There are a lot of variables going on. But it's true, the NBA (arguably) is historically the American league with the least parity. It still manages to do very well though; because it thrives on individual marketability of players.
Tampa Bay won in 2003 with Brad Johnson. Seven different teams have won the last 11 superbowl. Five or Six non playoff teams from the year before make the playoff every year, and the NFL only has 12 out of 32 teams in the playoffs, not 16 out of 30 like the NBA,
Actually, casual fans want super teams. That's why they get higher ratings. Fans of a particular team shouldn't and don't want them. As a Rockets fan, a Bulls like dynasty for another team is nothing but bad for me.
The seven largest media markets are NY, LA, Chicago, Philly, Dallas, San Francisco, and Boston. Since 1957, there have been only six years where both teams in the NBA finals came from other markets. By contrast, the same thing has occurred 13 times in the World Series (despite the dominance of the Yankees), and 18 times in the NFL (championships and Super Bowls).
Wow this author makes a ton of assumptions that aren't applicable IRL. First of all removing the max contract won't result in parity, it'll lead in more inequality for the NBA teams. Why is that? Because the author makes assumptions that players are robots and only make money via contracts, NBA GMs are amazing decision makers and correctly assign the right value to the players, and that the NBA is the only league in the world. What would happen if the max is removed? Let's see: *Teams will have guys like Rashard Lewis making 80% of their contracts. -A lot of the NBA teams routinely make wrong decisions with their money, and the max salary prevents them from paying too much for a horrible player, like when Orlando offered the max to Rashard Lewis or when the Cavs gave Larry Hughes that max contract. If the max was removed those teams would be even more horrible, while teams with slick GMs (like Miami or the Lakers or the Spurs or us) will have awesome teams since we would correctly gauge a player's value. That would be really great for the Rox since we have a great FO, but woudl that result in more Parity? Hell no!!! *Talent will leave the NBA -The NBA is known as the best league in the world, and its no coincidence that it is the best because it pays the best. Other leagues will have their top guys making 8M a year, but in the NBA that's just above average money. If you remove the cap and Lebron and KD start making 50M a year, that means that there's no money for guys like Tyson Chandler or Scola or the rest of the non-max guys in the league. If the max salary is removed, the median NBA salary will go down from 5M to around 2.5M a year. Will DMo leave his country to play for 2.5M a year? This will result in a lot of talent leaving the NBA, not just foreigners but even Americans who could make bank dominating other leagues. Less talent= less enjoyment from fans. Unless you want to watch Lebron and 4 scrubs on a nightly basis. I sure as hell don't, esp. when Lebron goes down with injury. * Endorsements will mean more -Look, NBA players aren't limited to their salary. They can make their money off of shoe deals and other endorsements. However, for majority of NBA players (ie non-Max guys), their contracts are still their biggest income stream, and for guys like MKG, maybe playing for Charlotte won't be so bad even if it has very little endorsement opportunities. But what happens when the median salary shrinks and more people start seeing a larger part of their income stream come from endorsements? That's right, big markets suddenly become more attractive. Supposing you had a small market team like the Bucks offering 2M for Courtney Lee, but then the Lakers come in and offer 1.5M. Would Lee take the 2m total salary? Or would he go to LA, knowing he'd make at least 500k in endorsements? Or what if Miami offers 1M, and Lee thinks 1M more isn't a lot of incentive to play in a small market team when he could have the chance to play in South beach and be one of LBJ's boyz? Of course, the argument people will say here is "Oh, but the Bucks would have more money to spend, since LA spent their dough on Kobe and Gasol". But in this case you're assuming the Bucks wouldn't spend 50M on a lesser player. What if they spent that same 50M that Miami spent on LBJ on Andrew Bogut? What's that? The Bucks wouldn't do that? Well isn't that what the Pacers did with Hibbert? If there was no max salary how would you know they wouldn't pay 50M for his services?
I have no idea how Baseball works, but the superbowl doesn't have parity, it just has a high degree of LUCK. If you play every team just one time, how would you know you're the real champ? Last year the Giants won over the Pats, but if they played a best of 3 I think the Pats would have won. In the NBA though that **** doesn't fly because you need to beat a team in a best of 7. So unlike NBA, IMHO Football relies on a ton of luck, and rather than the most skilled actually the luckiest team always wins.
This is a hollow statement that doesn't prove anything. Sucks for them. I don't care though. Don't be stupid and overspend on guys who aren't worth it. Possibly, but the main draws will still be here, and people will watch a more compelling version of basketball with increased parity. So what? Good for them. Big markets are always going to have their appeal. But Joe Blow bench warmer isn't going to make a killing on endorsements, no matter where he goes.
People in the middle would take a major loss in income. In a sport where only 5 guys play, the difference in value between Lebron and Dragic is a bit more than 2:1. More like 10:1. Not sure of talen loss. How much did Deron make in his euro league? If we were still paying guys like Dragic and Lin 2-3 million, they wouldn't go anywhere.
Another alternative would be to only allow teams to have 1 max contract on their roster at any given time. If you already have one, you can't sign another, even if it's a free agent who was on your team last season. And, when you say "max contract", it means anything above a certain pay grade. Like if you're paying a guy over $12M that counts as the max for example. Let's see guys form super teams when they have to make $8M less than their buddy to do it.
Sucks for them? You don't care? LOL so what the hell happened to parity? Isn't that the main argument for taking out the NBA max contract? So why don't you just come out and say you just want the Rockets to come out ahead? I'm as big a homer as anybody else but don't base advocating for league wide policies just because your team will benefit from it. What OremLK is proposing is actually a good measure for ensuring parity, but the problem with that is that would be against the law (I think). I mean, you're essentially destroying the free market and significantly limiting what people can make, right? As far as the talent drain goes, the question is would guys like Dragic think its worth journeying to the NBA to make like 1-2M a year? I mean, if he could make the same amount and be the top dog in Poland or wherever he's from then he'd probably stay there. Deron couldn't make 20M playing in Euroleague but I think he make at least half that amount from the top teams in Europe.
Btw another issue with this whole no max thing is your superstar and his agent are gonna have greater power over orgs. You think the Dwightmare is bad? Wait till your superstar makes 80% of your cap
So the rockets could have drexler and dream nor dream and pippen because of what? That's just dumb and ignorant. Houston fans have turned a small town,small minded acceptance of failure. If houston had a supersta and other superstars wanted to come play here,this topic would neverbe discussed. Since houston is very average,no superstar wants to come here. Plus the gm has no charisma or personality which is important when recruiting free agents. Remember when orlando almost got duncan,hill,and mcgrady? Yep,doc rivers had that charisma and so did pat williams. They also had money,but that's what I'm saying. No one wants parity. I know I don't. I wish the league had 24 teams. We would get a bettr brand of basketball every night if the league was smaller.
