The much anticipated 2010 free agent summer has lived up to its hype and much more. The biggest news of the summer is obviously the formation of the Miami Heat superpower, which is history defining in its own, but there's also some major trends that are emerging and/or have been confirmed by the events that have transpired over the last couple of weeks. Think about it this way; If you and 5 of your friends took ALL of the money you would spend on social activities for 3 years and saved it for one game of monopoly played with real money, the same amount of ridiculousness would occur.
Three's CompanyWe saw it in 2008 when Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen formed the Celtics' “Big 3” and won a championship in their first year together, but I don't think many people saw this as an emerging trend. It's two years later and the “Biggest 3” has now been formed with Dwyane Wade, LeBron James and Chris Bosh in Miami. This three is so big, the first thing old school rasslin' fans thought about was when the
nWo was formed and took over the souls of millions of kids and immature adults. The super trio trend didn't lose any steam after Chris Paul hinted at joining forces with Amare Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony in
New York while attending Melo's wedding. I take this news very seriously because something tells me CP3 was channeling his inner Ron Artest and drunkenly blurting out sober thoughts. Then there's the trio in Oklahoma City that no one is talking about despite their early success. Jeff Green and future MVP Kevin Durant have only played three seasons in the NBA while Russell Westbrook has only played two. People have already forgotten how well they played against the Lakers in the first round of the playoffs this year. If you look at the top teams in the NBA, it's as if all the legendary wrestling tandems have emerged at he same time; nWo, DX, Four Horseman and of course the Lake Show acting as the reigning Nation of Domination. Personally, I'm all for this trend because it's exciting for the players, exciting for the fans and its great attention for the NBA overall.
BIG MoneyWhen I woke up this morning I crossed my fingers and got out of bed hoping to be 10 inches taller, making me a seven footer with good basketball fundamentals and great range. Well unfortunately it didn't happen, but its fun thinking about how rich I would be if it had. Big men in the NBA are cashing in on massive contracts due to a high demand and low supply of dependable size in the middle. Amare Stoudemire has secured the biggest contract of the summer after signing with the Knicks for $100 million over the next five years. Fellow power forward Chris Bosh, who is seen as the top big man this summer, only signed for a measly $110 million over the next six years. The sad thing is that those two signings aren't the ones that make me scratch my head. Seven footer Darko Milicic, the second overall pick in the 2003 draft(ahead Anthony, Bosh and Wade), has been everything but productive during his first 7 years in the league. For his career he is averaging 5.6 points, 4.1 rebounds, 1.2 blocks and 17.5 minutes per game. Does this describe a player who should be getting a new contract for $20 million over the next four years? Apparently the Timberwolves thought so. Brendan Haywood, a 10 and 10 player who has played on a losing team for most of his career, signed a 6 year, $55 million deal with the Dallas Mavericks. The Russian billionaire who guaranteed a basketball dynasty in NJ made his big splash in the NBA by giving $35 million to Travis Outlaw, who is hardly anyone to write home about. Carlos Boozer and David Lee will also be eating well for the next few years after both players agreed to $80 million contracts with the Bulls and Warriors respectively. Just to put this price gouging in perspective, Charles Barkley never made over $5 million/year during his prime. This trend isn't going to end anytime soon either, because there is a scarcity of talented big men in the NBA and a lack of talented big men in the pipeline. Everyone wants to see the next Michael Jordan, but what we need is the next Hakeem Olajuwon.
It's Not Tampering, It's RecruitingRecruiting has made its way into professional basketball and it's in full effect. This free agency period looks more like a college signing period. Instead of monitoring scholarships for the last 3 years, teams managed money in hopes of getting the best players in this once in a lifetime class. There was no shortage of big college names either, with Tom Izzo, John Calipari and Mike Krzyzewski all being rumored as the next handler of LeBron at some point during the media circus. Then there's John Wall, the most antipated rookie since King James. If the Nets had won the draft lottery, do you think LeBron would still be taking his talents to South Beach? I don't. But in the end, Pat Riley took everyone to school and made the three big free agents an offer they couldn't refuse.
I believe the main reason this trend is emerging is because the best players in the NBA today are too friendly. I remember when players treated their best friends like their worst enemies when on the court. Most of the all-time greats had the mindset that everyone who wasn't on their team was an enemy, and even if they couldn't beat them, they still wouldn't join them. Now the mindset is, if I have the best chance of winning by playing with my friends, why not? This is something that Melo, CP3 and Amare are thinking about right now. You know who doesn't have any friends? 5-time NBA champion Kobe Bryant. He likes it that way.
Recruiting also means players are taking more control of their own careers which means owners and GMs have less control of their own roster and ultimately their job. Owners are naturally power hungry so we should expect more public rants in the future like that of Cavs owner Dan Gilbert, but maybe not quite as unprofessional and psychotically possessive. The only thing more unprofessional than the the harshly dismissive comments in
Gilbert's letter, is the Comic Sans font he used to get his point across; which makes people wonder if the letter should actually be categorized as a comedy. What did Mavs owner Mark Cuban think about Gilbert's letter?
“He deserves a lot of credit for putting it out there.” And of course whenever successful African Americans in the spotlight are mired in controversy, there's only a matter of time before we get an equally controversial statement from Jesse Jackson. Although I don't necessarily agree with
Jackson's comments about Gilbert seeing James as a runaway slave, where was Gilbert's reaction, or even acknowledgment following Big Z's decision to join LeBron in Miami after playing in Cleveland for 13 years?
More Money? No Thank YouIn a sports culture that has often been criticized for its emphasis on money and personal accomplishments, it seems that the concept of winning is beginning to overtake the concept of individual fame, and the superstars are leading the movement. James, Wade and Bosh gave up over $15 million EACH to form a team that they believe can win multiple championships. Mike Miller, Udonis Haslem and Big Z have also given up many millions, which in the end totals over $60 million and counting that players have given up to play in South Beach next year. Derek Fisher aka Robert Horry 2.0 also turned down money to stay with the Lakers in hopes of achieving his second 3-peat in LA. The biggest story of the offseason may eventually turn out to be Durantula's new contract with Oklahoma City which will pay him around $87 million over the next 5 years. Durant could have waited until the end of his contract and cashed in on a max deal, but instead he extended his contract early and only needed a tweet to announce it. The most impressive thing about this transaction is that it only
took Durant one minute to sign the contract. These signings say a lot about the character of these players and how teams are running their organizations. More and more GMs and team executives are talking about the importance of character and team chemistry, and this free agency period has confirmed its necessity.
Growing up some of my favorite players and some the most popular players in the league didn't have a ring(i.e. Karl Malone, Charles Barkley, Allen Iverson, Reggie Miller, John Stockton) but I don't recall any of the overly harsh criticism that I hear spoken towards the ringless stars today. Despite what has transpired in the last couple of weeks, for anyone to question LeBron's love for the city of Cleveland is absurd. I haven't experienced it YET, but when you become a huge celebrity, especially at such a young age, you're forced into an ongoing battle against
the resistance. In the biggest decision of his life, LeBron took control of his own destiny and made the best decision for himself by going to Miami. It's sort of a parodox because although players are sacrificing money and personal image to be on a winning team, it's still all about cementing their own legacy; and in today's professional basketball world, rings determine where you rank amongst the all time greats.
