2011 NBA Draft: Why This NBA Draft Might Be the Most Important in Recent History

Sports fans will tell you the reason that they love sports is parity. Parity is the reason that fans can go from wondering who their team is going to draft with the third pick to planning Super Bowl parties. Parity is the reason that small market teams can succeed against all odds. Parity is the reason that fans keep coming back to their team no matter how dreadful they are. The hope offered in parity can be to credit for keeping professional sports alive in the recession economy of the 21st century.

It has become clear throughout the past year though that this parity the average sports fan cherishes is under attack. Players (especially in the NBA) are leaving the small-market teams in favor of building superpowers in the bigger and often times more lucrative markets.

Loyalty was thrown out of the window in favor of luxury when Amare Stoudemire decided to leave Phoenix for the bright lights of New York. Comfort was thrown out of the window for possible future championships when Carlos Boozer decided to play with Derrick Rose in Chicago.

No taxes was traded in for nobility when Chris Bosh decided to leave Toronto for Miami. Things changed completely when Carmelo Anthony traded a Rocky Mountain high for a hometown high in his move from Denver to New York.

The small-market teams are quickly becoming powerless in a league that almost demands that its teams have equal power. As star players continue to team up and form "super teams" in just about every big-market team in the country, every small-market team will suffer in the silence of the lottery repeatedly.

The star-driven teams are in markets big enough that they were essentially fine even before they had star players, but without these stars the small-market teams will be forced to build their teams in a more traditional way without the perks of free agency. These teams will be forced to make the right draft decisions and make sure they sign the right "hidden treasures" to keep up with the super powers.

If they do not do this, the NBA could fail in just about 80 percent of its cities. 

It is clear that the league is changing. We did not know that it was going to change this drastically talent-wise when LeBron choose to take his talents to South Beach last summer.

We knew the structure of the league was going to change drastically when Carmelo babied his way to New York at the beginning of this year.  We saw a pattern of small market teams losing everything and the teams with the bigger markets getting everything. This change in structure just adds further importance to this much ridiculed class of NBA Draft prospects.

This NBA draft maybe the least talented we have seen since the early 2000s. There is not a "sure thing" in this draft and every pick that is made may just be based off potential and almost nothing else. Every GM is scratching his head at what to do with their pick after highly rated prospects from North Carolina, Baylor, Ohio State and Kentucky decided to stick it out for another year in college.

All of this does not detract from this being one of the more important draft nights in recent history, though.

This is the most important draft because of economics and marketing rather than talent and potential. With the option of free agency essentially taken away from the small-market teams, the most logical and easiest way for them to build teams is through the lottery. Drafting the right player is the only way that these teams can really change their basketball fortune and in this way add to their cities fortunes. 

We all know that fans will go and see the team based off one thing: winning. The only way for these teams to build winning franchises now is to start drafting the right players. We have never had a draft in recent memory with this much importance to struggling franchises.

From a marketing perspective, this draft is also of the utmost importance. Selling tickets before the season has become very important to the financial stability of small market NBA franchises.  So before people actually see an NBA team in action this fall the franchise has to be able to market the team to potential "clients" or "fans."  For what this draft class lacks in talent it almost makes up for in marketability. 

Cleveland may be able to have a dynamic duo of Kyrie Irving and Enes Kanter to make itself a young and fun team instead of just the team that LeBron James left. If Utah drafts Kemba Walker and Jimmer Fredette, they will have one of the most likable young backcourts in the NBA (not to mention Jimmer would instantly be a fan favorite).

If Tornoto drafts the right player it can become a great basketball town again. And if Charlotte drafts the right player, maybe fans will forget about Michael Jordan's dreadful Hitler mustache in that recent Hanes commercial. There is a lot of marketability in this draft if these lottery teams just decide on the right player

On paper, the picks on June 23 might be something that we would normally yawn or scoff at.  This draft will never give us the talent that the class of 2003 gave us and will probably not even come close to the talent that we saw in last years draft. But with free agents bolting for big cities at the snap of the finger, this draft becomes essentially to the survival of small market teams. 

This draft has become essential to build winning teams and to market those teams in the offseason. And most importantly, this draft has become of utmost importance to save the one thing we love the most about sports: parity. If the NBA loses this parity, it may be locked out for more than just one season.