Those that know me (and you shouldn’t because I’m anonymous) know that I’m a football fan first, basketball fan second. I was raised in a football house, spent a lifetime watching football to the point of extremity, and I talk football with my entourage any time I can. It’s something engrained in The Saints Guy DNA.
But I also love basketball. As a kid, I deluded myself into thinking three things: that I would grow up to be a rock star, a professional wrestler and somehow play for the 1995 Orlando Magic. (All of these are sadly true. In my mind, I always imagined either Nick Anderson or Dennis Scott would contract malaria or the Ebola virus 
and that head coach Brian Hill would find me in the
stands to hit three-pointers to beat the Rockets in the Finals. Afterward, I’d jump off the top of the cage and give a Flying Elbow Drop to Big Van Vader and headline a Winger concert when the match was over. On second thought, let’s just forget I said anything.)
Basketball has always fascinated me for one simple reason: I can’t figure out for the life of me how one can coach the sport. I plead total ignorance when it comes to this area of hoops. I’ve watched plenty of coaches draw up plays and try to explain to me how they would work, but I just can’t figure it out. Football is different in the capacity that you run a set play in between downs and have a small break to make adjustments within the play clock window. That’s not true with basketball. Everything has to be done on the fly. Coaches can all but predict exactly where defenders on going to be on the floor just by the offenses they coach. I’ve always been impressed by good coaching and how the good ones coach the sport.
So let’s fast-forward to the 2007-08 NBA season that just ended with a Boston Celtics championship. That was the icing on the cake on arguably the most refreshing season since the mid-90s.
It began with a bizarre draft scenario where Ray Allen ended up at
On the West Coast, Laker management had no idea what to do. Kobe Bryant was clearly the best player in the game still suiting up. Heck, even as unhappy as he had been in the past couple of seasons, he still hung 81 points in the 2005-06 season and got his team back into the playoffs the next without Shaq. How do you give up on the game’s best current player?
Giving you the backgrounds on these two situations is important for one huge reason that’s going to change the future of the National Basketball Association: 2007-08 proved that a superstar can be disgruntled for as long as he wants, pitch a huge fit and still get his way.
This was true on both contending teams.
Meanwhile,
So what happened?
And don’t get cocky, Laker fans. I’m coming for you next.
During the season, the Memphis Grizzlies apparently contracted Level 2 Kevin McHalitis and practically gave L.A. Pau Gasol for Kwame Browe, Javaris Crittenton, Aaron McKie, the rights to the younger Gasol brother, two first round picks and a dinner for two at Outback. Watch this: I’m about to copy and paste from a previous paragraph and use Find+Replace. [And I don’t care if the dinner for two at Outback was included in this trade; if former Laker legend Jerry West wasn’t involved as the Grizzlies’ President of Operations, it doesn’t happen. Don’t ever forget that.]
Both trades were pretty shady. The only reason the Minnesota/Boston trade is “justifiable” is because the Wolves did get Al Jefferson out of the deal, a kid plenty of folks see a future in. You can’t even come close to saying that about the Memphis/L.A. trade, except for maybe the first round picks. But they’re all but guaranteed to be late first-rounders because the Lakers aren’t going anywhere anytime soon barring a tragic accident or another hotel employee in
But The Saints Guy digresses. You see, quick fixes can work in the NBA. It’s the only professional team sport where this is especially true; that a team can go out and get star players and have an immediate impact on championship contention. Football and baseball are far too team oriented in nature, mainly because there are practically double the players on the field compared to basketball.
Think about it this way. If you have a superstar quarterback and bring in a couple of all-star caliber wide receivers during the offseason, sure you’d see some improvement. But that’s less than 30 percent of your offense on the field and maybe 5 percent of your total team.
In basketball, you can make the same sort of deal and all of a sudden, 60 percent of the your starting is suddenly revamped and that still 20 percent of your total roster. That’s a significant jump in talent and, as the Boston Celtics proved, can take you from the worst record in the East one season and NBA World Champion the next.
Star players will start to emulate Pierce’s and Bryant’s attitude before the 2007-08 season began to unfurl as they got their respective ways. Pierce’s help came before the season began, and
(Side note: After slamming these two stars so much in this column, I do need to make this point: there is a significant difference between The Truth and
Professional sports ownership has mistakenly bought into the notion that if you have a superstar
player, you should do everything in your power to keep him happy even if he is killing your team on and off the court. Look what Vince Carter did to the poor people of
Back to the present, basketball fans just watched a very enjoyable NBA postseason from top to bottom. From our super-talented Chris Paul to the epic Phoenix/San Antonio series to
Ask yourself: what will you do when it’s your superstar holding your team hostage? It’s so much more difficult to dump these guys in the NBA because of the way contracts are tailored (The exact opposite is the NFL, which is another column. Surely there’s a happy medium somewhere). Yes, this worked for
Let’s examine this scenario: Suppose in five years Kevin Durant is averaging 23 points per game for the Oklahoma City Bandits, but they’ve been getting beat in the first round of the playoffs for three straight years. Now, Durant wants to be on an NBA title contender, and he’s either going to demand they meet his needs by trading him or bringing in a more star-studded supporting cast. What will management do then? What can management do then?
Here’s the thing, and this is the important part of the column: Every team cannot be a title contender in the league year in and year out. Sure, every team would like to be, but it’s just not possible. There is maybe one dynasty at a time, there are a couple of perennial playoff contenders, but the rest of the league is comprised of teams that can only make a couple of flashes of greatness. It’s just the truth. But the one thing every team has is at least one star player on the roster. And now every star player is going to realize that all it will take is a sour attitude, and he’s going to get his way, even if it is not reasonably possible for the team he plays for.
