Richard Jefferson Trade Another Sign of a Broken NBA

(Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)

When the Milwaukee Bucks traded Richard Jefferson to the San Antonio Spurs for Bruce Bowen, Kurt Thomas, and Fabricio Oberto Tuesday, I had three thoughts:

First, good for Jefferson. I covered him as a freshman at the University of Arizona and he’s a good guy. After making the playoffs in his first six years in the league, he’s been on consecutive 34-48 teams the past two seasons (2007-08 with New Jersey, 08-09 with Milwaukee).

Now he’s going to a perennial contender to play for a great coach and one of the best post players of all time.  

Second, good for San Antonio. The Spurs badly needed an infusion of size and athleticism on the wing. Jefferson puts them right back into the Western Conference conversation with the defending champion Lakers.

Third, the NBA is broken. Any system that allows the Bucks to so blatantly screw over its fans by giving away their leading scorer for pesos on the dollar is fatally flawed.

This is far from the first time we’ve seen something like this.

The Lakers won their title primarily because Memphis gave them Pau Gasol last year. And in 2007, the Suns sent Thomas and two first-round draft picks (2008 and 2010) to the then-Sonics for just a conditional second-rounder and a trade exception.

But just because this might be the latest example of a broken system shouldn’t make it any less revolting to NBA fans, especially those few left in Wisconsin.

Think about it. Jefferson has averaged 15 or more points per game in each of the seven years (of an eight-year career). Twice he’s topped 22 points per game in a season. Last year he was at 19.6 and shot a career-high 39.7 percent from three.

He hasn’t missed a game in two years. He just turned 29 three days ago (nice birthday present, eh?). He reads to children.

And all the Bucks could get was Bowen, Thomas, and Oberto?

Of course, the attractiveness of the deal for Milwaukee had nothing to do with the actual on-court talents of the trio they received in return. This was a money move, pure and simple.

Bowen is in the last year of his deal, and, according to reports, won’t even make it to camp with the Bucks. Milwaukee will save $4.35 million next season after releasing Bowen (only $2 million guaranteed), a source told ESPN.com.

Want to guess who might pick up Bowen once he hits the market? Let’s just say I don’t think he has to worry about selling his San Antonio home in a depressed housing market.

Thomas is also in the last year of his deal ($3.8 million). The Bucks could either release him or spin him off at the trade deadline. Either way, it’s a lock he doesn’t reach next April with the antlers on his chest.

Oh, and Oberto was then traded to Detroit for Amir Johnson, he of the 3.7 points-per-game scoring average.

So what exactly did Milwaukee get?

Let’s let Milwaukee GM John Hammond explain:

“The trade we made today provides us with much needed options in both the short and long-term planning for our franchise.”

Great. You just gave up a really good player so your franchise with a history of making dumb decisions has the flexibility to make more dumb decisions.

How could Milwaukee fans not rejoice?

And of course this is nothing new. Crappy NBA teams do this all the time. They find themselves at the crossroads of doing something to get better or blowing it all up for “flexibility,” and they choose the latter.

They choose the freedom to suck under the auspices of rebuilding because it gives them cover for being inept.

It allows them to go to the press with the “we’re young and learning” excuse for being 15 games under .500.

And it allows them to charge premium prices for a flawed and defective product put together on the cheap.

Tuesday was a really bad day to be a Bucks fan. And I’m guessing Thursday won’t be much better. They seem like the kind of club that would take bust-in-waiting Brandon Jennings over future star Jonny Flynn.

Then again, with an 88-154 cumulative record under three different coaches over the past three years, they’re probably used to it by now.

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