Scary Article by Bill Simmons
Sobering look at the financial future of the NBA. While it's been reported that the Celtics were one of the teams that took the loan money, I also think Ainge understands better than some/most GMs the changing nature of NBA finances and will put the C's in a position to take advantage of the changed landscape.
Don't know how the lockout will fix things, but that it may/will happen sounds (sadly) inevitable.
Suprising, or should I say disappointing, to see Philly listed in the teams that might relocate. I agree with Simmons' point (made elsewhere) that once you win a title you can't relocate.
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Officiating
He’s right about the officiating and it’s only getting worse. I think this is the worst year yet. The biggest winner from bad calls this year- The Lakers. They are just knocking people over and the people who get knocked over usually get the call against them.( see Chris Paul, See KG) If they don’t clean up the officiating soon they will lose, big time.
Couldn't agree more about the oficiating.
I’m not a conspiracy theorist, but there honestly have been times that I’ve thought the officials were trying to tank the Cs this season and last. Then I watch other teams on League Pass and realize it’s just bad calls all around, to the point where the refs are actually changing the outcomes of games. It’s disgusting. There needs to be accountability.
Hawks/Cav's the other night
Came down to the last possession for each team with the game tied.
Johnson drove the lane and was clobbered by three players with no call.
Lebron drove the lane, was never touched and they called a foul.
Lebron made one of two free throws. Game over.
It is pathetic and I see it almost every game I watch.
The calls always seem to favor the stars.
It’s ridiculous. In addition to stars always getting the calls, here are a few other trends: Late, late, late whistles that blow only AFTER a ref sees that the offensive player didn’t score …. no palming/traveling violations for certain players because “it’s the way they handle” (Kobe, Chris Paul, LaBron, D Wade — stars whose stats and effectiveness would be seriously impaired if they were actually required to dribble correctly — this all started in the days of MJ, who palmed every time he touched the ball) …. total randomness concerning the “protected areas” (I’d say refs miss the placement of players’ feet and, therefore, make the wrong call about 40% of the time).
There are plenty more, but those stand out to me as the ones that constantly have me screaming at the TV.
I also think a strike/lockout could be a good thing.
The salaries have been so out of whack for so long. The days of having $20 million or more invested in a single player may be over soon, and it may lead to a scenario where there’s a little more equity between player’s salaries, which could have the following positive effects: 1) fewer teams getting dragged down for years by franchise players with major injuries; 2) it would be easier to make straight up, talent-for-talent trades; 3) fewer buyouts of under-performing, overpaid brats.
Finally, I really hope the league loses 5 to 7 franchises in the financial shakeout. In the 80s, there were 23 teams, and the league had a lot more talent equity. About 50% of the weekly matchups now are complete crap. Barkley points it out all the time, whether TNT wants him to or not. Seriously, other than Kirk Heinrich’s and Andre Iguodala’s mothers, who’s interested in watching Chicago vs. Philly. Or Charlotte vs. Toronto. Or Washington/Memphis vs. anyone. How much more exciting would it be if the top 3/4 of talent in the league were condensed onto 23 teams? Infinitely more. Like it was in the 80s.
Maybe
But a year without basketball? That would be terrible, especially if we were sitting on a contending team at the time.
by SalmonAndMashedPotatoes on Mar 3, 2009 1:53 AM EST up reply actions
Maybe, but what I don't understand is.....
Simmons mentions that one of the 7 demands from ownership would be to actually increase the max salary -- that seems to contradict the need of controlling salaries.
I wouldn’t mind seeing contraction - each year, b/c i’m a nerd, i do a little de-expansion draft to see how the talent would increase by contracting.
maybe the way to do it is like the English soccer leagues, where the worst team in each confereence goes down to the minors and the best team in the minors gets promoted.
by Gainesville Celtic on Mar 3, 2009 9:49 AM EST up reply actions
NBA is in trouble
I hope they get this right this time.
And forget about the Lebron’s and Kobe’s bolting to Europe.
1) the union needs them
2) the economic crash is effect Europe as well.
of course, the nba is in trouble. who isn’t?? let’s hope sterno can do something right and negotiate with the players without a lockout. that’s as sure as happening as hell freezing over. and the refs—phew= that’s the stench. they have to get some kind of quick tv replay going- maybe 2 refs on the floor, rotating with 1 guy on a tv set.
Why Replay?
They will just use it as one more tool to help the superstars.
We think it is bad officiating.
The NBA is happy with it or they would have made real changes already.
Good article
It was a good article — I’m in agreement with most of it. The officiating is absolutely horrific but where he lost me is with this:
“Our best three referees right now are Steve Javie, Mark Wunderlich and Joey Crawford”
What planet is he from where Javie and Crawford are considered competent nevermind the best? Crawford lives for giving techs and makes a lot of bad calls. Javie makes a lot of questionable calls too. Wunderlich doesn’t stand out for me but since you don’t notice a good ref, that would be a plus.
I think I would have picked all those guys in my top 5.
I hated Crawford because he stood out in my mind as a guy who was imprinting himself on the game. and the Duncan incident. But after the last two years I feel sure he is as fair and good as any of them, especially if you are the away team and looking to not get screwed.
officials
I’m over here in Wisconsin, and I can tell you that when Ray Allen was with the Bucks he got himself in a little hot water when he suggested that the officiating in the Eastern Conference Finals favored the Sixers, because a Sixers-Lakers final was more marketable than a Bucks-Lakers finals. The Bucks were the only team that year to win both games against the Lakers. At the end of the series a telling stat came foward. Mutombo had a total of 7 fouls for the entire 7 game series. Now, I know the Bucks were a jump shooting team primarily, but there were some pretty questionable calls as the series went on, and it actually appeared the Bucks might go to the finals. I’m sure the NBA league had some reservations about Milwaukee winning the title, considering their "Big 3" was Allen, Cassell, and Robinson. Just my .02.
Some of my thoughts
1) I’ve done some research on this, but it doesn’t seem like anyone has compiled the information anywhere. How helpful would it be to have a blog/site that has a section specifically for NBA Officiating. Who’s who, who’s considered good, who’s easily affected by big crowds, who’s made controversial calls, who do coaches like, who do coaches hate, etc. Does anyone know of a site that does it already? Bob Ryan made that great point about the Cs-Lakers game and how we had a terrible crew running that game – Fans should have access to this information.
2) Contracting would be hard to stomach, but I agree that it would improve the product. For the most part, I can find a reason to watch any game (Bulls you have Rose, Thunder you have Durant, etc.) but it’s a bad sign when there are two potential playoff teams (PHI and MIL) who I would never watch going head to head – and they’re in the top half of the East!
Contraction
I wouldn’t mind a 24-team league: two 12 team divisions. You would have to rejigger the playoffs but that’s no big deal. As Simmons and others have noted, there are too many bad teams right now, and the league could also cut down on the number of officials and weed out the bad ones.
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