NBA: Business as Usual
No matter how you cut the cake, the biggest pieces always end up in the same stomachs while others are left, not hungry, but starving. And therein lies the grudge.
In the wake of another admittedly absurd and seemingly contrived Los Angeles off-season, the trades involving Steve Nash and Dwight Howard to the Lakers have frustrated NBA devotees uniting under a rally cry that actually has a pretty good record. Remember when the ‘03-‘04 Lakers had two future Hall of Fame players in Kobe and Shaq, signed two more in Gary Payton and Karl Malone, and then lost in The Finals (4-1) to the Detroit Pistons via complete domination? The Celtics’ Big Three only pulled out one championship in their five years together and the Heat’s Big Three lost to the Dallas Mavericks in their first attempt. The Yankees? They’ve won one World Series in the past decade.
So let’s, all together, agree that the concerns over an NBA (or other sport) Championship are deservedly best left to the players while our problems are about who we get to have on our side during every moment in between. ‘Cause when it comes to the leagues biggest and brightest stars, there’s a damn good point in the fact that most markets can’t compete with the Hollywood glamour, the multi-conglomerate media endorsements, and the mecca statuses of other major cities. Unfortunately for most fans, it remains business as usual. Here in Toronto we have our own history of painful off-seasons; and while you hear a lot of praise for the way the Oklahoma City Thunder built their team, very little of it comes from Seattle. It’s time to face the inconvenient truth that the NBA is just another example of how the world around us is run. The most profitable moves are, more often than not, unfair and full of collusion. But the NBA wants you to know that it’s nothing personal - just call it ‘basketball reasons’.
