With both the NFL and NBA ending their existing collective bargaining agreements this year, many people have speculated where either league will have a work stoppage before the next season commences. One league will and there will be football this fall.
In football, the system is working well for all teams and there is certainly enough money to spread around to all involved. There should be a rookie wage scale and the resulting extra money should go to veteran players who have proven they can play professional football.
In basketball, the owner’s need to get their league back.
Look, there is no question the players are the show. It’s who the fans go to see. No one goes to a Cavalier game because Dan Gilbert owns the team. However, the owners’ put up a great deal of cash to run the individual franchises and they are losing that right in the current system.
Basically, the owners take all the risks.
However, right now the players and their agents are calling shots about who plays where and although commissioner David Stern can sugar coat it all he wants, he has to be concerned, and the people who own NBA franchises have to be dismayed over what has happened since last season ended.
And we know that the players are great at playing the game, but do not have a good grasp on what is good for the sport and what isn’t.
There is no question that Denver owner Stan Kroenke saw what happened in Cleveland last summer and didn’t want to get simply draft picks for his all-star forward Carmelo Anthony. So, he dealt Anthony to the New York Knicks, with the player holding Denver hostage because he would only sign a contract extension with New York, for a bunch of good to average players.
And at the All-Star break, Utah guard Deron Williams expressed interest in playing with Anthony and Amar’e Stoudemire when he becomes a free agent after the 2012 season.
So, the new NBA will be Miami, New York, Boston, Los Angeles, Chicago, and a bunch of teams that no one will care about.
How many new pro basketball fans will be springing up in the midwest, northwest, and southwest in the next generation?
Think about how many people in Cleveland became fans of the game in the seven years that LeBron James wore the wine and gold of the Cavaliers? Also, consider what poor sports fans reside in at least two of the cities mentioned previously. LA fans are notorious for showing up late and leaving sporting events early, and people in south Florida are not exactly known for their passion for professional sports.
Yet, that is where the players want to be, and in the current system, the owners are powerless to stop it.
Stern says everything is good because he never says anything is wrong with his league. He even downplayed the criticism of “The Decision” even though most people thought it was the worst idea since new Coke.
Stern is probably the most powerful czar in professional sports, but even he has to realize that people like “super” agents Leon Rose, and the infamous “World Wide Wes” have designs on his power.
In a league where arguably one team (2004 Pistons) has won a title without an all time great player since 1980, the unwillingness of the great players of today to stay in markets like Cleveland, Denver, Toronto, and Utah doom those cities to basketball irrelevance. That is simply not good for the sport.
Owners of professional sports franchises can only sell two things: A great team or hope. The way the NBA is headed, 80% of the league’s teams will be unable to sell either.
And that’s bad for business.
MW
Cleveland Sports Perspective 