NBA Fans Need to 'Melo' Out
Carmelo Anthony's trade from Denver to New York has created a panic amongst NBA fans afraid that smaller cities won't be able to compete for the title.
Carmelo Anthony’s trade to the New York Knicks just before the February trading deadline has occasioned much hand-wringing. Anthony forced the trade, threatening to leave the Denver Nuggets as a free agent after the season. Faced with the prospect of losing their superstar for nothing, the Nuggets settled for several Knicks players less consequential than Anthony. Coming on the heels of LeBron James’ departure from Cleveland to Miami as a free agent last summer, the trade reinforced the impression of the NBA as a league in which the weak get weaker: when jejune cities like Denver and Cleveland are lucky enough to land a marquis player, before long they lose him to a greener pasture.
All of which should cause great concern except for one thing – it’s nonsense. The reality is that the NBA, thanks in part to its salary cap, gives every team a realistic chance to compete for a championship, and many teams outside the New York-Boston-Chicago-Los Angeles axis have done pretty well for themselves.
Look where things stand with the 2011 playoffs around the corner. Several of the eight teams considered plausible championship material are in distinctly non-glamorous locations -- Oklahoma City, Orlando, San Antonio, Dallas. These teams succeed because, contrary to the emerging conventional wisdom, many superstars don’t crave the big city limelight. The Thunder is led by Kevin Durant, who signed a contract extension before the season to remain in that notorious hot spot, Oklahoma City. San Antonio’s and Dallas’ respective superstars, Tim Duncan and Dirk Nowitzki, have played their long careers exclusively with those fortunate teams.
The reality hasn’t prevented some curious grousing. The Utah Jazz’ executive owner, Greg Miller, complains about “a congregation of star players on a handful of teams,” a situation he considers baneful for the league and its fans. My, how memories are short. For what seemed a lifetime, Utah fans got to see two bona fide superstars, John Stockton and Karl Malone, and a team that made the NBA Finals twice. For more than a decade, neither Stockton nor Malone said a peep about preferring a more prestigious place to play. Steve Nash spent much of his career at Dallas, and now labors happily in Phoenix. As for any unfair advantage enjoyed by the glamour city teams, tell it to the Knicks, who last won a championship during the Nixon administration.
Which teams can’t win in the NBA? The Houston Rockets won two championships in the 1990s, led by a superstar, Hakeem Olajuwon, who happily spent almost his entire career there. Look at other cities whose teams have won conference (or NBA) championships in recent memory: New Jersey, Indiana, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Detroit. Sure, as in every sport since time immemorial, the NBA has some perennial weak sisters, teams which seem mired in quicksand. Washington and Minnesota have been cellar dwellers for years, but that’s thanks to pathetic management more than anything else. And even they aren’t doomed. The Wizards can build around the sizzling John Wall, the Timberwolves the mighty Kevin Love. Don’t assume that Wall and Love will head for New York or Los Angeles as soon as they become free agents in a few years or will force a trade before then. History suggests that their departure is very far from a foregone conclusion.
There was only one troubling aspect of the Carmelo Anthony trade to New York – persistent rumors that Knicks owner James Dolan consulted Isaiah Thomas throughout the process, and it was Thomas who insisted they acquire Anthony at any price. Ever since his successful career as a player, Thomas has destroyed everything he has gone near, including the Knicks. Dolan, who has fared not much better, retains a mystifying respect for Thomas’ judgment. If those two orchestrated the Anthony trade, Denver should take great comfort.
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