The Rapture came and went this past Saturday, and the world is still here. For fans in about 23 NBA cities, however, the end of the world will be recognized sooner rather than later, thanks in large part to the new Eastern Conference Champions, the Miami Heat. I've lost a lot of faith in the NBA, but for those that haven't, unless you live in Miami, you all better become Dallas Mavericks fans during the NBA Finals.
What the Miami Heat may accomplish, should they win the 2011 NBA Finals, could potentially ruin the overall appeal of the NBA. Even getting as far as they have could change to overall landscape of the league for years, and not for the better. When LeBron James and Chris Bosh joined Dwyane Wade in Miami, they started a new free agency trend in the league that could be very damning for teams not in the NBA's "elite" circle. Los Angeles, Boston, New York, Chicago, Dallas, and New Jersey...six of the league's seven premier cities (Miami being the seventh), will become the centerpieces of the NBA's free agency market over the next year or two, leaving the other 23 franchises left to wonder if they will even be able to compete in the coming years. The sad fact is, they will not.
Should the Heat win the title in the coming two weeks, you can almost be assured that superstars playing on their current teams will begin conversing with others throughout the league, persuading and pleading with each other to form similar "super teams" to the one that Miami put together this season. Sure, the NBA as a "company" makes most of its money from those seven cities, however, popularity of the sport may suffer if fans in other cities begin to feel detached from their teams. Personally, this is something true for myself, who has lost total interest in my local team here in Minnesota, because of what appears to be an unwillingness to even want to compete with the elite.
Winning a championship in any sport brings a great deal of revenue to that city and organization. The team becomes marketable to the league, resulting in more nationally televised games, higher jersey sales, and increased revenue at the opposing arenas when the champions come to town. These are all things any team and its ownership group would love to see. But unfortunately, with the precedent now set forth by the Miami Heat, there may only be a handful of "A" level talent available for those other 23 teams to pick from, leaving many of them to flounder.
Looking at the Timberwolves as an example, ownership has gone in a direction they feel is "exciting," by bringing younger, more "athletic" talent into the mix. It also happens to be an inexpensive way of forming the team. With plenty of money to spend on an "A" level player, the team is choosing not to, more than likely because there would be no point. With just one player of that caliber, the team would most certainly not win a championship. It happened here already with Kevin Garnett, who was the face of the franchise for over 10 years. Garnett had a decent cast around him, but nothing to the level of the cast LeBron has around him in Miami. It wasn't until Garnett joined Paul Pierce and Ray Allen in Boston (via a trade from Minnesota, not a free agent signing) that he won his first NBA Championship. The Timberwolves, however, have never recovered from that loss, and haven't seemed to even really try to.
The dilemma going forward for the NBA is a difficult one. On one hand, you have a league looking out for its bottom line, and on the other hand, you have the 30 owners looking out for theirs. The dilemma is that each has different agendas that don't coincide together. David Stern and the NBA as a league are perfectly fine with the revenue that will be generated by the soon-to-be seven mega teams, whereas you will see owners of the other 23 franchises be "okay with" not signing high-priced free agents because they know without two or three of them together, their team won't be able to compete for that title. At that point, those owners will be more inclined, from a business standpoint, to just hold on to the money they would've spent on a free agent, and eventually pad their bottom line that way. Great for the owners, but not great for the fans in those cities.
The best thing that could've happened for the NBA would've been to have a team like Oklahoma City find their way into the finals against a team like the Chicago Bulls. OKC, with two up-and-coming young stars, not high-priced free agents, playing for the biggest prize in the sport. Instead, the worst nightmare of fans throughout the league, other than those in Miami, is about to come to fruition.
Go Mavericks!
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