David Stern Floundering

What a mess the NBA has become. It’s December and this is the time of year when fans should start getting exciting about the NBA season. A prolonged lockout, which garnered little public sympathy for either side, coupled with Commissioner David Stern’s head scratching decisions, has caused anticipation to be replaced by apathy. The NBA is quickly losing credibility as a legitimate, fair professional sports organization. Decisions coming from the Commissioner’s Office and the owners have ranged from laughable, to simply head-scratching, to criminal.

First, let’s discuss the saga of Chris Paul. CP3 is one of the premier point guards in the league. The Los Angeles Lakers, who have perpetual struggles at that position, made a deal to acquire CP3 in a trade. They would have, in turn lost two centerpieces of their recent championship run in reigning 6th-Man of the year Lamar Odom, and all-star Pau Gasol. New Orleans would have received Odom, Kevin Martin (a 20+ ppg scorer), Luis Scola (dependable big man), plus draft picks from Houston. Houston would received Pau Gasol. This was a fair trade.

Conventional wisdom says that the team who receives the best player in the trade wins, however, I don’t even know that Chris Paul is the best player on the team. Paul is 6-feet tall and weighs only 175 lbs. No person that size can legitimately carry an NBA team to a championship. Look all the great point guards who are ringless, Allen Iverson, Steve Nash, and more recently Derrick Rose. Rose is great, but he couldn’t carry his team in the postseason. Last year’s playoffs ended with Lebron James and Dwayne Wade swatting aside his jumpshots with relative ease.

The NBA is a big man’s game. Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, Shaquille O’Neal. Magic Johnson had Kareem (and James Worthy), Larry Bird had Kevin McHale and Robert Parish, Isiah Thomas had Joe Dumars, Bill Lambier, and Dennis Rodman. Michael Jordan is the one exception to this argument. He won multiple championships without a dominating big man (although he can thank Dennis Rodman for quite a few extra possessions). The Lakers were giving away two of their bigs for one point guard. On paper, they were not a better team coming out of this trade than they were going in. CP3 is not a centerpiece, Gasol (arguably) could be. The main focus of the Lakers was to clear cap space in an attempt to acquire Dwight Howard (of which their other big Andrew Bynum would have been traded) but that was not a guaranteed deal. We’ve learned since then that Howard may not be moved at all.

The blunders began when Cavs owner Dan Gilbert was upset that by clearing cap space, the Lakers would not be penalized so much on luxury tax and acquire Paul. This luxury tax would have gone to line the pockets of owners like Gilbert (some billionaires need bail-outs, too). Gilbert wrote a letter to the other owners to put that trade up for a vote.

Mark Cuban, owner of the champion Dallas Mavericks, was upset that the Lakers were clearing cap space so they could acquire Howard, even though his team just won the championship. That’s textbook collusion which last time I checked and I think is punishable by incarceration. So Commissioner Stern plays along and nixes the deal, citing basketball reasons saying that the New Orleans Hornets were not better after the trade. Any half-hearted fantasy basketball player would know this not to be true. What’s the other risk? Having Chris Paul be a free agent at the end of the year and the Hornets getting nothing in return.

The Hornets (and by that I mean Stern) turn their eyes toward the worst organization in the NBA (and maybe even all of professional sports), the Los Angeles Clippers. For once, the Clippers have a promising upside with a solid group of young, talented players. The proposed trade is CP3 for Chris Kaman (solid center with expiring contract), Al-Farouq Aminu (last year’s #8 pick), Eric Bledsoe, and Minnesota’s 2012 1st round pick. Apparently that wasn’t good enough as the Hornets, I mean Stern, also wanted Eric Gordon (one of the Clippers bright young stars) and ANOTHER draft pick.

Sure you will have Blake Griffin and CP3 for at least 2 years (Paul agreed to exercise his option should he be traded to the Clippers) but nothing left. So what Stern was proposing was 5-6 players (the conditions are still changing) for 1 player that’s not even a centerpiece. Five to six players for 2001 Shaq is OK. Five to six players for 1995 MJ — great. But five to six players for CP3? What does that say when Donald Sterling won’t even sign off on a David Stern deal? Let me repeat — even Donald Sterling said no.

Stern isn’t immune from acting like a mob boss, expecting everyone to kiss his ring. There was his deal-making with Chinese teams to prevent NBA players from signing over there, the Paul fiasco, his putrid leadership over the lockout, and rapid over-expansion of the league (Vancover Grizzles anyone?). He is drastically over-exerting his influence with no real goal in mind. Although it was under his direction that the game has grown globally, domestically is where the NBA will always be strongest.

When the NFL lockout was going on, I knew I was going to miss football if that wasn’t resolved. I don’t know that I feel the same way about the NBA, and Stern has done nothing to restore faith in him or the league the runs. With the NFL lockout, yes, it was about money, but also other things like health benefits for retired players, and improving working conditions so there was some perceived legitimacy.

With the NBA, it appears to have been purely about money and nothing else. Comments made by Cuban and Gilbert about preventing player movement from small markets to big expound this fact. It’s hard to feel sorry for billionarie owners who complain about not having their teams subsidized by bigger market teams. It’s also hard to sympathize with millionaire players who want to play for $20 million in New York instead of $13 million in New Orleans. It was easier to sympathize with NFL players who could have their careers end at anytime and wanted to make sure they had health benefits after their career was over. Or veterans who, as a result of all their hits, had deteriorating brains. It was also easier to sympathize with NFL owners who had pay their unproven 1st round draft picks $54 million while proven veterans playing the same position made

David Stern should accept responsibility for his mistakes, right the ship otherwise the NBA might go the way of the NHL and lose relevancy all together.

Does anyone know that the biggest star in hockey, Sidney Crosby, was out for 10 months with concussion symptoms and after a few games back is now back out indefinitely? Does anyone care? I’m starting to feel the same way about the NBA.