NBA 2015 - SHOW ME THE MONEY!

Man the year flew by didn't it? It's already October! I feel like I was just watching the NBA Finals a week ago (week ago). The long summer season we as sports fans (especially those who don't watch baseball) has been over for a while. The NFL has been in play for a few weeks now. Soccer for even longer. But it all comes together when the NBA season finally kicks off on October 28th and all these sports are rolling together in full swing. 

Yes I know, not everyone watches as much basketball as I do. Some people think the season starts after the Superbowl. Then there are the fans like me who watch at least 4 games a night, every night. The ones that pay attention to NBA Free Agency all summer and watch the preseason like they have nothing better to do. Which is why I'm sitting here at 4 AM typing this up when I should be looking at Thermodynamics. The NBA is electrifying. Media day was last week and it just felt like the first day back at school when all your friends are back from holiday. You're just happy to see everyone back and want to catch up and hear about their breaks. The NBA is a family unlike any other professional sports league and that permeates through every level; from owners like Mark Cuban, to the GMs, to the coaches, players and most importantly the fans. 

So here we are once again. Last year hardcore and casual fans alike were excited to see the new season start, mainly because there were so many narratives in place. Could the Heat win a third championship in a row... Would the Spurs be able to carry their aging roster back to the NBA finals even though the previous year took so much out of them... We were eager for the returns of Derrick Rose and Kobe Bryant #TheReturn, #SeasonOfLegends (Boy those didn't turn out well). Not to talk of all the other teams that we're out there trying to make themselves heard during the season. Now we're back again and a lot has happened over the summer. Let's start with the Cavaliers free-agency adventures. 

The biggest narrative for the season thus far is going to be the Cleveland's redemption thanks to Lebron James. The best basketball player on the planet is back home and he took some of his old teammates and all his fans back with him. Man don't you just hate the Cavaliers? How do you run a team so incompetently and still have all this goodwill fall in your lap? Either way, the Cavs became automatic contenders with the addition of Lebron and Kevin Love and made some smart moves picking up veteran role players along the way. It's not going to be a cakewalk but I'll get into that in another post later this week. On the surface though, the Eastern Conference is looking a lot more competitive (and yes I know I said that last year too but now I have proof).

• Derrick Rose and Pau Gasol make the Bulls stronger. 
• The Nets get Brook Lopez back. 
• The Wizards have a great, young back-court that took them to the 2nd round of the playoffs last year. They're only going to get better and added some experience in Paul Pierce.
• The Raptors brought their whole team back together and are hoping to win the Atlantic Division again. 
• The Knicks will never prosper (but Phil Jackson made some pretty decent moves in the draft and trade-wise too). 
• And don't forget about the Miami Heat. They went to the finals four years in a row and Pat Riley managed to keep Wade and Bosh around. Don't count them out yet. 

Long story short, the East isn't as wide open as it was last year. 

NBA free agency is always a fun topic to keep fans busy over the summer because we get to overreact to the team-building and the contracts that are signed. "What do you need him for?!" "They're paying him what???" and so on. Jodie Meeks set the playing field for other players who were free agents by signing with the Pistons for 3 years, $19 mil. So all summer long, agents got to raise the value of their players in contract negotiations. A lot of people cashed out this summer and it was definitely going to make next year's contract negotiations even more entertaining to watch. That is, until we were hit with the new TV deal. 

$24 billion. Twenty-four billion dollars over the next nine years. That's $2.67 billion per year. That's the value of the deal the NBA just signed with ESPN and Turner Sports. It's no secret that the NBA has gained so much popularity over the past 7 years, because the product is good and the owners are determined to cash in on it. The NBA is the best sports-internet product. More people talk about the NBA over the Internet than the NFL, MLB or NHL. "No sports league anywhere benefits as much as the NBA in this Age of (Too Much) Information. That cannot be debated." This deal allows the league to make that product better and more accessible to its fans worldwide. Flex scheduling will be available (FINALLY THANK GOD!), more nationally televised games and better streaming options for those without access to cable. This deal means more money for the teams. Which should also mean more money for the players right? Eh... 

"The whole thing that went on with the last negotiation process was the owners are losing money. There's no way they can sit in front of us and tell us that right now. As we continue to see teams selling for billions of dollars, being purchased for $200 million, selling for $550 million, $750 million, and now $2 billion ... so that will not fly with us this time." - Lebron James.

All that money really puts a lot of things in perspective. The $2 billion price tag on the LA Clippers seems reasonable now. $534 million for the Sacramento Kings seems cheap. Contract negotiations over the past summer seem petty. I say all that because it puts players who are going to be free agents next year in a weird position. For example, Klay Thompson. The Warriors passed up on trading Klay for Kevin Love and not signing anyone else. This gave Klay and his agent leverage because now the Warriors can't afford to lose him as a free agent next season and the only way they were going to do that was to sign him to a max contract. The next CBA negotiation is going to be 2017. Whereas before, the Warriors would have been hesitant to make that deal, I can see them now saying "Eh... I think you deserve this max contract. Here take all these monies" because it's not gonna mean much after the new caps have been set in 2017. Or everyone could do what James did and sign one-year contracts and wait for the CBA to be dealt with. Bring on the super-duper max contracts.

There's talks that things will be smoothed out between the NBPA and the owners and that we won't have a lockout but I don't see how that works personally. I also don't know that much about how those negotiations work so who knows, but I see a lockout coming. Just to be clear, a lockout also doesn't mean that games have to be missed either. There have been 4 lockouts in NBA history and only two of them have resulted in missed games. As a hardcore fan, watching October and November come and go without any basketball games is frustrating. You have to occupy yourself with things like chores or going outside, and wait till the weekend before you can get any meaningful sports action. Nobody wants that right? Please owners. Please give these guys the money they deserve. Thanks.

P.S.
Go Celtics!