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SALT LAKE CITY — The NBA’s television ratings are up, as the finals pit a slew of future Hall of Famers against one another. Just as they have for the past two seasons, the finals feature the Golden State Warriors and the Cleveland Cavaliers.
The Cavs feature LeBron James, the greatest player to step on the floor since Michael Jordan, while the Warriors have amassed potentially the greatest collection of talent the NBA has ever seen on one roster. After winning an NBA record 73 games last year during the regular season, Golden State added Kevin Durant, a consensus top three NBA player and arguably one of the 20 greatest players in NBA history.
According to USA Today, fans have tuned in at a rate 7 percent higher than last year, despite the fact the first two games of the finals have been colossal blowouts. The Cavs have lost both games by a combined 41 points, and heading back to Cleveland, there doesn’t appear to be much hope of changing the outcome of this series. The Warriors will likely sweep the Cavs out of the Finals, finishing the playoffs with a perfect record: four straight sweeps.
The NBA loves the ratings, though it may prefer having more games, making for more revenue space. The higher ratings translate to more expensive advertising space.
It’s hard to blame the casual sports viewer for tuning in to see the league’s best players facing off in the biggest games of the season.
However, for dedicated fans of any specific NBA team, rather than the league as a whole, the uptick in super teams doesn’t make for the best NBA product.
The Utah Jazz’s highest profile player, Gordon Hayward, is a free agent this summer and is likely to explore his options of joining a super team. The Boston Celtics, stationed in a major market and featuring already proven stars, will likely field the best opportunity of Hayward joining a super team, capable of competing with the league’s previously mentioned juggernauts. But even with Hayward, the odds of the Celtics overtaking the James-led Cavs seem low.
If Hayward were to leave the Jazz and still fail to push the Celtics into contender status, the Jazz would be hurt by the sudden departure, while the Celtics would fail to see an increase in progress beyond their Eastern Conference Finals appearance this season. Both the Chicago Bulls and Indiana Pacers may be forced to trade their stars, Jimmy Butler and Paul George, who appear to be eyeing super teams next season, or risk losing them for nothing, as the Jazz might this summer. There are already talks of Butler joining Hayward in Boston, robbing two teams of their star players to make another roster a real competitor.
Simply put, because of these super teams, there aren’t many opportunities around the league for NBA players to compete for championships. Now, because of the perceived scarcity in opportunities, more upper-echelon players will filter their way to the top of the league’s talent pools, passing on higher-paying opportunities to compete for a ring.
Warriors big man David West is a prime example of this phenomenon. West opted to pass on a nearly $13 million contract in 2015 to sign with the championship-contending San Antonio Spurs for a little more than $1 million. He’s continued this trend, ending up with the Warriors this season, bolstering their already incredibly talented roster while taking up very little salary cap space.
West, still a high-level NBA contributor, would have made any roster he joined more competitive, but he isn’t the type of player that would single-handedly shift the balance of power for a noncontender.
There is something to be celebrated when a player makes winning a priority over money in professional sports, though joining a front-runner like the Warriors hardly appeals to the traditional sense of professional competition. West and Durant have been accused of backdooring their way to a championship ring.
However, as we’ve seen with stars like Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen and Chris Bosh, it’s better to have won a championship, regardless of which team they won with, rather than finish your career without a ring. Legacies like those of Karl Malone, John Stockton, Patrick Ewing and Charles Barkley seem oddly unsettled without a championship to crown their accomplishments.
Joining a contending team isn’t anything new in basketball. Malone joined the heavily favored Los Angeles Lakers after his career with the Jazz, though he failed to win a championship. Barkley did the same thing, joining a Houston Rockets team with two recent championships, though he, like Malone, failed to capture a ring.
It is worth nothing in those instances both Malone and Barkley’s careers were nearing an end, and they were reduced to part-time contributors rather than cornerstone pieces like Durant is with the Warriors.
For fans of Golden State or Cleveland, the appeal for star players to join the franchises is ideal and will keep them competitive as long as they have primary stars worthy of building around.
For teams like the Jazz, or the Pacers, losing a secondary star that can’t lead a contender by themselves may continue to be a death knell until they miraculously stumble upon a franchise changing pieces in the draft. Even in that scenario, the player may opt to leave, as Durant did with the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Because of these super teams, the ratings are up in the NBA Finals, and for the league’s bottom line that is ideal. The increased revenue helps fans as well, as it may make the need for franchise relocation less likely if owners in smaller markets can make money, regardless of the city they play in.
However, for fans wanting more than an entertaining viewing experience, hoping to one day see their favorite team win a championship, these super teams might make it harder than ever for smaller franchise to compete. This development will likely stay good for the league, even if it’s bad for the fans.
