Issue V

“I’m not a businessman. I’m a business, man.”

Jay Z, Diamonds From Sierra Leone

Empowerment is in vogue. From insurance to television, Americans have grown accustomed to choice, flexibility and personalization. Now more than ever, we get what we want, when we want, where we want.

In the NBA, empowerment manifests itself in the form of player mobility: star players’ ability to hop from team to team to improve their chances of winning the coveted NBA championship.

Lebron James and Kevin Durant, the two best NBA players of their era, have ditched small market teams to win championships, and build businesses in global cities. Several of their peers have followed suit, and super-star Anthony Davis is up next.

On the surface, it seems player mobility should be celebrated. After all, the players are the product, shouldn’t they be able to choose where, and with whom, they work?

Probably. But what about the devastated fan bases and crippled organizations that these players leave in their wake?

Player mobility presents a fascinating dilemma for the NBA: reap the financial benefits of big stars in big cities or protect their small market teams.

This season, Anthony Davis (the league’s most physically gifted player) has made it clear that he will not re-sign with the New Orleans Pelicans, the feeble organization that drafted him, once his contract expires in 2020. So now the Pelicans face a choice: keep Davis in town for another year and a half in hopes that he’ll change his mind (good luck!) or trade the cornerstone of their organization to another team to recoup assets in the form of young, maybe-someday-stars and future draft picks. It’s essentially a lose-lose for the organization and fans, with the latter option presenting a small slice of hope for the future.

In all likelihood, Davis will join Lebron James, either by trade or free agency, in Los Angeles to create the next NBA “super team” and further the top-heavy structure of the league. The super team trend is concerning to many NBA fans and media members who worry about the long term viability of a league with so few competitive teams.

“The league has to have some kind of control. It can’t just be total player freedom. Someone has to be looking out for the overall health of the league.”

– Jason Whitlock, Speak For Yourself

The NBA has acknowledged the downside to player mobility and adjusted its contract rules in 2017 in an attempt to prevent exactly what’s happening in now in New Orleans:

“The league created a Designated Veteran Player Exception (DPE) to help teams hold on to their superstars. The DPE allows teams to offer far more money than other suitors in an attempt to give them an advantage in negotiations”


– Matt Blum, The Sports Quotient

But the league is learning that players can’t always be bought. Ring obsessed fans and media have created a climate in which championships are valued so heavily in the zeitgeist that players are willing to turn down the extra money in order and make a run at a title. Super star players, many of whom were millionaires before their 20th birthday, need rings to validate their greatness, not a larger home in Malibu.

The irony is that the league actually has greater parity in the era of player mobility than it did during the NBA’s “Golden Era” of the 80’s when it was harder for players to hop from team to team.

“From 1980 to 1989 only 5 teams made the NBA finals. From 2010 to 2018, 8 teams have made the finals. So this idea that the league is too top heavy is just not true.”


– Jason McIntyre, Fox Sports 1

McIntyre is right – historically a lack of parity does not hurt the league, and by almost any metric, the modern NBA thriving:

“Television ratings are up, attendance set a record, fans are subscribing to the league’s streaming service, sales of merchandise are up and the value of an average franchise is at an all-time high.”


– Brad Adgate, Forbes.com

“Player mobility; you all thought it was going to wreck the league. KG to the Celtics, Lebron to Miami, Chris Paul to Houston, KD to the Warriors, Kyrie to Boston, Lebron to the Lakers. It’s not killing the league. It’s doing the opposite. [2018] had highest ratings in the conference finals since 1979.”


– Colin Cowherd

The din of NBA chatter will contain whining about “disloyal” players for the foreseeable future because as long as viewership and attendance continues to climb, scorned fans and fruitless small market teams will be the cost of doing business.