Absolute Power of Stern

[spurscenter]

http://bleacherfan.com/breaking-news...vercame-ethics


I have observed some things that have happened in the NBA the past three or four years that have caused me to have some great su ion about the league and how it operates. I have had doubts about how convenient and storybook everything is in the NBA, these doubt over the past few years have caused me to believe that the NBA is fixed, yes I said it, the NBA is fixed.
The philosophy is simple, for the NBA to be successful they need to have good stories, including revival of older players, unheard of players dominating the league among other things. The most important thing for the NBA’s success is that all of the Major cities must have successful teams pretty frequently or at least a few at a time. These cities include New York, Los Angeles, Boston, Chicago and Miami.

First we can start with the great stories the past few years. Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans hard in 2005 as we all know. It was a city under distress and was pretty much down and out. The year before Katrina the New Orleans Hornets didn’t even make the playoffs, they were terrible in fact. The following year after moving back into the rejuvenated city from their temporary home in Oklahoma City the Hornets burst onto the scene and dominated the Western Conference and by the end of the year had earned the #2 seed in the Conference. This was extremely surprising to me because they had almost the exact same roster. Chris Paul had already established himself as an elite point guard so there was no extreme improvement from him, but guess what it made an amazing story. The city that needed the most help was all of a sudden an NBA powerhouse less than a year after one of the nations largest natural disasters took place on their home turf.

Also the drafting and complete and utter success of LeBron James. LeBron came to Cleveland as the hometown kid, the savior if you will. Maybe LeBron is just that good, but he has surpassed all expectations and has taken the Cleveland Cavaliers from the worst to first with the NBA’s best record in 2008-09 with virtually no team. Ever since he came into the league Cleveland has been looking for a respectable supporting cast, which they are yet to find. 2009’s team isn’t even the best they have had in terms of talent. The players that LeBron has around him this year are horrendous he has no support whatsoever and yet he continues to dominate the league surprisingly. Very su ious, or maybe everyone is right, he is better than Jordan.

As for the topic of the cities this one is easy to explain and justify. The NBA survives on the fact that their five main cities are successful quite frequently. Think about the 5 big cities I mentioned before, every single one of them has a storied history. The Miami Heat are the youngest team and they have been successful pretty much ever since their conception, including a championship in 2006.

The New York Knicks have had the biggest championship drought but were in the NBA finals in 1999. The Knicks are also in the midst of being the biggest winners in the most prolific free agent class in recent memory. Believe me the New York Knicks will be at least in the Eastern Conference finals by 2012, no way they go more than 10 years without success.

Now as for roster moves, last season the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers made a couple of trades that were absolutely incredible. The Celtics made two trades that would essentially win them their 17th championship. Basically they traded Al Jefferson, Delonte West and Wally Sczerbiak along with some draft considerations for the most athletic and versatile power forward, along with most likely the top shooter in the league at the time in Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen. These moves gave Boston an unstoppable force that soon became known as the “Boston Three Party.” As the evidence shows, Boston gave up nothing to get everything after they were a terrible team for the previous 5 or 6 seasons. As for the Lakers, they acquired one of the top 10 big men in the league for I believe 2 bench players and a second round draft pick, which is like robbery if you are getting a superstar in return. Again this shows how a big city gave up nothing for a superstar, Gasol ended up being the missing piece the team needed and ended up propelling the team into the NBA finals, where they of course lost to the Boston Celtics.

Now moving on to the Chicago Bulls, last year they had the 9th best shot at the number one pick, less than a 2% chance and what happened they got it. The Chicago Bulls one of the 5 big cities hit on a 2% chance to get the first pick so they could draft the hometown kid who by the way was one of the most highly touted point guard prospects ever.

So as you can see all the evidence has been laid out, you are the jury. I wrote this article because all of these occurrences have greatly bothered me and raised great su ion. You make the choice on what you think but to me the evidence is strong for my cause, I’m saying you should believe me, I might be completely crazy but all I want you to do is think about what has been said and think of all the benefits it gives the NBA. Most importantly you must remember the NBA is a business, which like most things in this world revolves around money, something the NBA seems to be in control of.

[KSeal]

If this article has any truth how did the Spurs (small market) win the lottery with less of a chance over the BOSTON CELTICS (huge market) to land the best PF ever?!?! And how come the Knicks have sucked forever, same with the Bulls and Heat really. Al Jefferson a 20 and 10 guy and one of the best young bigs in the league was "nothing" when traded for KG. This article is quite silly, the topic isn't on some levels, but every point he tries to make is quite stupid.

[21_Blessings]

You can still describe Al Jefferson's defense as 'nothing' though.

[Capt Bringdown]

I don't think the league is fixed, but for the sake of argument, there were some remarkably improbable changes after the Spurs swept the Cavs in one of the lowest (or was it in fact the lowest?) rated NBA finals of all time.

And weren't all the Spurs Championships ratings disasters?

And don't all the NBA teams share from the ratings pie?

So, the restored marketing narratives of Lakers vs Celtics and Kobe reaching to take the "all time great" baton from Jordan results in higher ratings and therefore a bigger share for everybody.

Like I said, I don't think there's a direct conspiracy, but I would go so far as to accept that the powers that be were influenced by some kind of collective unconscious. Face it Spurs fans, very few people outside of Bexar County, Argentina and France wanted to see anymore les runs from us.

[Ghazi]

'06 Finals were rigged, that's all I know.

[LnGrrrR]

Al Jefferson is not 'nothing' as pointed out above.