The NBA Finals tip off tonight with a Warriors-Cavaliers matchup for the third straight year, and Commissioner Adam Silver yesterday said there is a connotation around super teams that they "didn't come together endemically." Silver: "Somehow that's a comment not about the quality of the team but about the way they were formed." Silver pointed out that the Warriors, who last year set the NBA regular season wins mark, were "formed in essence through the draft and a few trades and without even a top draft pick." Then they added F Kevin Durant last summer because Silver pointed out they were "not even in the tax." Silver: "So I love a team like that. To me, it demonstrates excellence and it's something that other teams strive for" (“The Herd,” Fox Sports Radio, 5/31). Silver also said it is a "little unfair" to blame Durant "for the so-called lack of competitive balance at the moment in the league." Silver: "He could have only impacted one team, had he stayed in Oklahoma City or gone somewhere else. ... It’s just hard for me to fathom how there becomes this perception that, at the moment, there are two teams that are truly competitive in this league, I just don't believe it. I think you’re going to see these things have a way of working themselves out over time" (“Mike & Mike,” ESPN Radio, 5/31).
STAR CROSSED? SI's Lee Jenkins in a cover story writes the NBA has "always been defined, and elevated, by its juggernauts." If it "wasn't the Lakers and the Celtics, it was the Pistons and the Bulls, or the Spurs and the Heat." After the '11 lockout, the new CBA negotiated by then-Deputy Commissioner Silver, which "imposed increasingly punitive luxury taxes on organizations exceeding the salary cap, accomplished precisely what Silver hoped." Five different franchises "captured championships in the next six years." But in '14 Silver "earned a landmark victory as a rookie commissioner, striking a colossal nine-year, $24 billion TV deal with ESPN and Turner." Despite the "bonanza," some owners became "guarded." The salary cap was $63.1M, and with players "entitled to half of all basketball-related income, that figure was going to climb substantially when the TV deal took effect before this season" (SI, 6/5 issue). Asked if the Warriors' and Cavs' dominance is bad for the league, NBA TV's Tas Melas said, "I can't buy it. I have listened to it the last 66 days. I think it's false. This league is about stars. That's what we refer to in this league when we refer to the past." He added, "The playoffs have been a little too long. People are saying this isn't good for the league. We've had a month and a half of some muck that we've gotten through, but we've gotten through it" ("The Starters," NBA TV, 5/31). ESPN Radio's Mike Golic said, "Everything is cyclical. The question is, is the cycle two years or six years? You don't know what it is, but during whatever that cycle is, I have no problem just seeing the best teams" ("Mike & Mike," ESPN Radio, 6/1).
CONTENDERS & PRETENDERS: In Tampa, Tom Jones writes, "The NBA has a real problem and it better figure out how to fix it." The league is "dominated by super teams." At most, there are "four or five teams that can legitimately compete for an NBA title." The other 25 teams "don't have a chance, and might not for the foreseable future." Jones: "Climbing out of the cellar of the league feels impossible" (TAMPA BAY TIMES, 6/1). In Denver, Nick Kosmider asks, "Is such dominance in a 30-team league supposed to be this inevitable?" TNT's Chris Webber said, "I don’t know what much we could do about it except for just enjoy it." Webber said when great players like Warriors G Stephen Curry and Durant are on the same team, and the Cavs have F LeBron James, "there’s not much you can do" (DENVER POST, 6/1). In DC, Jerry Brewer wrote the league is "top-heavy again, perhaps more than it has ever been, and the scary thing is that Cleveland and Golden State are nowhere near the end of their runs." Brewer: "It seems unfair. It seems hopeless." But the conversation about the lack of parity is "paradoxical, too: Two historical afterthoughts are now the domineering giants, which lets you know the NBA is still a sport of cyclical competitiveness, even if its cycle spins in slow motion" (WASHINGTON POST, 5/31). Silver pointed out the Cavs before last year had "never won in the history of the NBA" and the Warriors "hadn’t won in 40 years." Silver: "They have a lot of winning to do before, I think, they should be declared dynasties in the way that the Celtics and Lakers dominated for so many years or even for San Antonio with their five championships or the Bulls with their six championships" (“Mike & Mike,” ESPN Radio, 5/31).
