NBA Championship Teams: What teams had an "unfair" advantage?

In the past I think a lot of the "unfairness" occurred because you had a small handful of teams with very good front offices making idiots of so many lesser teams. Part of how the Lakers were so good for so long is that dumbass GMs would constantly get fleeced by Jerry West. The Warriors are something new in that it was a case of an elite player wanting to play for them because he's not mentally strong enough to carry a team himself - it's like Jordan bailing on the Bulls in 1990 to sign with Detroit.

 

yeah i've never been clear on how red drafted bird a year early. it seems like bill simmons briefly mentioned it on a podcast recently by saying something like "red said there wasn't a rule against it, so he just did it." i don't know if that's true but i guess if you're competitors don't know the rules or simply weren't willing to take the risk, i guess credit goes to him.

didn't know that byron scott was a #4 pick as well. my goodness.

 

Most people outside of New York hate the Yankees and people hate the Warriors for the same reasons. So some of this is inevitable. But there is a difference b/w winning and winning with class. I liked the Warriors before they got Durant -- they created a new way to play the game and did it with excellence. But since Durant arrived all they do is complain about whether they can maintain their focus and find new ways to show up the other teams. It's like the Yankees before and after they got ARod, except GS has turned itself into a team full of ARods.

 

Yep. Sixers drafted Charles Barkley 2 seasons after they won a championship in back to back Finals appearances. Moses was 26 and back to back MVP when the Rockets traded him there, and he was only 29 when Barkley was a rookie. Dr J was 35 though and retired at 36. Bobby Jones was old too. Andrew Toney was injury plagued and done.
Still. Moses played effectively until 36 and retired at 39. Barkley grew into a superstar by his 2nd season playing next to Moses and Mo Cheeks was around Moses's age. Those 3 as your core was good enough to fight Detroit and Boston and you never know who else they could have gotten there in Philly. They gave up on Moses way too early and traded him to Washington at only 31 years old while Barkley was entering his 3rd season(He averaged 23.6/14.6/4.9 that season). Shame Moses bounced around to so many teams. That's a 3x MVP were talking about. Moses averaged 21ppg and 11rpg the 4 years after he was traded. Imagine Moses and Barkley dominating the boards and post. Shame.

Anyone know the true story of why Moses was traded to Washington? Did he demand it? Didn't like getting out rebounded and out shined by a 2nd year loud mouthed Barkley?

 

And then there's just flat out stupidity from organizations getting fleeced by the same top organizations over and over.

Kareem for Junior Bridgeman, Dave Meyers, Elmore Smithand Brian Winters. LOL. That just doesn't happen. An NBA Champion and FMVP and multi time MVP/ major superstar gets traded for garbage at 28 years old. Even if Kareem demanded a trade to LA. You get more. Much, much more. Not a single draft pick was included.

Lakers getting Shaq because Orlando amazingly low balled Shaq in a league with no luxury tax and no max salary. 4 years 50 million while Alonzo and Juwon Howard both got 7 year $105 million dollar deals at the same time. Incredible.

Things like that really show you how stupid and horribly run most of these NBA franchises are and why ultimately only like 5-6 franchises are historically good. The majority of the NBA is just a stop for super stars on their way to major markets.

Gasol to the Lakers? Hindsight Marc Gasol turned out great, but at the time he was a fat unknown. It really centered around 2 late first round picks and a very much established as one of the GOAT BUSTS Kwame Brown.

 

Back in the early 90s, free agency was completely different - it was difficult to move teams like you can now because of different salary cap rules. Free agency didn't even exist prior to 1988, for that matter - you couldn't leave a team even if you wanted to. All the greats talk about how they would lead their own teams blah blah blah, but it's easy to say because none of them actually had the opportunities that players do now. Olajuwon, Barkley, Shaq, Kobe, etc all tried to force trades to improve their situations at various points in their careers. Lebron moved to Miami to try to compete with other stars. Malone and Nash tried to join up with other stars. On and on - it's nothing new and it's directly tied with the opportunities players have in terms of freedom of movement within the rules. As the NBA Players have gained more freedom in free agency over the years (max contracts, shorter contracts, etc), they have all used it to their advantage - as is their right.

Edit: Jordan's first opportunity at free agency was in 1996, over a decade after he was drafted and long after he had won multiple titles. That year, he stayed with the Bulls - they paid him an insane $30MM 1yr contract at a time when no one else could offer nearly that much due to the salary cap rules. Unlike the Lebrons and Durants of the world, he never had the opportunity to leave to another awesome team while still getting paid.

 

It's true that gains in free agency have given players a fairer share of the profits, which is good. But there is nothing particularly righteous about the current CBA. In many ways, it's ill-suited for most teams and players. The max salary rule discourages parity among teams by preventing one from significantly outbidding another (thus reducing the parity-inducing effects of the salary cap). Also, the growth of international audiences has made endorsement money more important to stars than their salaries. As a result, star players are heavily incentivized to choose whichever team will increase their media exposure, and it's economically rational for them to ignore their salaries if it will help them get more exposure. In contrast, mediocre players have wildly uneven salaries, as teams make risky bets on whether any can develop into a star.

Golden State's championship this year was mostly a result of the economic pressures encouraging stars to seek big cities and collude. The Rockets have taken advantage of some of these factors themselves, and it would be foolish not to. However, this year was a particularly extreme case of the championship being determined by economics rather than basketball strategy or player will.