This shit is just ridiculous, but I honestly saw all of this coming years ago. The draft class of Lebron James, Carmelo Anthony, Dwyane Wade, etc. saw almost nothing but small-market teams get high-level talent after having suffered for eons. Brandon Roy went to the Blazers, Kevin Durant to the Sonics, Dwight Howard to the Magic, Chris Paul to the Hornets... Every small-market team being absolutely horrible was a recipe for disaster. Once Lebron got his way and was allowed to be an unrestricted free agent, a giant can of worms opened up as all the other stars learned that they could just wait out for their contracts to expire and sign with whatever team they wanted to, rather than being loyal to the team that drafted them, while also being able to pocket a hefty check.
Last year, the end seemed to be beginning with the Carmelo Anthony fiasco. Anthony made his intentions clear (unlike Lebron) that he was not planning to stay in Denver and jump to New York once his contract expired. Because of this, it gave the Nuggets the brilliant idea of attempting to trade Anthony to the Knicks in exchange for at least some residual players; something the Cleveland Cavaliers could not once Lebron left. The Nuggets rejected a few trades early in the season, eventually having to cave at the last second and accept a very bad trade to simply get a few players out of Carmelo Anthony's eventual departure.
Before this season was even locked out, many predicted that Chris Paul and Dwight Howard would be traded before the season began to both prevent a Lebron situation and to secure a good trade as early as possible. Just one day after the new CBA was made official, the Lakers' GM Mitch Kupchak seemingly was going to work his magic again, working around various loopholes and dealing with incompetent GMs to try and secure trades to get both Chris Paul and Dwight Howard. While most predicted that getting both would be impossible because there is only 1 Andrew Bynum, the Lakers-Rockets-Hornets trade showed that it was very possible for the Lakers to get both players, even at the cost of losing their entire team chemistry just to get younger.
I honestly can't believe any of this shit is happening. There is a real danger to having the stupid amount of small-market teams the NBA has, and it's become quite clear that the owners fought a 4-month long lockout over nothing. It's really mind-boggling to me why the NBA does not have the Franchise Tag like the NFL, but I supposed even that wouldn't be enough to stop Lebron James from getting the hell off the Cavaliers or Shaq going to the Lakers all those years ago.
It's not like any of this is new. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar won a championship with the Milwaukee Bucks (as Lew Alcindor), but jumped ship to the Lakers because of his conversion to Islam, citing that Wisconsin did not have any mosques at the time. Derek Fisher did the exact same thing, although it was much lower profile, desiring a trade from the Jazz to the Lakers, Clippers, Knicks, or Nets to be closer to his daughter's doctors in either L.A. or New York.
At this point though, if the NBA allows Chris Paul to be traded to New York, Boston, Dallas, or Chicago, but not to the Lakers, or even Clippers, then it will become obviously clear that David Stern caves to pressure from small-market owners who have an incredible bias against the Lakers. Major League Baseball has done nothing to stop the Yankees from signing stupidly expensive contracts and attracting various big name free agents over the years, so why should the NBA do it? Because they happen to "temporarily" own the team? You have to be shitting me.
I will always be a Lakers fan, but consider me no longer a fan of the NBA as long as David Stern is the commissioner and poorly performing small-market teams are allowed to dictate where the best players go.
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