I think the hornets got one hell of a deal. I actually thought this made the lakers worse. What I'm telling you is that the nba is still a united states corporation and are bound by the corporate laws. When I get to work, I will pull the exact law section and definition why it's against the law. And the last time I checked. Each team is its own corporation....
It's only illegal if a judge will rule it is. I don't believe that will happen, thus the NBA's actions are perfectly legal.
The real problem is that the best deals are being nixed by CP3. They are being forced into an inferior deal to those offered by the Celtics or Warriors by a player that is still under contract. There's no way Stern could allow this crap to happen the day they ratify a new CBA that promises to restore more competitive balance. This is completely within the rights of the NBA and Stern to step in not by undermined by a player that essentially want to dictate the terms of any deal.
WojYahooNBA Adrian Wojnarowski To listen to the GM's, coaches, players, agents reaching out to me tonight: I think the NBA has changed forever with Stern's act tonight.
I highly doubt any team was seriously able to out-compete the Pau-Odom package for Paul. I get it that the fight over the new CBA was supposedly all about ending this kind of thing, but that's really a sham, because the system wasn't altered in any appreciable way. All they did was shrink the player's pie and make it even more unlikely that small market teams would be able to spend their way to success. It will definitely cost the Knicks and Lakers more in this new deal, but their coffers run deep enough to offset this costs if they chose.
Because I don't like the inmates running asylum. I don't like all the stars forcing themselves onto a handful of teams. I don't like small markets getting crapped on.
It's just the beginning of the end of these stars holding their teams hostage for a trade to a team they want to go to. The deal NOH got today was myopic and horrible for their future. They would have been much better off with Rajon Rondo, but CP3 wanted "nothing to do with the Celtics, will only sign extension in two cities."
Does nobody remember how bad these guys looked down the stretch and in the playoffs last year? I'd agree if it where Bynum, but these two chumps are on the serious downside of their careers. Any package with Rondo or Step Curry is a helluva lot better than Pau-Odom combo because you can rebuild with them.
Stern and most high up in the nba are lawyers. They know the law. I guarantee that a lawsuit was threatened. And... Even if the nba somehow won that case, it would be a long drawn out battle. Terrible for the nba. This is terrible too, but I think it was thought not as terrible as what I just suggested. Trust me, I've seen a lot of corporate law being on the winning and losing end. It sucks but it's the law.
Is it the players faults they want to go where they want to? Have you ever left a little guy to go work for a big bad corporation? I have. There are players who just want to play ball (Durant, Aldridge, Granger) and there are guys that want to play in bigger markets. Can you fault them for that? Did the Spurs ever throw the white flag up and say we give up because we are in a small market? No. The fact is LA and NY are bigger stages to show off the talent they have. With that comes endorsements and more money.
The Warriors wouldn't part with Curry. they are the idiots. Rondo will be exposed when he doesnt have his big 3 with him.
I agree with all of those sentiments, but the fact is the system in the new CBA actually made it less likely small markets will be able to compete. I can't guarantee it, but I suspect we're going to see the gulf between big (rich) and small (poor) widen not shrink. Here's a quick hypothetical to illustrate the problem: Assume small market team X generates revenues of 100 million dollars with an operating budget of about 95 million dollars, while they stay below the tax threshold. If they go above the tax they are very quickly operating in the red in a progressive luxury tax system that is going to spank them harder than the last one. Now let's look at large market team Y. This team generates revenues in excess of 300 million dollars a year, but their operating budget is around 150 million dollars because they don't mind going over the cap. See the problem? Team X can't compete because they aren't able to live above the tax without getting hammered into the red. Team Y spends a helluva lot of money but still manages to produce a profit almost no matter what they do. The only thing that was going to create a truly competitive league was a hard cap and un-guaranteed contracts, but that dream died on the vine months ago.
These guys are still working for the same corporation. Bad analogy. Plus the stars consolidating onto a handful of teams is a new phenomenon that we haven't seen on this scale before. Miami started a really dangerous precedent where there's little hope for broader parity in the league.
