The future for the NBA?

[Court_vision]

I saw the below post over at REALGM and summed up exactly what I've been thinking. I am posting it below to get people's thoughts.

Please NO LeBron specific talk in this thread....just purely "how will small markets / small fan bases" etc be long term? Will we see a whole era of some teams 'conceding' and simply tanking as they realise they can't beat the Heat come 2012 onwards? I just don't see any positives in this once the Celtics age (maybe they have one last run left) for the Eastern Conference and the entire L.

Post below:


This is such an abject disaster.

No 1: First off, Miami is a Dolphins town that is awful for all other pro sports. Heat aren't a huge draw, even when they had Shaq and Wade.

No. 2: It destroys hopes of NBA teams in Cleveland, Toronto, New York and New Jersey. It also harms Boston and Chicago because the team is so stacked. The Nets just got shutout. How about that Mikhail?

No. 3: The NBA needs rivalries. Celtics could beat that team, but they are declining. The Lakers have an aging Kobe Bryant. What happens when the Celts get old? The Magic and Heat battling for the ECF? THAT DESTROYS THE NBA. It makes anything North of the Florida all the way to the West Coast irrelevant.

No 4: It harms the NBA brand. LeBron and Wade need to be competitors. They should be fierce rivals that the NBA could sell. When one wins a title or Wade a second, then they can market them as all-time greats. But, together? They hurt each others legacy.

This hurts the NBA on so many fronts it is not even funny. You can just assume that Heat-Lakers is going to be some boffo revenue stream. I don't think it will be. It concentrates power to far south and lays waste to the Eastern Conference.

[Rocky]

Re: The future for the NBA?

I saw the below post over at REALGM and summed up exactly what I've been thinking. I am posting it below to get people's thoughts.

Please NO LeBron specific talk in this thread....just purely "how will small markets / small fan bases" etc be long term? Will we see a whole era of some teams 'conceding' and simply tanking as they realise they can't beat the Heat come 2012 onwards? I just don't see any positives in this once the Celtics age (maybe they have one last run left) for the Eastern Conference and the entire L.

Post below:


This is such an abject disaster.

No 1: First off, Miami is a Dolphins town that is awful for all other pro sports. Heat aren't a huge draw, even when they had Shaq and Wade.

No. 2: It destroys hopes of NBA teams in Cleveland, Toronto, New York and New Jersey. It also harms Boston and Chicago because the team is so stacked. The Nets just got shutout. How about that Mikhail?

No. 3: The NBA needs rivalries. Celtics could beat that team, but they are declining. The Lakers have an aging Kobe Bryant. What happens when the Celts get old? The Magic and Heat battling for the ECF? THAT DESTROYS THE NBA. It makes anything North of the Florida all the way to the West Coast irrelevant.

No 4: It harms the NBA brand. LeBron and Wade need to be competitors. They should be fierce rivals that the NBA could sell. When one wins a title or Wade a second, then they can market them as all-time greats. But, together? They hurt each others legacy.

This hurts the NBA on so many fronts it is not even funny. You can just assume that Heat-Lakers is going to be some boffo revenue stream. I don't think it will be. It concentrates power to far south and lays waste to the Eastern Conference.

I think people are overreacting a bit. I'm a Bobcats fan. I know that for the next 10 years the Heat may thrash us. But there is still that possibility...that glimmer of hope that in a seven game series, we have to take one in Miami, then when both home games in Charlotte, then gut out another win. That would be bigger than beating any other team I could think of.

If the Heat are thrilling, dominant and all that, then it is great for the NBA. Fans, and not NBA fans for the 12 years since MJ retired, will be tuning in to see which team can topple them.

I don't like the trend of teams 'tanking', clearing cap room, and going belly up for the next star player. Hopefully this summer, it taught teams not to do that because so many teams (Knicks especially) got spurned. And hopefully it taught teams to not make Cleveland's mistake and not take on terrible contracts to hinder the long term future of your franchise.

[305TillIDie]

Re: The future for the NBA?

I think it's a good thing for the NBA. It will be like the NBA have a "Rock Star" team, just like the Bulls in the 90's.

Is it fairweather fans in Miami? oh yeah. but This will always be a Dolphins town. Whatever the hot spot or event, people will come out. Messed up but that how it is. Hell, Im a Hurricane season ticket holeder the last 2 years, and if we have Duke, 35,000 shows up. FSU comes in, sell out. so yeah.

I will enjoy the Heat, no matter it we still had Caron Butler or Herald Minor.

[Jonesy]

Re: The future for the NBA?

The new CBA will probably have to take this into consideration. Maybe they could put in place a rule where only 2 max deals are allowed per team (unless you have Bird rights) to try to stop this sort of gutting a team then reloading with stars thing from happening in the future. Doesn't help stop the Heat over the next 5 years though......

Personally i think this super team in MIA could work in the nba's favor in a similar way to how the Bulls 72-10 season where the team almost became bigger than the league itself and it was like a travelling rock show going from town to town. I know Mia is a relatively small market (i saw a post saying it was the 17th largest tv market in the US) but every game they play will be an absolute sellout both home and away and they will just about be all nationally / internationally telecast.

[tehova]

Re: The future for the NBA?

Its always been this way, ive been on record as saying the nba only needs about 8 teams, all in big markets.

Anytime a good player is in a small market, people just say "i cant wait till he gets outta there and blah blah blah"


8 teams every game on television everyones happy

[airjoca]

Re: The future for the NBA?

