Dear NBA Teams (re: Free Agency)
If last week's draft was the beginning of the Summer of Madness, then today is the calm before the storm. At 12 AM on Thursday, July 1st, 2010, the NBA will become a feeding frenzy. No one's team is safe. Everyone is grappling for position as the number one contender for a max-contract free agent. The prospects are alluring. LeBron James is enticing you guys to come to Cleveland. Chris Bosh is tweeting about where he wants to go and telling everyone about his travels. Joe Johnson and Dwyane Wade are having secret dinner meetings with everyone. Teams are already letting free agents know that they'll be contacting them. My question to you, teams, is as follows: Why is free agency supposed to be the end-all be-all of building a franchise?
Guys, take a look at basketball history. Remember those ridiculous dynasties in the 70s, 80s and 90s? Remember how the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics went back and forth as the best teams in the league? Remember how the Bulls pulled off two 3-peats behind Jordan and Pippen? Remember the Bad Boys of Detroit who had the repeat before them? What about the Spurs and Lakers of this past decade? What was the fabric behind all of those teams? What made those teams so good? I'll give you a second... Think about it (DING). The answer is continuity, NBA teams. Continuity, not high priced free agents was what made these teams great. The core players were the same in every championship run. Whether it was Zeke, Joe Dumars, Rodman & Adrian Dantley sticking together for 5 years before their two 'ships, or Shaq, Kobe & Company, or just Kobe & Company, or the Showtime Lakers, there have always been solid cores of players for every championship caliber team. Rather than exploding the team after every losing season (coughcoughKnickscoughcough), these teams stuck with the players they knew were doing the job, and then built around them. That's not the case today, teams.
When you look at all the players ready to make moves come Thursday, it's exciting, yet sad. There's no such thing as player loyalty or any desire for continuity. Even LeBron, aka Mr. Cleveland, is courting offers from potential suitors like it's a firesale. I suppose its a sad day when the NBA's supremacy becomes a high-stakes bidding war. Then again, are you teams engaging in the hype even positioning yourselves that well? The teams that usually contend already have their places in piece, and aren't worrying about integrating another star into their system. I don't know teams. You'd think that starting from the ground up, rather than trying to go fork overkill would be the best idea. Even so, the allure of signing one of the best players in the league is undeniable. Just make sure you remember a timeless Latin phrase: Caveat emptor (let the buyer beware)...