Personally, I don't care about the size of the player salaries. The amount of money they make seems absurd but there's no doubt that when LeBron comes to town, his presence puts fannies in the seats. The same held true for Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird. The same holds true for an actor getting $20 million for a film, that's just the way it is (it also applies to CEO's who sit around a table in the board room but that's a topic for another time). To add a bit to the Carmelo Anthony reference, Denver had little choice to trade him because if Melo walked (which he made it clear he was going to do), Denver would not receive any compensation. By dealing him, they got players in return. The issue is Melo held them hostage by only wanting to be traded to the Knicks. Quite frankly, the Knicks have been so awful over the last few years they didn't really have any players the Nuggets wanted. In fact the Knicks & Nuggets had to bring the Timberwolves into the mix in order to pull it off (be advised...the T'Wolves took Eddy Curry & his ridiculous contract off the Knicks hands so they're a doomed franchised and they deserve what they get for that one). While I'm on it, Eddy Curry is probably another reason why the owners want a new labor deal. Curry had a great year for the 33-49 Knicks during the 2006-07 season then injuries, weight & a general poor attitude got him into 69 games over the next 3 years, none in 2010-11, http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/c/curryed01.html.
One of the reasons for the expansion to cities where they probably shouldn't have gone is money. Owners get millions in franchise fees from an expansion team. The players association likes expansion because it adds jobs for the union. As the article I referenced in the prior blog about the Simmons article on the Maloofs holds true, the NBA doesn't care how you run your team as long as the check to the other owners for the franchise fee doesn't bounce.
There are a lot of problems with the NBA. Chris Russo stated that the regular season is too long, too many teams make the playoffs (16 teams in a 30 team league) almost making the regular season meaningless and the same arguments about players only trying in the last few minutes of a regular season game or the playoffs. Davis Stern says that there are 22 of 30 teams that operate in the red. In an interview with Mike Francessa of WFAN (I think it was this one but I'm not sure as Stern is making the rounds), Stern said that the union believes only 8 teams are losing money (the union believes this despite having financial records from all the teams & being offered to have accountants from both sides review the books together according to Stern).
To be honest, NFL excluded, the regular season for the NBA, NHL & MLB are too long. Now a shorter season means less revenue for owners & players so that will not happen. The NBA & NHL send too many teams into the playoffs (during the 80's the NHL had a 21 team league & 16 teams made the playoffs. Prompting multiple playoff appearance by my hapless Hartford Whalers) but tio change the system would mean a loss of playoff revenue for owners & players, so that's not going to happen.
The NBA should contract franchises (good idea for MLB & NHL as well but its another topic for another time). Especially when the NOLA Hornets don't have an owner, Mark Cuban has stated he's not happy about having to prop them up while they get to compete against his team simultaneously. That's not going to happen. The owners would then have to admit they're wrong (billionaires are NEVER wrong) in the fact that a franchise shouldn't be in a certain city and the players association won't have because it would mean losing jobs. You can argue that the problems with the Hornets stem from a previous owner, George Shinn, but NOLA couldn't support the Jazz in the 70's (they moved to that basketball hotbed...Utah!) and they've had a tough time supporting the Hornets. Plus, the league has been running the Hornets since at least last season and I haven't heard about the line forming to buy them. Contraction would indeed eliminate jobs but one could argue that it would raise the level of talent. With 30 teams I feel that the talent pool is a bit diluted.
I touched upon Amare Stoudemire's statement about forming a new league on the last post. Since then I've heard people (Dino Costa & Colin Cowherd) pretty much mock that statement. Both Dino & Colin were critical of the business acumen of the players but I won't do that (stats show that most of professional players are broke within 3-5 years out of the game). Where's the line of billionaires forming to own a team? Who's going to negotiate a TV contract? Who's going to book the travel? Who's going to set-up the leases with arenas? It isn't going to happen & even if it did, how long before they run into the same problems? Also, when the labor issue gets settled, the players in this "new league" would jump ship the 1st chance they get.
That's it for me. As I get ready to enter the hot tub in my hotel room, I will leave you with a link to an article by Michael Wilbon about how the players seem to think that the fans are on they're side, http://espn.go.com/espn/commentary/story/_/page/wilbon-111013/public-ridicule-disdain-force-ends-nba-lockout. When millionaires argue with billionaires it turns everyone off. I'm not for ownership but I'm not siding with the players either. Sure I watch the NBA but I don't start paying attention until after the Super Bowl. I just wish the NHL get get on TV a bit more.
Thanks for your time.
