I don’t know anybody credible who thought the NFL would miss a
game because of its labor impasse.
By Tom Sorensen – McClatchy Newspapers
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – I don’t know anybody credible who thought the NFL would miss a game because of its labor impasse.
I don’t know anybody credible who thinks the NBA won’t.
But if owners and players can’t agree on a hard salary cap, they’re better off shutting down than playing under a system that discriminates against teams from small markets such as Charlotte.
The NBA has a salary cap. It’s like a suggestion, only not as strong.
As a result, big-market teams compete for championships. Except for San Antonio, small-market teams just watch.
Instead of splitting the league into East and West, the NBA ought to put big-city and glamor-city teams into the BCS Division and small markets into the Appalachian State Division.
On special occasions Appalachian State could beat the big fellows. San Antonio won the NBA championship in 2003, ’05 and ’07.
All it took was Tim Duncan, for a time the league’s most effective player, and all-stars such as Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker.
The last small-market team other than San Antonio to win an NBA championship was Seattle. It won in 1979. That was the year New Orleans quarterback Drew Brees was born.
Teams such as the Charlotte Bobcats begin every season knowing they’ll lose millions of dollars while they fail to compete for the title. The system won’t change until the NBA makes the playing court level.
Owners and players talked Tuesday. Time is tight. The Bobcats are scheduled to open training camp the first week of October, play their first exhibition Oct. 10 and begin the regular season Nov. 2.
But owners and players aren’t close to a deal. The NFL impasse was about money. The NBA impasse is about a wholesale change in the way it does business.
The NFL ought to be the standard for any sport that aspires to make money. In the NFL, any team can grow up to be champion. Green Bay and Pittsburgh played in Super Bowl XLV.
Can you imagine Milwaukee and Sacramento playing for the NBA championship?
The NBA decided long ago to market individuals rather than teams, and the strategy was dazzlingly effective.
Now the league has to tell those players it really isn’t about them.
So how does it convince players the system doesn’t work? The system works beautifully for players.
Many are vastly overpaid. The owners vastly overpaid them.
I hope there is a 2011-12 season because I want to watch Charlotte play. Rather than perpetually contending for the eighth playoff spot and quick elimination, the Bobcats decided to become worse so they could become better, to risk losing if the strategy ultimately helped them win.
They jettisoned their veteran stars and added two compelling young players, selecting Bismack Biyombo with the seventh pick in the 2011 draft and Kemba Walker with the ninth.
In Cam Newton – did you really think I could write a column without a gratuitous Newton reference? – Charlotte acquired the best player from college football’s best team. In Kemba Walker, Charlotte acquired the best player from college basketball’s best team. Collect the whole set.
After floundering for years, the Panthers had what ought to be the best draft in franchise history.
I want to watch Biyombo and Kemba develop. But I want to watch them develop on a team that, despite representing a lowly little market, has a chance to win big.
