2010 NBA Free Agents: Sign With Winners To Win

Dear free agent class of 2010,

What you decide to do this summer will shape the NBA landscape for the next few years. More importantly, however, this will be a huge step in defining your legacy. Most players say that all they want to do is win. They want to become champions. Well, simply put, if you want to win, sign with a winner

The basketball gods tend to reward more victories to teams who have already won. For proof, just look at the 2010 NBA Finals. The Celtics and Lakers have won more than half of all the NBA Championships. June after June, there they are again. The finals are common for both teams.

Compare the Lakers and Celtics to the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Cavaliers were founded in 1970. In that time, they have made the finals a grand total of one time. Since 1970, the Boston Celtics have been to the Finals nine times. The Lakers have been there nineteen times. In that span of time, the Celtics have won six titles and the Lakers have won 11. The Cavs have yet to win a single Finals game.

Seems a bit unfair but that’s just the way basketball works. Since 1980, the 31 titles awarded have been divided among eight teams. In comparison, the last 31 Super Bowls have been won by 15 different teams. The last 31 World Series have been won by 19 different teams.

Now you could always hope to be the next Michael Jordan or Tim Duncan, two players who turned teams who had never previously won into dynasties. However, there are several reasons why this is highly unlikely. The first is that Tim Duncan is the greatest power forward of all time and Michael Jordan is the greatest player of all time. It took men of that type of talent, with amazing supporting casts, to make these dynasties. This is not to downplay your abilities, but to show you that your talent may not be enough, even if you are a once-in-a-lifetime player.

Secondly, Duncan and Jordan also benefited from the timing of their ascent. Michael Jordan began winning all his championships after the great teams of the 80’s began declining. And no real challenger arose in the 1990s. The Spurs won their first title in the lockout-shortened 1999 season. The other three were won after the Shaq & Kobe Lakers imploded.

Since 1980, only two teams team have won only one title. That would be the Philadelphia 76ers in 1982 and Miami Heat in 2006. Philadelphia suffered from having to play in the same leage as Magic Johnson and Larry Bird. For Miami, 2006 is treated as a strange anomaly in the NBA. Even the loser of those finals is an anomaly. The Dallas Mavericks are the only team not located in Los Angeles or San Antonio that have even been to the Finals since 1999. Once again the basketball gods love a winner. So you could hope for these anomalies but, as history shows, they are not common.

So you see, it takes a plethora of variables to turn a team into champions. Some of these variables may even be out of your control. The best chance you have of becoming a winner is with a winning team. Now, if you are looking to be multi-millionaires who are recognized as a globally-known brand, well that’s a whole other story.