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By: Keith Dobkowski, Senior Sports News Writer
Less than a month ago, Legalball.com introduced the NBA off-
season with an in-depth look into why the 2004 summer would
be the most exciting NBA summer in recent history. Looks like
Legalball.com was wrong, we should have just said history and
forgot the recent.
As a quick recap the following All-Stars have changed teams.
Shaq-Daddy is now a Heat, or Heatian as he put it. Brian Grant
and Lamar Odem are Lakers. Tracy McGrady is a Rocket and
Steve Francis is a Magic, or in Shaq’s terms, a Magician. Steve
Nash is back in the Suns’ desert and Kenyon Martin joined the
Mile High Nuggets.
In a boring note, Kobe Bryant turned down the bright lights of
Hollywood by rejecting the L.A. Clippers offer in order to spend
another 7 years in Tinsel Town with the L.A. Lakers.
A quick shout out to our non-All-Stars includes Cutino Mobley,
2004 NBA Champion Memet Okur, former Slam Dunk Champion
Brent “Bones” Barry, Carlos “Read My Lips” Boozer, Antawn
“50/50” Jamison and the 0.4 man Derrick Fisher.
Even the lowly Golden State Warriors have captured the
headlines. The sweetest left handed jump shooter to play, Chris
Mullin grabbed the W’s reigns and quickly went to work. Mully
hired Mike Montgomery away from Stanford and brought in Mario
Elie and Rod Higgins. Mully then signed Derrick Fisher and traded
Nick Van Exel within minutes of each other.
In keeping with the ‘why things happen’ focus we return to Part
1 of this series and review the salary cap to see that this trend
may continue for years to come. A combination of the salary cap,
coach and player feuds, opt-out clauses and maximum contracts
will continue to guide the NBA off-season.
We must also note that the makeup of the NBA is different from
both Major League Baseball and the National Football League.
One star player can make or break a team in the NBA, while one
star player in both MLB and the NFL can help tremendously but
not create the same impact.
Look no further than Barry Bonds, the greatest baseball player of
this generation, if not ever, whose impact leads to wins yet
never a championship. Jeff Kent set “Run Batted In” records
while batting next to Bonds and Marquis Grissom became an
everyday player and .300 hitter after almost dropping out of the
majors two years earlier. However, Bonds can’t take every at
bat or make every play, while a basketball player can have his
hands in on every play. See: Shaq and Michael Jordan.
This stark difference has led to greater player power in the NBA
than in MLB. Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan had their
respective coaches fired and both went on to win multiple
championships. Chris Webber tried the same and was later
traded by the Warriors. Of note, the Warriors have not been to
the playoffs since the day they traded Webber. This off-season
Shaq complained that Lakers management did not contact him
before they fired Phil Jackson and therefore Shaq requested a
trade of his own.
This extra power in the NBA allows for players to request firings
or demand trades. McGrady requested the latter and now will
play for the Rockets. Add in the salary cap and the requirements
that traded players must have combined salaries within 15% of
the other players being traded. Meaning that any big name
player with a big time contract must be traded for another player
with similar contractual numbers. The only players with such
numbers are other big time players. Jason Kidd for Stephon
Marbury is the best example.
So long as the players have this power, Fans will continue to be
excited during the summer months even as the games are not
played.
And to think that we never even discussed the J-Kidd, Vince
Carter, Eric Dampier, Quentin Richardson and Ray Allen trade and
free agent rumors.
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