(This was originally written in December of 2014. Does it still apply this season?)
Who remembers The Decision? LeBron James single-handedly put the NBA on hold for half the summer of 2010 and the eyes of the sports and, even the entertainment world, were all tuned into ESPN on July 8, 2010. He had almost every NBA fan on edge that night because the speculation about where he was going to go was all over the place. I remember that day. I was home all day with nothing to do but watch ESPN. It was as if his free agency was a marathon. The team that was in first place would change from week to week, day to day, and even hour to hour. However, on July 8, 2010, the race started to heat up, the team in the lead was changing every minute, and the finish line was near. At one point, the Bulls were the team that was in the lead. At one point, the Knicks were in the lead and there was talk about a team with new superstar addition Amar’e Stoudemire and LeBron James being a possible tandem. As a 15 year old Knicks fan, I couldn’t be more excited at that point. However, around an hour or two before The Decision, Chris Broussard, whose claim to fame was during this summer covering free agency, started to report that sources were telling him that LeBron was probably going to choose Miami. I couldn’t believe it. Chris Bosh had agreed to sign with the Heat at this time and I never thought that I would see three stars in their prime, and arguably the top two players in the game, join together to play on the same team. It was almost unheard of in the NBA. Yet, everything was still relatively up in the air and Knicks fans like me, Cavaliers fans, Lakers fans, Bulls fans, and basically all NBA fans could still be optimistic. Then, this happened.
He shook the NBA. At the time, the anger in Cleveland was what the media focused on and rightly so. However, a lot of NBA fans felt led on and angry at him for the whole television special, not to the extent of Cleveland fans but still angry. The Heat automatically became perennial favorites to win the championship. They did not get off to the start they wanted, but still ended up with a top seed in the East and ended up in the NBA Finals. Then, something interesting happened.
They actually lost. The NBA Super Team lost. And this is important to highlight as well, a Western Conference team once again won the NBA Championship. The Heat did go on to beat the young, up and coming, yet inexperienced Oklahoma City Thunder team and then if it weren’t for this shot the Heat would have lost in arguably the best Finals series’ of all time.
The Heat were on the top of the world and changed the NBA in a sense by showing a different way of winning. Not winning through developing a team through the draft, but winning through free agency. They were on top of the world and looked on paper and on the court unstoppable. Then, they lost by a record margin in the most recent NBA Finals and LeBron has gone back to the Cavaliers and started up a new Super Team with two young stars in Kyrie Irving, who was already in Cleveland, and Kevin Love from the Minnesota Timberwolves. The way the Spurs played in the NBA Finals to win the championship as well as the way the team was formed made just as much of a statement as the Heat’s championships two years before. They became America’s team for a period of time because of their ball movement and lack of superstars. Sure, they had players who were stars at one point in time and an aging star who was playing like he was 10 years younger than he was, but the scoring was so balanced and they were so connected on defense that you got a sense of team and not stars. Their championship made just as much of a statement in the NBA as the Heat’s championships two years before. Not just about how to play the game of basketball, but about the Western Conference, as well.
The Spurs let people know that the fundamentals of the game that worked in the era of Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain still work today. Ball movement and good team defense still works. Good scouting and drafting, whether it be overseas or late in the draft, still works. Not only does it work, it works against anyone even juggernauts like the Heat. Both the Heat and the Spurs changed the NBA because the Spurs gave small market somewhat less attractive teams hope and the Heat gave large market teams in big cities a blueprint to success. Not only that, but the Spurs showed the NBA that any team can be beaten no matter who is on your team. These NBA Super Teams are not a threat to parity to the NBA. However, in the eyes of many, conferences are.
Yes, it is true that I just said teams like the Heat are not a threat to parity in the NBA, but they might be a threat to parity in their own conference. For most of LeBron James’ tenure on the Heat, there was one maybe two teams that were considered competition to them in the Eastern Conference. Now on the Cavs, the same seems to hold true in this early NBA season. Meanwhile, in the Western Conference…
That was the first and arguably toughest round for the Spurs in the 2014 playoffs. It went 7 games. That team almost didn’t make the playoffs with THIS RECORD. They were good enough to give the eventual champions a run for their money in the playoffs, but were barely good enough to even make the playoffs. It is well known in the amongst NBA players, fans, general managers, and coaches that the Western Conference is the stronger conference of the two meaning that the Western Conference has the better teams and if you go by the team overall records, it’s hard to argue against that. Meanwhile, the Heat and Pacers who were the top two seeds played sub-.500 teams in the playoffs. These two teams were so much better than everybody else in their conference that it was disturbing meanwhile 50 wins in the Western Conference does not guarantee you a playoff spot. Personally, I thought that a Western Conference team was the only team that can beat the Heat in the playoffs, but I thought that a lot of Western Conference teams could beat them. When the Knicks were struggling last year, I didn’t totally give up on them because they still had a chance to make the playoffs and almost did with a 37-45 record. Things like this have caused many to call for doing away with the conference system which has been a part of the NBA for years altogether. However, the strength of conference moves in cycles. In the Jordan era, the Eastern Conference was an extremely strong conference and although Jordan ruled the 90’s, his championships did not come easy. So, maybe getting rid of the conference system is an overreaction to a system that will fix itself in time; but, this is bad.
The Philadelphia 76ers have been accused of tanking the last two years to get good draft picks, which they have. However, they are playing at such a low level that many find it unacceptable what front office has done to their team. However, what they can’t be accused of is not planning for the future. They can go for free agents and try to rebuild that way, but have decided to go with rebuilding through the draft and only time will tell if these two seasons were in vain. What cannot be underestimated is the role that the conference that they play in plays into their rebuilding. If the conference remains this weak, maybe even the slightest improvement can get them into the playoffs where anything can happen. Will they ever have a chance to win a championship in the near future with the high level that these Western Conference teams play at every night? Who knows. Can they win with no superstar and good drafting? Who knows. Coaching was not mentioned one time in this blog post and that is representative of the general underappreciating of coaches in the NBA. However, coaching is key to championships in the NBA. When all is said and done, success in the NBA does not begin and end with the amount of stars a team has. Super Teams/Big Threes are not as big of a threat to parity as once thought, but the conference system might be. Who knows.
The Soapbox 