2 April 2013

Throwing In The Towel

Amberlin Rudnicki

       This article explains that in this NBA season there are only five teams that can still be considered legitimate title contenders, most of the others aren’t truly trying. The Los Angeles Lakers, Boston Celtics, Cleveland Cavaliers and Orlando magic have won at least 70% of their games, and only the San Antonio Spurs have better than a 10% chance of winning the NBA title. This is the first time in NBA history that tem owners, executives, and fans in multiple markets say they have resigned themselves to the idea that their teams aren’t going to be competitive this season. Besides the obvious disappointment for fans, the most troubling thing in this situation is that the majority of the teams in one league have no financial incentive to improve. In the last 2 decades the NBA has boomed in size, popularity and profitability. The average player salary skyrocketed from $275,000 in 1982-1983 to $5.6 million today. NBA teams are concerned about their ability to raise their sponsorship revenue and sell the expensive premium seats and skyboxes. The Detroit Pistons traded arguably their best player, Chauncey Billups, to Denver. His trade disrupted the Pistons’ solid lineup, and the Pistons stumbled through most of the rest of the season. When the article said the teams “weren’t really trying” it meant that they weren’t certain of their future revenue and that they wanted to win but they are waiting to save enough to bid on the better players. More and more teams are hesitant to spend money because the teams are losing more and more money because of the economy. The NBA can lower prices on the players and give larger salaries to the teams so the team can make everything better. In my opinion I think the teams should still try to win no matter what. In conclusion most NBA teams aren’t trying to win anymore.

Part 2

       The very first player in the NBA to be drafted was Clifton McNeely in 1947 for the Pittsburgh Ironmen from the University of Texas at El Paso. A draft is a process used to allocate specific players to sports teams. The NBA draft has two rounds, but instead of immediately granting the top pick to the worst team from the previous year, the NBA holds a draft lottery to see who gets to pick first. The top three picks are designated by chance between 14 teams that didn’t make playoffs the year before. The NBA teams choose from the NCAA and teams from overseas. It was previously common for players to be chosen right from high school, but the NBA required that players must wait a year before playing in the NBA. Some think it isn’t fair because they could have been the worst team and still not get the top draft.