The drama surrounding Chris Paul and the NBA is not just bad news for the New Orleans Hornets on the court. It also could be very bad news for the future of that franchise and other NBA teams in smaller and less attractive markets.
Since a team cannot control a player’s rights once they hit free agency, there’s nothing to stop them from joining up with other stars in big markets and forming super teams. It has become the haves vs. the have-nots.
“All decisions are made on the basis of what is in the best interests of the Hornets,” Stern said in a statement last Friday after killing the first Chris Paul trade. “In the case of the trade proposal that was made to the Hornets (by the Lakers) for Chris Paul, we decided, free from the influence of other NBA owners, that the team was better served with Chris in a Hornets uniform.”
The league currently owns the Hornets while it waits for a buyer, and while they do have a general manager in place — Dell Demps — all decisions involving the team go through Commissioner David Stern’s office.
A second attempt to trade Paul, this time to the Los Angeles Clippers, fell through yesterday when the league’s demands became too extreme. For the Hornets and the city of New Orleans, having already lost one NBA franchise — the Jazz — in 1979 due to deep financial trouble, this could be a repeat of history.
No prospective buyer would realistically want the team if one of its all-time great players is on his way out with nothing coming in return. Having Paul in uniform for the abbreviated 66-game season, after all the speculation and scuttled trades, will make an awkward situation even worse.
Much like LeBron James, Paul became the face of the franchise as it experienced its most successful seasons since leaving Charlotte in 2002. He was also one of the faces of the rebuilding effort post-Katrina, once saying that his “heart is in New Orleans.”
However, with his stated preference to leave the Hornets after the season, fans in the Big Easy – who after last season’s success made a massive push to buy 10,000 season tickets – aren’t buying it.
“I think people feel like it’s almost like someone who has threatened divorce and has had reconciliation or at least a quiet period,” said Doug Swift of New Orleans. “A lot of fans feel betrayed, especially after this tremendous push to sell 10,000 tickets. He tells everybody publicly that his heart is in New Orleans, and next thing you know his heart is going to the West Coast.
“I guess I’m thinking of that cap that some retirees wear: ‘Used, Abused and Confused.’ I think that would be the theme of the day.”
In Orlando, fans are fearing that their superstar, All-Star center Dwight Howard, will force his way out of Florida to either Los Angeles or New Jersey. Like Paul, Howard publicly made it clear that he does not plan to remain with the Magic after this season and demanded a trade.
“I think it’s at the point now where I’m immune to (players leaving), even with Dwight,” Magic season ticket holder Jean Martin told the Orlando Sentinel. “All these players are wanting to change teams”
However, after the angry backlash from Magic fans, Howard appears to have softened his stance.
“There’s no place I would rather be but here in Orlando,” Howard said during Orlando’s media day on Monday. “I just want to make sure that we have the right things here so we can win a championship. And I’m all about change. If you’re willing to change and you’re willing to do what it takes to win, then, you know, you’ve got me.”
The Magic are the only professional sports team in Orlando, and their fan base — many of which haven’t forgotten Shaquille O’Neal’s exit to Los Angeles in 1996 — is rabid. When Shaq became a free agent, he said that the Magic were his “first option” only to sign with the Lakers.
“If Dwight leaves, we might as well stamp him as Shaq II,” said Magic fan Dennis Salvagio. “It would be devastating if he left.”
Shaq’s departure left the Magic languishing in mediocrity for over a decade. The team struggled to bring in fans, lost an NBA-worst 61 games in 2004 (which actually netted the team Howard in the NBA Draft) and did not advance past the first round of the playoffs until 2008.
The effect that a major superstar leaving a team can have damaging effects on a franchise and a city. In Cleveland, the Cavaliers went from the brink of an NBA title back to being an NBA doormat after James took his talents to South Beach.
The Cavs lost 63 games last season — including an NBA-record 26 straight — and the city of Cleveland is still recovering emotionally and economically.
“People love the Cavs, but they love the Cavs more when they’re winning,” said Caitlin Cassidy, the manager at the Harry Buffalo, which is across the street from Quicken Loans Arena, during the lockout. “They come down and watch the Cavs and drink beer and hang out, but it’s definitely not been the same without LeBron.”
On typical Cavs’ game nights during the LeBron Era, the wait for a table at the Buffalo was at least 30 to 45 minutes. Last year, as the Cavs fell, people who had season tickets didn’t come to the games, which killed business.
The phenomenon of players trying to form super teams in big markets such as New York, Los Angeles (Lakers), Chicago, Miami, Dallas, and Boston flies in the face of one of the stated goals of Stern during the lockout, which was preserving competitive balance.
In the NFL, where small markets Green Bay, Oakland, and Pittsburgh have had long-standing success, teams can tag a pending free-agent with a franchise tag and sign them for another year to keep them off the market.
In the NBA, while certain small market teams such as the Spurs, Jazz, and more recently the Oklahoma City Thunder have been able to thrive and keep their star players over the years, others have been left behind.
“When will we just change the name of 25 of the 30 teams to the Washington Generals,” said Cavs owner Dan Gilbert in a tersely worded e-mail to Stern last week.
Cities such as Milwaukee, Memphis, Sacramento, and even larger markets such as Houston, Detroit, Denver, and Toronto are not seen as ideal free agent spots. There is no method or impetus to steer players there unless the teams are winning big, and it is doubly difficult to keep their draft picks once they reach free agency.
“To me, the NBA is just a messed-up league,” said Anthony Decuir, a music professor at Loyola University in New Orleans and Hornets fan. “Every other franchise is like a bald-headed stepchild to the folks with the bucks. I can load my plates up in L.A. and New York.
“It makes me angry. I’ve got (Hornets) season tickets, and I don’t know who I’m going to be watching. I’m not going to know half the people on the team, which is crazy. It’s just frustrating.”
