January 30, 2019: The Hate Files XXXIX

Big news this week in the NBA:  Another superstar player wants to leave his team to play for another team of his choice, most likely teaming up with multiple other superstar players to stack the deck in an attempt to win an NBA title.  What kind of bullshit is that?  This is what the NBA has become; this is why I hate it.

Maybe I was spoiled by MJ and the Bulls dynasty.  Maybe I’m pissed that the Bulls only real chance since then was squashed by a serious injury.  Maybe I’m just getting old.  Maybe the NBA really sucks nowadays, no matter what anybody else says.  When did it all start?  Easy:  the whole Lebum to Miami debacle.  That was tampering then too, right?  Getting on the phone with Wade and Bosh; pre-arranging the whole thing.  To see the top NBA superstar of the time give up a chance to win a title with HIS team and go play on somebody else’s team to get to the top of the mountain; it’s gutless, it just is.  And I know he came back to Cleveland (after pre-arranging his return there to make sure they were stacked with superstars and he was landing in a better spot than Miami was going to be), but the damage had already been done.  Then it was Durant.  Leaving to join a 70 win team that had beaten HIS team in the Conference Finals; no shame in his game.  Kevin Love to a certain degree; going to Cleveland got him a title but ruined his personal career.  Hope it was worth it Kevin.  And now Anthony Davis???  All these guys not wanting to play here, wanting to play with him, manufacturing a “super-team”… it wasn’t always like that.

Let’s take the Bulls OK.  The Bulls were MJ’s team.  He didn’t leave when we lost 3 straight years to the Pistons.  We didn’t go out and try to gather up other superstars.  No, that Bulls team grew the organic way if you may.  Scottie Pippen was a skinny kid from Arkansas that blossomed into a superstar under the tutelage of MJ and Phil.  That was it for the first 3 titles.  Then the Bulls did go out and get somebody:  a defender and rebounder extraordinaire Dennis Rodman.  Not a superstar by any means, but certainly a player that filled a very specific role for the 2nd three peat, and filled it damn well.  Best team ever by the way.  But now, it’s like a video game; maybe that makes sense because the video game generation and all.  Guys sit back and say where and who they want to play with; screw the team that drafted you… screw the small market teams… it’s all about the individual doing what is best for him; I above all.  But isn’t that the way of the world today anyways, and the NBA is just a part of it?

Maybe.  It certainly feels like it’s I above team all day every day in the NBA.  The days of great “teams” are gone; the days of the best individual talents combining on a super team are here.  Maybe the NBA has been like that for a while now…  from the 42 NBA titles in my lifetime, 37 of them, or 88% of them have been won by 8 teams.  There is no sport in which an individual player has as much impact on a game then in basketball.  The more great individual superstar players you put together, the more you stack the deck; only in the NBA can it be done this drastically.  It’s not fair… but is that the players fault?  I certainly think the NBA has a competition problem, but they don’t care.  Just like GarPax don’t care about the Bulls “competition problem” due to the money that consistently rolls in through attendance, the NBA doesn’t care because the league is richer than ever.  You see the bums that get millions of bucks?  There is more of that in the NBA than any other sport too.  Damn, if I didn’t sprain my ankle freshman year at DePaul I could have rode an NBA bench for a few million… haha.  And then the tanking that goes on, that I’m all too familiar with these past 2 years.  It’s a load of crap, yet there are no rules that prevent it.  Kind of like tampering… 50K fine for a millionaire; ha! 

I’m sure my tune would change a bit if MY team got back in the game, no doubt.  But for now, I’m just bitter.  I hate the current NBA, and how it operates.  Thing is, I’ll still watch the Bulls night in night out, and because of that, because of the “love of the game”, because I played a ton of ball, because MY team ruled the 90s, because it’s Chicago against everybody, and because of all that I continue to support the NBA in a round about way, nothing will change… it will only get worse.  That sucks.