Dear NBA Lockout

Dear God... If you love us, please don't bring this back.

Comparisons are the backbone of sports analysis. You can't give a fair estimation of any player, team, era or anything related to sports without something prior to measure it up to. LeBron vs. Kobe vs. Michael. Dwight Howard vs. Shaq. Showtime Lakers vs. Kobe & Shaq Lakers. Detroit Bad Boys vs. Detroit Bad Boys v2.0. Comparisons have a way of shortening the time capsule known as sports history, so that even the least knowledgeable basketball fans can join in the discussion. The dearth of information on NBA.com, basketball-reference.com and Wikipedia give us an archive of the happenings that make the NBA great. That said, one comparison that I'd rather not even have the chance to make is that concerning you, NBA Lockout.

In 1998, after Michael Jordan willed another 3 titles out of his beleaguered limbs, the NBA was at an impasse similar to that of today. The league had seen unparalleled levels of success, notoriety and viewership. An influx of young talent, namely from the 1996 Draft had restocked the rosters with stars that still play today. Yet, no one was happy with the league. Players and teams argued about player salaries. Team owners argued with the NBA offices about how little money they were making. Fans argued with fans about who was to blame for all of the arguing. Arguments, arguments and arguments. Sounds familiar, doesn't it?

NBA Lockout, in 1998 you brought my worst fears to fruition: a half-assed season; 50 games clearly devoid of the spark that made the NBA great during the early-to-mid 90s. It was painful to watch. No All-Star Game. A virtual vacuous shell of a season, that in retrospect, may as well have not even happened. An exciting, yet wary NBA Finals. These are the shadows that haunt me today, NBA Lockout. If you happen, that's all I can see. Months of deliberation and sitting in front of SportsCenter hoping for good news. Interviews with superstars and owners all blaming one another for losing money, when everyone should be bearing the onus.

At this point in NBA history, you would be absolutely destructive. Not as much from a monetary standpoint, but in terms of momentum. After your last inception, the amount of knocks that the NBA took was detestable. From waning viewership because no one could relate to stars or cared enough, to basketbrawls that painted the NBA in a thuggish light, to a vacuum of talent, it took the NBA another 8 years to regain its fire. Lockout, you would bring the NBA back into the dark ages of basketball. Those years from 1999 to around 2004 were boring by today's standards, no matter how many times teams tried to reignite themselves. Guys like Michael Olowokandi, Darius Miles, Trajon Langdon were cast into spotlights devoid of substance simply because you forced teams to look elsewhere for talent. And it's going to happen again. Just look at this past draft, all of the players that stayed in college, and it's obvious.

They say that those who don't learn from their history are doomed to repeat it. What makes your impending reappearance so sad is that you'll probably happen again next decade. In this age where the players clearly have more pull than management (just ask Carmelo), there's little reason to have a Collective Bargaining Agreement that lasts more than 6 or 7 years. Last year's free agent frenzy makes it so that every player averaging over 17 points a game thinks they can swindle their way into a $10M/year contract, and owners thinking they can buy a championship a la the Heat. Players see the dollar signs from million dollar endorsements on behalf of the league. At the same time, owners still see shrinking pockets, with 22 of the 30 franchises losing money. Owners see the balooning player egos and believe the only way to reign them in is to jump into you. Rather than have a real discussion about where the money is going, everyone wants to discuss why the money isn't going to them. Lockout, you bring the green-eyed monsters in every NBA personality out so that nobody wins. You did it in 1998 and if the NFL bears any similarity, you seem poised to do it again.

Do me a favor, lockout. Stay in the annals of NBA history. Keep all of your salary arbitration, endless meetings, arguments and debates in the past. Do me this favor and keep yourself from tainting what was a miraculous run of NBA growth with your money-hungry ideology. Do me this favor and keep the NBA from reverting back to a business. You can't decry the need for better sportsmanship and increased engagement while fighting over dollars. Do me this favor so that we don't have to go through an entire fall and winter of baseball talk. Long live the complete, unadulterated NBA, and death to a Wikipedia entry with 2011-2012 listed as a lockout season. That's a comparison or conversation I never want to have...

Dear Michael Jordan (re: The Decision)

When an innovator, originator or all-time great speaks on the current state of their field of expertise, you listen. Point. Blank. Period. No matter how sick you are of hearing about the event, that great's words matter, not because they'll have any bearing on the situation. Those words matter because it's essentially a view from the top. It's like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs or Eric Schmidt speaking on the state of computing, or Joe Montana speaking on football, or Jimmie Dean (RIP) speaking on breakfast meats. That's why I don't get why people are so up in arms about your comments regarding the LeBron-athon and the free agency free-for-all over the past few weeks. Michael, simply put, you are the best to ever play the game of basketball (readers, let's not get into the debate; Kobe is still playing). That said, I think you'd know a thing or two about the game and how differences in generations would change the game.

