Red Mosquito

Rondo isnt a valuable free agent. He isn't even a human being.

Close your eyes and imagine that it's the Summer of 1990...

Your favorite team, the Chicago Bulls just got beat by the defending champion Pistons in a Game 7 in Detroit. Isiah is smiling, Rodman is teasing, and John Salley is dancing. Your team’s 2nd best player couldn’t finish the game because of a migraine and your head coach just got fired. Then today, on the 4th of July 1990, your favorite player, the best player in the league, who just finished getting his ass whooped by this thing called the "Jordan Rules" just decided to state that he’s playing for the Pistons next season. Can you imagine this? Good because I can’t either and that’s what’s wrong with the league today.

Don’t let guys like Isiah tell you that they would have loved to play with Bird in his heyday and don’t let Lebron lovers talk to you about "player’s rights" like we’re talking about the right to vote in the 1960s. This is about the spirit of competition and I truly believe that this is being dismantled in today’s NBA. What Durant did today, along with what Lebron did in 2010 is deplorable. Is it their right? Yes. But there’s something that feels so wrong about it.

"I can't beat you guys so I'll just sign with you instead"

Team verb

I'm still wondering why Durant didn't give any AA baseball teams a interview.

bada wrote:I'm still wondering why Durant didn't give any AA baseball teams a interview.

OMG LOL

I don't know whether it would prevent this or not, but they have to get rid of max salaries. KD is getting $27m and Harrison Barnes is getting $24m. I know people hate hearing it but the superstars are insanely underpaid relative to other players. If owners could offer LeBron or KD or Steph or Russ or whoever $50 or 60m it'd be a lot less likely that we'd end up with something like this.

4/5 wrote:I don't know whether it would prevent this or not, but they have to get rid of max salaries. KD is getting $27m and Harrison Barnes is getting $24m. I know people hate hearing it but the superstars are insanely underpaid relative to other players. If owners could offer LeBron or KD or Steph or Russ or whoever $50 or 60m it'd be a lot less likely that we'd end up with something like this.

market value says the real superstars are easily worth that based on the revenue they bring to the team.

4/5 wrote:I don't know whether it would prevent this or not, but they have to get rid of max salaries. KD is getting $27m and Harrison Barnes is getting $24m. I know people hate hearing it but the superstars are insanely underpaid relative to other players. If owners could offer LeBron or KD or Steph or Russ or whoever $50 or 60m it'd be a lot less likely that we'd end up with something like this.

That's exactly what needs to happen. It would force the superstars to spread out. Role players would get paid like role players again. Although I wouldn't rule out someone taking a drastic paycut to buddy up given how obviously spineless many of these guys are.

The bottom line is all this crap with players and their agents trying to guarantee a legacy with off the court maneuvering needs to stop. Settle your business on the court like men if you want to be viewed as great, don't weasel your way into an all star team and then say 'See, I'm an all time great!' when said all star team beats up on a bunch of diluted trash for competition.

4/5 wrote:I don't know whether it would prevent this or not, but they have to get rid of max salaries. KD is getting $27m and Harrison Barnes is getting $24m. I know people hate hearing it but the superstars are insanely underpaid relative to other players. If owners could offer LeBron or KD or Steph or Russ or whoever $50 or 60m it'd be a lot less likely that we'd end up with something like this.

I support this.

It would have to be some sort of hybrid system because you don't want to penalize a team that drafted two or three superstars. Maybe you can have one guy on your roster that can be signed for up to half of the cap. Everyone else can only be signed for the traditional max salary. I think that could be a good compromise.

Zaza hopping on the bandwagon on a cheap ass deal.

verb_to_trust wrote:Zaza hopping on the bandwagon on a cheap ass deal.

"almost an All-Star" Zaza Pachulia that is.

Seth Curry is signing with the Mavs. Gerald green and Jason Thompson needs jobs rights? Cuban should sign them so they can recreate Curry Thompson Green Barnes Bogut.

