Loving the Lockout: Why the the Fans Should Side with the Owners

I LOVE basketball.  It's always been my favorite sport.  I often scan Youtube for old Jordan highlights or for a quick nostalgic look at the Olajuwon's "Dream Shake."  Most NBA fans around my age (I'm 31) probably have those moments as well.  That's why it pains me to say this, but the NBA is dying.  

I know, last year was the most successful year we've had in a long time.  TV ratings were up, we crowned an NBA champion that celebrated a lot of what we enjoy about the game, the Knicks became relevant and Lebron James blew it on the biggest possible stage. There was a lot to like.  But under the hood you find a completely broken system that rewards market size more so than it rewards quality management.

I'm a die hard Houston Rockets fan and as such I know a few things to be true.  The NBA "free market system"discourages parity more than any other sport and sets up a system that favors teams like the Lakers and the Knicks.  These teams, due to market size and exposure, can spend more and have more appeal to players just as worried about their brand as they are about winning a championship.

Mid market teams (e.g. Houston, New Jersey, Portland, etc.) are forced to draft well every year and make extremely wise free agent moves simply to compete.  Take Portland for example, they made just about every right move that a team could make, but due to Brandon Roy's knees and contract they probably won't be able to naturally develop into an elite team.  They did everything you would expect a quality team to do, and they will be stuck in late lottery land for the foreseeable future.

I don't fault the Lakers and Knicks of the world, they are simply playing the hand that they are dealt, but you risk alienating fans that don't root for these big market teams (such as myself).  When you already know 60 percent of the playoff field two years in advance (I'd be willing to wager that LA, Chicago, Dallas, NY, MIA, OKC, Boston, ATL, and San Antonio will be in the mix in 2013) you have little parity and you have a large chunk of your fan base that begins to lose interest.

Which brings me to my second point.

The owners want an NFL like system which the players are deathly afraid of.  If implemented correctly though, the system could be a boom to the players as well as owners.  The NFL has a salary cap but it also has a salary floor (the minimum amount a team can spend to be cap compliant).  In the NBA, there is very little control on team spending, either excessively or minimally.  You have some NBA payrolls exceeding $100 million (LA) and you have others under $50 million (Sacto).  

Let's say,hypothetically, that you instituted a hard cap of $65 million but also instituted a salary floor of $60 million. You would break up some of those super teams but also create jobs in a ton of NBA markets.  In essence you would be spreading the wealth around the league, creating a more competitive league in the process.  

My last point, a dramatic change in the system is not punishment to NBA players (which many people seem to frame it as).  The change in system is a reaction to the changing NBA economy.

The NBA champion Dallas Mavericks normally operate at a deficit.  Think about that for a minute, one of the better teams in the league for the last decade, one that has been expertly marketed and competitive, operates at a deficit.

The NBA is a business first and why should the players expect to be the only profitable entity in their "partnership" with the NBA and its owners?  I understand and respect the players' position, but I'd rather not see this current brand of NBA basketball for a year than to have to watch another 10 years of the same teams getting all the talent and competing for all the championships.