It was no secret that the NBA was going to have labor issues not too long after the Mavericks came back to beat "the Heatles." It's another topic for sure but I watched the finals, Miami should not have lost that series and LeBron deserves a lot of the flack for his play in the 4th quarter. Michael Wilbron mentioned it while the NFL was negotiating their new labor deal over the summer, http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/commentary/news/story?page=wilbon-110630.
Personally, I don't care about the size of the player salaries. The amount of money they make seems absurd but there's no doubt that when LeBron comes to town, his presence puts fannies in the seats. The same held true for Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird. The same holds true for an actor getting $20 million for a film, that's just the way it is (it also applies to CEO's who sit around a table in the board room but that's a topic for another time). To add a bit to the Carmelo Anthony reference, Denver had little choice to trade him because if Melo walked (which he made it clear he was going to do), Denver would not receive any compensation. By dealing him, they got players in return. The issue is Melo held them hostage by only wanting to be traded to the Knicks. Quite frankly, the Knicks have been so awful over the last few years they didn't really have any players the Nuggets wanted. In fact the Knicks & Nuggets had to bring the Timberwolves into the mix in order to pull it off (be advised...the T'Wolves took Eddy Curry & his ridiculous contract off the Knicks hands so they're a doomed franchised and they deserve what they get for that one). While I'm on it, Eddy Curry is probably another reason why the owners want a new labor deal. Curry had a great year for the 33-49 Knicks during the 2006-07 season then injuries, weight & a general poor attitude got him into 69 games over the next 3 years, none in 2010-11, http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/c/curryed01.html.
One of the reasons for the expansion to cities where they probably shouldn't have gone is money. Owners get millions in franchise fees from an expansion team. The players association likes expansion because it adds jobs for the union. As the article I referenced in the prior blog about the Simmons article on the Maloofs holds true, the NBA doesn't care how you run your team as long as the check to the other owners for the franchise fee doesn't bounce.
There are a lot of problems with the NBA. Chris Russo stated that the regular season is too long, too many teams make the playoffs (16 teams in a 30 team league) almost making the regular season meaningless and the same arguments about players only trying in the last few minutes of a regular season game or the playoffs. Davis Stern says that there are 22 of 30 teams that operate in the red. In an interview with Mike Francessa of WFAN (I think it was this one but I'm not sure as Stern is making the rounds), Stern said that the union believes only 8 teams are losing money (the union believes this despite having financial records from all the teams & being offered to have accountants from both sides review the books together according to Stern).
To be honest, NFL excluded, the regular season for the NBA, NHL & MLB are too long. Now a shorter season means less revenue for owners & players so that will not happen. The NBA & NHL send too many teams into the playoffs (during the 80's the NHL had a 21 team league & 16 teams made the playoffs. Prompting multiple playoff appearance by my hapless Hartford Whalers) but tio change the system would mean a loss of playoff revenue for owners & players, so that's not going to happen.
The NBA should contract franchises (good idea for MLB & NHL as well but its another topic for another time). Especially when the NOLA Hornets don't have an owner, Mark Cuban has stated he's not happy about having to prop them up while they get to compete against his team simultaneously. That's not going to happen. The owners would then have to admit they're wrong (billionaires are NEVER wrong) in the fact that a franchise shouldn't be in a certain city and the players association won't have because it would mean losing jobs. You can argue that the problems with the Hornets stem from a previous owner, George Shinn, but NOLA couldn't support the Jazz in the 70's (they moved to that basketball hotbed...Utah!) and they've had a tough time supporting the Hornets. Plus, the league has been running the Hornets since at least last season and I haven't heard about the line forming to buy them. Contraction would indeed eliminate jobs but one could argue that it would raise the level of talent. With 30 teams I feel that the talent pool is a bit diluted.
I touched upon Amare Stoudemire's statement about forming a new league on the last post. Since then I've heard people (Dino Costa & Colin Cowherd) pretty much mock that statement. Both Dino & Colin were critical of the business acumen of the players but I won't do that (stats show that most of professional players are broke within 3-5 years out of the game). Where's the line of billionaires forming to own a team? Who's going to negotiate a TV contract? Who's going to book the travel? Who's going to set-up the leases with arenas? It isn't going to happen & even if it did, how long before they run into the same problems? Also, when the labor issue gets settled, the players in this "new league" would jump ship the 1st chance they get.
That's it for me. As I get ready to enter the hot tub in my hotel room, I will leave you with a link to an article by Michael Wilbon about how the players seem to think that the fans are on they're side, http://espn.go.com/espn/commentary/story/_/page/wilbon-111013/public-ridicule-disdain-force-ends-nba-lockout. When millionaires argue with billionaires it turns everyone off. I'm not for ownership but I'm not siding with the players either. Sure I watch the NBA but I don't start paying attention until after the Super Bowl. I just wish the NHL get get on TV a bit more.
Thanks for your time.
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