NBA definitely needs to do something about parity. NFL has the perfect balance--you can sign a guy to a huge contract in FA but it rarely works out 100% and you can't just build a team with a few guys.

So what's the draw, b-ball fans? I don't care for the sport for 2 main reasons: 1) every time a game is close, it's ground to a halt by time outs. 2) there's a whistle every time someone drives to the basket.

I don't watch b-ball, but I watch PTI religiously. Weren't the 80s mainly just Lakers and Celtics? In the 90s, you had the Pistons. Bulls, and Rockets (because Jordan was bored). The aughts was the Lakers and Spurs with mini Pistons and Celtic resurgences. Since then, it's basically been Lebron teams. The Mavs and the Warrriors are the two teams in my lifetime that have felt like surprising, feel-good wins. That's twice in 40 years. I just don't get why anyone watches this product when the outcomes are so predictable. Even this year, I get that GS was the favorite, but did anyone think a different team might come out of the East? Why even have a season? Or a playoffs, really? Just get GS and Cleveland to do a series and be done with it. Why do fans in Salt Lake or Memphis even bother? What a weird Association.

Yeah, the NBA has almost no upsets. Contrasted to the NFL where a few different 5/6 seeds have made SB runs in the last decade.

daft twat wrote: Why do fans in Salt Lake or Memphis even bother? What a weird Association.

Outside of 40 year white guys on pearl jam message boards there is a strong subculture of people who love basketball that live in most decent sized US cities.

But it's a good question. The way things are currently constructed I as a Bulls fan, in the third largest market, am expected to help support the franchise with tickets, Tv ratings and merchandise with my sole salvation being the bulls striking it rich in the lottery with the next difference making superstar. And that's in fucking Chicago! Markets like Milwaukee, Utah, Charlotte? No fucking chance until a superstar drops in their lap via the draft. And even then, by the time they hit their prime they're often gone.

Maybe when I'm bored at work tomorrow I'll come up with a list of the current destination cities in the NBA. It's probably a lot shorter than you guys think.

It's interesting looking at basketball vs. football and where the sports are big. Basketball seems to be huge in a lot of the great migration areas, whereas football is still huge in areas that had slavery. Makes you think about the labor relations and the ways the players are treated in the media.

verb_to_trust wrote:

daft twat wrote: Why do fans in Salt Lake or Memphis even bother? What a weird Association.

Outside of 40 year white guys on pearl jam message boards there is a strong subculture of people who love basketball that live in most decent sized US cities.

But it's a good question. The way things are currently constructed I as a Bulls fan, in the third largest market, am expected to help support the franchise with tickets, Tv ratings, merchant with my sole salvation being striking it rich in the lottery with the next difference making superstar. And that in fucking Chicago! Markets like Milwaukee, Utah, Charlotte? No fucking chance until a superstar drops in their lap.

Maybe when I'm bored at work tomorrow I'll come up with a list of the current destination cities in the NBA. It's probably a lot shorter than you guys think.

I live in the Twin Cities, Verb. This is the definition of fly-over country. People here are excited about Wiggins, Towns, and Lavine, but they also know that the best case scenario is a trip to the western conference finals before those guys sign big deals elsewhere. We have teams in all the major sports, and we've had legitimate chances to win in the other 3 sports since the Lakers left town, but the only basketball that has a shot here is our WNBA team. Like I said, I don't get the draw. Our other organizations make questionable decisions, but outside of the draft, the T-Wolves have no decisions to make.

Orpheus wrote:It's interesting looking at basketball vs. football and where the sports are big. Basketball seems to be huge in a lot of the great migration areas, whereas football is still huge in areas that had slavery. Makes you think about the labor relations and the ways the players are treated in the media.

We didn't have slaves in Minnesota, and we have a history of futility, especially at the hands of our border rivals (fucking Packers), but this is a football state. Hockey would be number one if our team wasn't taken to Dallas in the 90s.