I think it's a good thing for the NBA. It will be like the NBA have a "Rock Star" team, just like the Bulls in the 90's.

It's just like with music, Rock bands nowadays are nothing compared to the greats of old, just like this "Rock Star" team has nothing on the Bulls from the 90's.

The Bulls had to fight to become stars. Miami did not.

[Jonesy]

Re: The future for the NBA?

Its always been this way, ive been on record as saying the nba only needs about 8 teams, all in big markets.

Anytime a good player is in a small market, people just say "i cant wait till he gets outta there and blah blah blah"


8 teams every game on television everyones happy

But then there wouldn't be any "nation of Grizzlam" T?

[Court_vision]

Re: The future for the NBA?

Personally i think this super team in MIA could work in the nba's favor in a similar way to how the Bulls 72-10 season where the team almost became bigger than the league itself and it was like a travelling rock show going from town to town. I know Mia is a relatively small market (i saw a post saying it was the 17th largest tv market in the US) but every game they play will be an absolute sellout both home and away and they will just about be all nationally / internationally telecast.

That Bulls team were different IMO mate........Jordan was Godlike worldwide. No one 'hated' him and he never walked out on a team. The Bulls had Pippen, a guy who was drafted there and had gone to war with MJ for almost a decade before they won it....and then they brought in Rodman, who was a 'one off'. The ultimate freakshow in a PFs body.

It was also a different era. Even with the Bulls dominant, competition was fierce and there was genuine rivals and even hatred (Bulls v Knicks)

Now...I see no likely rivalry for years. Most of the younger stars are all so "friendly" with these three that no one is going to say "hey, you three can move aside...it's my time". Maybe Durant is the only guy out there with that killer edge. He's in a small market also though and probably 3 to 5 years off being ready to win it all.

Chris Paul.....Melo......these guys all are basically bromantic with LBJ. There's no "damm I want to win this" out there. No logical rivalry or dislike.

I saw Jeff Van Gundy interviewed and he said "the thing that strikes me is that no one wants to win it by beating another one of these guys". No one wants the challenge. This league needs smaller teams to have some sort of hope IMO and it desperately needs rivalries. So many smaller teams are going to be completely shut out over the next few years it's going to be interesting to see the damage.

[tehova]

Re: The future for the NBA?

But then there wouldn't be any "nation of Grizzlam" T?

Im willing to sacrifice for the greater good of the league, if your team isnt attractive to free agents IMMEDIATE CONTRACTION. Starting with the new cba next year.

[Jonesy]

Re: The future for the NBA?

Def agree agree about the "bromantic" (love that word by the way ) aspect of the modern nba. I guess because all these guys know each other so well by the time they get to the pro's they are just about all buddies and as LeBron has shown would rather play together than beat each other. I don't think Durant has that true alpha dog personality (not yet anyway) and the only player in the nba with it now is probably Kobe and thats it.

I was just thinking with the level of media saturation and coverage the nba gets today you just know BSPN etc will be trying to milk this for everything it is worth. I wouldn't put it past ESPN trying to 'manufacture' rivalries (Heat Vs Lakers, Heat Vs Celts, Heat vs Cavs) etc even if they don't seem to truly exist much anymore.

I agree about contraction Tehova but it ain't gonna happen unfortunately. If anything they will probably try and go the other way (ie London, Bejing etc) before they contract such is the plans for global domination that Stern seems to have.

[Game4fun]

Re: The future for the NBA?

I think this helps my team. The Knicks. I think free agents are gonna wanna come to NY because we have Amare and Gallo will be steppin it up. I would like to think grown men that make millions of dollars on all fans wont concede. I think there competitive spirt wont allow them to unless there are self centered and a me first guy, which I like to believe is a small minority. It will make the top teams lakers, heat, cets, magic games more intresting. It shouldn't make players give up though. That would be a disgraceful product. NBA players are competitive by nature, to say they will concede underestimates there competitive nature.

[bigeastbumrush]

Re: The future for the NBA?

This is simply a "How to Buy a Championship" manual.

And it's a recipe for disaster.

The league will suffer because you've pulled superstars out of their smaller markets and it just trickles down the national fanbase.

Ohio'ers have a right to be mad.

[TheMatrix31]

Re: The future for the NBA?

There are still quite a few rivalries...

Lakers/Spurs
Lakers/Suns
Suns/Mavericks
Suns/Spurs
Lakers/Blazers
Lakers/Celtics

Bulls/Knicks will be a renewed rivalry in no time, as will the Knicks/Heat. Anything else is "meh".

[Jonesy]

Re: The future for the NBA?

There are still quite a few rivalries...

Lakers/Spurs
Lakers/Suns
Suns/Mavericks
Suns/Spurs
Lakers/Blazers
Lakers/Celtics

Bulls/Knicks will be a renewed rivalry in no time, as will the Knicks/Heat. Anything else is "meh".

Well the Suns look like they are falling off big time so that takes the sting out of those 3 you listed.

Lakers / Celtics is the only true rivalry left in the nba at the moment imo....

[TheMatrix31]

Re: The future for the NBA?

Well the Suns look like they are falling off big time so that takes the sting out of those 3 you listed.

Lakers / Celtics is the only true rivalry left in the nba at the moment imo....

We'll be fine. There's been a ton of change with the Suns over the last two decades and we've still made the playoffs all but three years since 1988. Suns/Spurs goes back a long way and so does Suns/Lakers. Suns/Mavericks is still entertaining as ****, and will continue to be even if Amare's not there.

Those rivalries will be fine.