Michael, your comments make perfect sense. While one can't not respect LeBron and company for hopping onto the Dwyane Wade bandwagon in Miami, you've got to question the cojones on some of these guys. You're right!! Back in your day (sad that we can say that now) you wouldn't have had Larry Bird and Magic Johnson hitting you up to form a New World Order. Patrick Ewing wouldn't have based his free agent signing on wherever you were going. Charles Barkley would've laughed you out of town had you suggested that you guys team up. I suppose what the NBA is losing with these multi-million dollar deals and hour-long free agent specials, is simple: competition. Think about it MJ.. When you were playing, did the term 'contract year' even exist? Players didn't lounge for 3 years and then decide to turn it on the year their contract was up. They proved their worth on a night-to-night basis. Players went up and at each other. There were rivalries... REAL rivalries, with bad blood, heated words and hard fouls to prove it. Players might have been friends off the court, but their pride wouldn't allow them to make nice on the court. In your day, there wouldn't have been 'Three Kings' in Miami. Those three guys would have had to make their own ways in their respective cities. The advent of free agency took the heart right out of the NBA.

Much like your comments, Mike, this isn't a shot at LeBron. This is just a basketball fan fearing the worst: that the underdog will become a dying breed... that the powers that be (ie: David Stern, the shareholders, and their wallets) will prevail over the game and art of basketball... Even more I fear that competition, true competition between great players will dwindle because they'll all be on the same team. Where's the fun in that? LeBron and his personal dream team will be fun to watch. Yet, the best basketball experiences involve NOT knowing who was going to be in the big dance come May. Your era was the last to exhibit raw, unadulterated, bitter competition. The way it's looking, the NBA Champs will be one of 4 teams for the next 10 years. If that doesn't make you as a basketball fan a little salty, Mike, I don't know what does. Then again, I suppose running the Charlotte Bobcats (as futile as it may become soon) is all the competition you need. Good luck fighting the power, Mike. You'll need it...

Dear Dan Gilbert

Caption: Am I f*cking up??

via The New York Times:

Cleveland fans, you can still hold your heads high: The curse has been lifted! Or so the Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert asserts, in an open letter to “Cleveland, all of Northeast Ohio and Cleveland Cavaliers supporters wherever you may be tonight.”

While some in the city and state that once hailed LeBron James as “king” burned his jerseys, Gilbert promised a much brighter future while simultaneously chastising and berating James for his “cowardly betrayal” of his hometown fans.

“But the good news is that this heartless and callous action can only serve as the antidote to the so-called ‘curse’ on Cleveland, Ohio,” Gilbert wrote, noting that the “self-titled former ‘king” will be taking the bad luck and karma with him to South Beach. With the “curse” on its way to Miami, Cleveland is now primed to win a championship, in Gilbert’s eyes. In all capital letters, in the middle of the letter, Gilbert made a vow to Cavaliers fans everywhere:

“I PERSONALLY GUARANTEE THAT THE CLEVELAND CAVALIERS WILL WIN AN NBA CHAMPIONSHIP BEFORE THE SELF-TITLED FORMER ‘KING’ WINS ONE.”

Cleveland, Gilbert says, won’t just live on, it will prosper. Its children won’t have the image of a selfish role model draped over their arenas, and its front offices will be working harder than ever to win a championship against James.

As everyone is sitting there hating LeBron on the Heat, and raising their blood pressure over a deal that sealed basketball future, it would be easy to write about LeBron. However, the media firestorm, combined with the entire experience of the LeBronathon sickened me, so I'm not writing a part 2 to the previous letter. Instead we're going to take a look at you, Dan Gilbert. The owner that gave up the best player in the NBA.

I can't think of ANY time in the NBA when a team would allow, not only their best player to walk in free agency, but the best player in the NBA, and the world! Dan, you really dropped the ball on this one. The Cavaliers have had 7 (count em; 7) seasons to win an NBA Championship with LeBron James. That's 7 different seasons and 7 different chances to win. In NBA years, that's a long time. Dynasties are forged within 2-3 years. We're watching the end of one (sorry Lakers) and the beginning of a dynasty of endless epic proportions. The fact that you had well over twice that time to build a championship-caliber team around LeBron is sad. In those 7 years, I can't think of one season where James had a legitimate 2nd option on the team. Signing Larry Hughes was a joke and Mo Williams can't produce in the postseason. Not to mention, Antawn Jamison never can cut it in crunch time. Everytime your team won, it was because LeBron did something extraordinarily skilled or inhumanly athletic, not because someone else contributed consistently. Therefore, you can't ever be mad that he left to get some support (I think he went for broke for no reason, but that's another letter) around him. LeBron might have taken the easy way out, but can you blame him?

