LeBron James' Decision Ruined the Face of the Entire NBA?

Oh, what a year it has been in the NBA. We have seen the coming of "super" teams and how the players really do run this league.

While it has been fun and exciting to watch, one has to wonder if LeBron James' decision to "take his talents to South Beach" ruined the face of the NBA forever.

Yesterday marked the end of the career of the longest tenured coach in modern sports. Since 1988, Jerry Sloan has been coaching the Utah Jazz. Yesterday he resigned, effective immediately.

Many people are crediting Sloan's resignation to the ever-deteriorating relationship between Sloan and point guard Deron Williams.

It's no secret that Sloan and Williams didn't always see eye-to-eye, but was that really enough to convince Sloan to walk away from the game? Many think that it was.

During halftime of Wednesday night's Jazz vs. Chicago Bulls game, Deron Williams openly disagreed with the coaching staff.

Later in the second half, Sloan called a play for his team to run and Williams promptly called something else on the court.

In Sloan's final press conference there were multiple references to John Stockton and Karl Malone and the teams from that era.

These references stated that even though the players and coaches weren't always on the same page, players still respected coaches enough to do what they asked. No references were made to current Jazz teams.

Assuming that Williams had a part in Sloan's decision, how does that change the NBA?

We have already seen that players can pick up and leave town regardless of how much a franchise has put into them. LeBron seemingly had the dream situation in Cleveland; it was his hometown team and he had more perks than anyone could imagine.

But the lure of playing in Miami with his friends (who also were superstars) was enough to pull him away from Cleveland.

Shortly after, Chris Paul demanded a trade. A trade demand isn't anything new, but Paul demanded that he go to a contender or that New Orleans become a contender.

Only weeks later, Carmelo Anthony requested that he leave Denver. Anthony however, took it one step further, not only did he say he wanted to leave Denver, he demanded that he go to a specific team, threatening that if he didn't go to the right team, he wouldn't sign a contract extension.

This is the first time to my memory that a player demand a trade to a specific team.

And now, in what many viewed as the most loyal franchise in the league, a coach was run out of town because a superstar player didn't agree with his style.

Is the league being run by a small group of superstars? What happened to loyalty to a team?

If this trend continues, by the end of the free agency period of 2012 there will be virtually four teams that have a legitimate shot at an NBA title.

The Boston Celtics (although they will be significantly more aged by then), the Los Angeles Lakers, the Miami Heat and possibly the New York Knicks if they get their wishes.

Small-market teams have virtually no shot at winning and succeeding in this league if the superstars are always going to be the ones calling the shots.