I’m a Golden State Warriors fan. So for me the NBA is only that time of year between the NFL football season and the beginning of Major League Baseball. But I still follow the game. I’m really looking forward to those great match ups between Bird and Magic. Is Dr. J still playing?
But I digress. This year’s NBA lock out illustrated one thing to me. The NBA needs to adopt the hard salary cap that the NFL instituted back in 1994. Otherwise all we will see in the foreseeable future are finals between L.A., New York, Boston, Miami, and Chicago. Oh sure you’ll see a smaller market team like San Antonio or Cleveland get in there once in a while. But if you’re looking for a model of parity and maintaining fan interest in the smaller market teams you can’t go wrong with the NFL salary cap model.
Now I know basketball is different. Their ball is round and they wear shorter pants. Although since the days of Michigan’s Fab Five the difference in pant length has shrunken to near immeasurable levels. Again, I stray. Basketball only has a 12 man roster versus 53 for football. So one player can make a HUUUUUGE difference in the NBA. Not that it can’t in the NFL too, but Tom Brady only plays on one side of the ball and thereby only gets to touch it half the time. LeBron James or Kobe Bryant are in on almost every play, except when they’re being spelled for a rest. But as we saw this off season, (namely the Chris Paul trade-not trade-trade debacle)the NBA needs to adopt a different pay structure.
For almost 20 years now the NFL has operated under a hard salary cap and a draft selection process that allows small market teams like Green Bay and Pittsburgh to compete, and succeed, against the larger markets. I understood why David Stern put the kibash on the Chris Paul to the Lakers deal. If left to their own devices every great player will end up in either Los Angeles, Boston, New York, Chicago or Miami.
The other thing the NBA could take from the NFL is revenue sharing. Again, this allows the smaller market teams, who may not get the radio and television deals that the larger market teams get, to compete.
And lastly, get rid of the draft lottery in the NBA. I understand that a team may try to tank it at the end of the season in order to get the “can’t miss” college player coming out. But these are professionals. And I’m sure the NBA would be able to recognize when teams do try to throw games in order to get a better draft selection. The lottery has become a joke. It’s a marketing gimmick who’s time has passed. Let the worst team have the first pick in the following season’s draft. Without contingencies.
I think if the NBA adopted these methods to their salary cap madness teams like my beloved Golden State Warriors would have a better shot at someday winning another championship. Instead of going another 36 years without one.
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Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: | Boston Celtics, Chicago Bulls, Chris Paul, draft, Los Angeles Lakers, Miami Heat, NBA, New York Knicks, salary cap, season opener