Your letter to the fans sounded like an angry ex-girlfriend who's ex-boyfriend upgraded significantly. It sounded like you were trying to find any conceivable way to speak ill of that person, regardless of whether you did right by them or not. What's worse is that you guaranteed a title before the Heat. You can't promise that!! What crystal ball were you looking into? Dan, you do realize that the your team, the Cavs have NOBODY on the squad. You guys won't be competing in the Eastern Conference for a long time. The Heat are a juggernaut, and they only have 4 players on their roster. The Celtics just re-upped with Jermaine O'Neal, the Bulls got better with Boozer and the Magic are still the Magic. Not to mention, the rest of the East is getting better. All that, combined with the fact that LeBron tried to smooth his move to Miami over with apologies, made you flip. That doesn't mean you should write angry letters to fans bashing the man. Seriously... Who tries to put a hex on a player leaving his team? Did you sit there at home and prick your LeBron James voodoo doll? Had you simply expressed remorse, or sounded optimistic (neither would truly make a difference, anyway), you wouldn't look like an ass now or have to start from square one with the Cavaliers and with Cleveland. Hope your wallets will be okay as Cleveland's economy rapidly declines and the Cavs don't make the playoffs for another 15 years...

First this, and now LeBron leaves?? Maybe Cleveland just isn't meant to win...

Dear Dwight Howard & Amar'e Stoudemire

If these are the best that the league has to offer, the big man might be extinct in 20 years...

NOTE FROM EDITOR:This week is a sad, yet exciting week for any basketball junkie.. including myself. With the NBA Finals beginning on Thursday, we've got to recap the playoffs and what we've seen so far. Here's a tribute to the mythical species of skilled big men...

It's a huge honor being called the best big men of this era, but what happens when the title is undeserved? What happens when the dire lack of traditional centers and power forwards places the premium on size, strength and athleticism rather than knowledge of the game, skill and intangibles? What happens when basketball's two best big men.. aren't?

First off, let's get at you Dwight. Yes, I've been your biggest critic since you've gotten to the NBA. But, in all honesty, it's warranted. Dog, you haven't gotten any better since 2004!! It's been 6 years.. 6 seasons in the NBA, and you're still virtually the same player you were when you entered. You still are a dunk and layup machine and can erase damn near every shot thrown at you, yet there are points at which I wonder about your testicular fortitude. Dwight, you can be completely erased from a game, given the proper personnel guarding you. Kendrick Perkins proved it this year. Pau Gasol & Andrew Bynum proved it last year. Rasheed Wallace proved it the year before that AND this year.

You don't look too happy there, Dwight.. Shaq looks the same as he always does: dominant...


Dwight, if someone is rougher than you, you fold. The Playoffs exposed how your team falters when you get taken out of the paint. And you call yourself Superman... Shaq ought to slap the S right off your chest. No, he still can't shoot free throws, but the man has the best post moves I've ever seen. If Shaq is anywhere within 15 feet of the basket, there's little chance of stopping him. I don't think I'll ever be able to say that about you. What makes matters worse is that you have Patrick Ewing on your sideline. Quick history lesson: Patrick Ewing is one of the greatest centers of all time. Had he not (ironically, because he used to live in the paint) missed a layup, we'd probably be talking about him and a Finals ring. Even so, how has none of the man's teaching not rubbed off on you? You don't have a jumpshot, drop step or face-up move to speak of. It's mind-boggling how easy your athleticism could be used with some skill, dude. Seriously, before next season, call Kevin McHale, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Hakeem Olajuwon and Bill Walton, and ask them for some help, because your post game is SAD.

Now, on to you, Amar'e. I've always liked you. You had a fiery demeanor and a 'don't look at me that way, n*gga!' swagger since you were drafted out of high school. At first, you had the Dwight Howard syndrome, with not a move to speak of. Then, I guess playing with Steve Nash rubbed off on you and you developed a nice mid-range jump shot. Kudos. Also, kudos on getting by all of those injuries. There were a good 3 years that I thought your career might be over. That said, you need some coaching on defense. I mean, damn! When your team can't count on you to get a rebound, much less defend their best post player, what really is your purpose for being on the court? You can't be a one-way player as a big man. Maybe it works as a combo guard (see: Jamal Crawford), but as an elite big man, you shouldn't be struggling against mediocre centers.

Nene's good.. But not that good.... Guess he's good enough to make a poster out of you...


I got another bone to pick with you too, Amar'e. What's with you playing the background all the time on your squad? Is Steve Nash that good of a leader or are you just waiting until he retires to take hold of that team? I hate to break it to you, but Steve's only got one hand's worth (at most 5 years) left in the league. He won't be making everything easy for you by tossing the ball exactly where it needs to be for you to score anymore. Things are going to get harder. It would behoove you to grow a pair and start taking over games when necessary. Not as big a beef as Dwight, but think, you probably would have been at Game 7 with the Lakers had you gotten the rebound off Kobe's airball.

To both of you, this letter is a harrowing reminder of what happens when you don't hone your craft as a big man. Guards can get away with specialization, but not franchise-caliber centers. You two are heralded as the best of this generation, but when held up against prior ones, you guys just pale. Shaq, Olajuwon, Ewing and whatever other 90s big men you want to bring up would have dumped on you two in their heydays. That's not to say the two of you won't get better; it's just an observation from a week and a half of watching the two of you play inconsistently. Sigh... Maybe next year...