Welcome to the beginning of the NBA season, a season that has yet to begin but has all the lingering nerves of a pregnancy scare. It all began when the management of two small market teams tried to take control of their future and begin trade talks to try and receive something in return. Instead, David Stern aborted the first big trade of the abbreviated free agent signing period. Chris Paul would not go to Los Angeles to play with the Lakers, Pau Gasol would not give the Houston Rockets the serviceable center they covet, and Lamar Odom would not get to celebrate Mardi Gras in New Orleans as a Hornet.
Suddenly, everyone in the league began to seriously question whether Chris Paul would be allowed to leave New Orleans for a team in a major market or if Dwight Howard could truly demand a trade to the New Jersey Nets. Stern has far less power to influence the Howard situation, but a few days after demanding the trade Superman drastically softened his tone. Stern appears hell bent on interfering with the Chris Paul situation. Of course, to pin this all on Stern is too simple. Paul wants a bigger market, but the smaller market teams are pushing their weight around (just like they did in the CBA negotiations) and refuse to let the best point guard in the NBA act like a superstar.
Tada! There you have it. This is the power struggle that has remained to taint the 2012 season: the small market versus the superstars. I am not sure whether Lakers tickets are better off with Paul and Kobe in the backcourt or the trio of Kobe-Gasol-Odom, but the small market is far better off if superstars whose careers have been fostered cannot leave quite so easily. This is not to say the NBA is going to restrict free agency but these players may not be able to be quite so vocal, thus the Howard situation.
Really, this is going to be one of the most interesting underlying storylines of the season. Will, post-NBA lockout, this remain a superstars’ league? The strength, the economic strength, of the league has always been its stars. Wilt Chamberlain, Bill Russell, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Michael Jordan, Shaq, Kobe Bryant…and the list continues to this day. There is a reason the league still has the NBA All Star game despite cutting a decent chunk of the schedule.
If the small market teams wish to put competitive teams on the floor must they hinder the superstar’s ability to move? The San Antonio Spurs built a team around a superstar and San Antonio is only the 25th largest market in the United States. However, they have been the only small market to win it all since the Seattle Supersonics way back in 1979. Oh, by the way, the Sonics closed out one of the worst decades in the history of the NBA. Even the talent drought that created the Leastern Conference in the first decade of the 21st century was not as bad as those woeful years, when competition from a rival league and cocaine put the league on life support.
This begs the question: Is it in the league’s best interest to prop up the small market teams? It certainly is not best for the league to encourage such disparity that there is no purpose including those basketball franchises in the league. Like just about everything else in life, moderation is best.