LeBron can't win it alone? Neither could MJ, Bird or Magic

Yeah, but who is going to want to watch any Cleveland or Toronto games? Or really any of the mediocre teams who are nowhere close to contending?

 

The thing is, it's a zero-sum game for fans, as far as Cleveland is concerned. Miami fans win, Cleveland fans lose. You could argue that NBA fans also lose if there is a dynasty in Miami, but NBA has continuously had teams that won multiple titles in short time spans.

I'm reserving judgment on league-wide revenue until the end of the year. I believe the NBA makes the bulk of its money from the revenue earned during the playoffs (advertisements, etc), and it has been proven that more eyes are on the TV when big names teams and players are playing. I could see it going either way, but check the TV ratings for that 18-1 New England Patriots team (hint: they were breaking national/regional/local/cable/network/timeslot records throughout the season). Everyone wants to see the king get knocked off his throne, and with all the criticism that Lebron has garnered lately, a lot of people will watch to see if the Heat/Lebron fail.

But should players have accountability to fans of a specific city, or fans of the NBA as a whole? I'm open to arguments, but I'm just not sure how I see it being important to individual players to take into account fans of a particular city when making career decisions. You said it could be David Stern's worse nightmare. HE has an accountability to fans at-large, but individual players?

 

Ownership can't easily change locations, but they can easily not focus on winning or be so incompetent that winning isn't possib;e, which is what the fans should want. Plenty of franchises have been getting dicked over by the team for years. The Clippers, T-Wolves, Raptors, Knicks, Bucks, Pacers, Grizz, etc all say hello.

And players don't have to have accountability to the fans of their teams. They got drafted there. They had no choice in where they played. On top of that, the team can ship them off at anytime, even if they are producing. Were we accountabile to Carl Landry? Didn't we lure David Anderson here from another country only to ship him to Toronto a yr later once we weren't satisfied?

 

toronto wasn't getting much attention anyways.

this heat team is going to sellout every home and road game.

fans of contending teams other than the heat are going to come out just to hate and boo this team when they come to their city, just like in 1996 with the bulls.

then factor all the bandwagon casual nba fans (and celebrities) who are going to want to see the heat.

i think the popularity of this team will outweigh all of that.

 

I say no. As a player, why should I be accountable to some fans in a city that I didn't choose to be in? Ok, so I get drafted by Houston and I should be loyal to them forever, even if I never wanted to play there? The player is accountable to uphold their contractual obligation, the same thing that the team is accountable for. And they even have an out since they can trade you.

 

Nailed it!!! Thats a perfect example!! LJ will still be the main option!

 

Actually, Kobe wasn't drafted by the Lakers. He forced a trade from Charlotte to LA. Some competitor he was.

 

And Magic Johnson said he would've just stayed in school another year if the Chicago Bulls ended up getting the first pick instead of the Lakers.

See below:

 

Yeah, talk about hypocritical. Shut that ish up Magic!!

So back then, college players knew who had the #1 pick, or the draft order, before they had to declare or decide to stay in the draft? Because if you say "I'm only coming out to play with the best player in basketball" then you surely can't say a damn thing to LeBron.

 

I agree that players do not have any obligation to their fans, but that is in fact the problem. If the players are the ones with all the power, and they have no obligation to the fans, well then fans get screwed.

Ownership on the other hand inherently has interests more similar to fans. This is because even if ownership decides to make a cheap crappy product (e.g. the Clippers), they do this fully aware that this will reduce attendance. This doesn't mean ownership will do everything possible to make fans happy. But they do enough to keep enough fans coming. Despite how much everyone makes fun of the Clippers they actually have reasonable attendance numbers.

Franchise3 said that free agency is a zero-sum game, i.e. Cleveland's loss is Miami's gain. That's not true. Fan interest goes up not just when there are good teams, but also when teams are closely matched.

MJ gets a lot of props not just b/c he was great, but because he made great plays in legitimately competitive series. Think about his battles with the Pistons, Knicks, Suns, and Jazz. Then compare to the year we swept the Magic in the Finals. We never get our respect b/c nobody thinks Orlando was a worthy opponent.

Remember the thrill of when San Antonio repeatedly was destroying crappy Eastern Conference teams in the Finals? Not really? Me neither. You think it was fun for fans or profitable for the league that Lebron got swept in his only Finals appearance?

 

The players don't have all the power. They can only call the shots during free agency, which must be earned after seasons of having no say in where you play, or making a lot less than what you are worth (i.e. rookie contracts).

I believe the Clippers still make a profit. I can't argue that teams just have to put a good product on the floor because too many franchises have sucked for far too long.

My point exactly.

Random fan interest goes up when you have super teams in the league that folks want to watch. We have had super teams in every decade since the 80's. People tuned in to watch them.

Where was the competition in 1996? Everyone tuned in, didn't they? If Miami meets Boston, Orlando or LA in the playoffs you don't think those will be competitive series?

The Spurs were led by Duncan, who most don't care to tune in to watch. That isn't the case with LeBron or Wade.

 

i thought jerry west had been scouting kobe for a while and charlotte agreed to trade their pick to LA before the draft and LA told them who to draft 5 minutes before they picked. i think it was more jerry west than Kobe. but i could be wrong.

i do remember Kobe getting some flack about being undersized at 6'4 for a 2 and not smart enough to play 1. (he was constantly trying to go 1 on 5). very few thought he would be the best player in the NBA one day.

 

it's better for the L when you have 2-3 dominant teams. see the bulls, lakers. see the yanks. see the cowboys, 49ers...

people will hate those teams and will tune in to see them. and you get the bandwagoners.

it's actually not a bad thing.

 

im not sure if it's better but it's not as bad as ppl make it out to be. just a cowardly douche move on lbj's part. bosh? well.. meh. i thought bosh needed another star and a bruiser to be successful. kinda like yao.

 

With all due respect, you are wrong/you are remembering incorrectly. I posted in another thread the quotes from a couple GMs who said that Kobe basically told them he wouldn't play for them. I think the Nets GM was one of them and they drafted Kerry Kittles instead of Kobe for that reason. I don't care to pull up the quotes again right now, but if you were legitimately curious about reading them, I'd have no problem obliging by tracking them down tomorrow.

 

Arn Tellem was trying to move Kobe to the Lakers much earlier than 5 minutes before the draft. Tellem started making his moves, after kobe declared for the draft and teams could work out draft prospects.

Kobe had already told Arn Tellem that would not play for anybody else. . Bryant refused to workout for other teams. Tellem was threatening teams that Kobe would go to Italy. Who could blame them? After Danny Ferry threatened to go to Europe, if he was drafted by the Clippers in 1989. Danny Ferry went to Italy, then the Clippers traded his draft rights in November to the Cavaliers.

Since Charlotte couldn't get Kobe, they went after Divac.

http://select.nytimes.com/2007/06/29/sports/29roberts.html?_r=1

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2010/03/05/1289903/passing-on-kobe.html

 

Here's more on Kobe and the Italy threats by Arn Tellem.

http://www.northjersey.com/columnists/OConnor_Kobe_was_almost_a_Net.html

 

This. That's why I don't understand all the hate especially from Kobefags to LBJ and Wade, who cares about Bosh though. :grin:

 

If Lebron's role is anything remotely close to being a defensive stopper, it's written in stone the Heat will wont win anything for years to come. Defense actually requires heart and Lebron has never been known for that. I imagine Kobe will have a field day with the Heat this year lmao

 

u do know he shut down paul pierce, something the lakers couldn't do right?

FYI: kobe shot 36% v. the cavs last year, and lebron guarded him for half of the game.