We’re in for some downtime, I thought. I even said so last week. With the end of the major
trades of the summer, the NBA offseason would finally slow down, I reasoned. I thought I was so smart.
I was wrong.
Yes, we’re not worked up into a frothing frenzy like we were with LeBron’s
big move. And the trade news is pretty
much done. But not all news comes out of
that one place: the NBA is a vast and complex organism, and has many levels at which happenings, well, happen.
First, there is Paul
George’s injury. Since I’ve already
addressed this in another piece, I won’t get into it deeply here. There are, however, some practical details to
note. First, what the USAB team decides
to do now is going to be crucial. How
are they going to deal with this blow to their roster? How will they, at the same time, honor
George?
It is not like there
is a lack of talent at the spot. But
there is a big loss defensively. KD could
make up for it but that’s not what we want him ideally focused on: he needs to
score. That said, the team will be so
good at scoring, that might not be an issue and KD can cover. But playing George was definitely better for
the team than not. Earlier in the game last night he made some great passes,
great decisions. And it is fitting in a
way he went down on an excellent defensive play—if it had to happen, at least
it did while he was doing what made him one of the very best in the league.
Obviously, the right
way to honor him is win it all. Doing
something like keeping a roster spot open for him, would be a disservice to the
talent out there. At the same time, this
will not be enough. And even if there is
a win, there is something dissatisfying about the whole thing. The proper way to honor George is to value
this tournament more than ever—almost more than the Olympics, in fact.
Next, this injury
poses a huge problem for the Pacers. Larry
Bird said the doctor’s examinations left him “optimistic.” But losing George for a year—which is what
this looks like it will be—will be a a huge blow to the team. The bookies
moved their odds of a championship way back, from 8-1 to 15-1 to win the
East. This may be a bit drastic. The East will be better, but it remains to be
seen how better it will be. Chicago was
looking to be in a better position than Indiana, and so too the Cavs. But not by much—assuming they got their act
together and played up to their potential, unlike they did in their funk last
year. Now, however, can we really say
they stack up against, say, Charlotte or the Raps? It’s more of a question.
He was not only the
Pacers’ best player—on offense and defense—he was also their most offensively
powerful. The Pacers had a horrible time
scoring last year, and their offense in general was displeasing to watch. George at times seemed to be their only contributor
on offense. It also means their defense
will suffer horribly. Defense is the
most fragile instrument at a team’s disposal.
Getting it to work well takes a lot of time and precise
coordination. This might not be a blow
it can survive. Frank Vogel, in short,
has his work cut out for him. But hopefully
he can use this as an opportunity to overhaul the team’s strategies, which
after last year looked like they may be in need of a reboot and serious
rethinking anyway.
Besides George and
the Pacers, the biggest news—perhaps even bigger, really—is that of the Donald
Sterling case. This took up most of last
week, but nothing quite happened.
Mostly, it was just a bunch of courtroom farce, with Sterling calling
bogus witnesses and raging at people. Monday,
however, changed this. Shelly Sterling won
the case against him. She can sell
the team. In fact, she can sell it
now.
This was the main nub of the case:
they wanted to make sure the team could be sold even throughout the appeals
process which Donald would bring if the Judge found it fine to go ahead with the
sale. Normally, an appeal would put a stay on such sales, but in cases where the value of the asset would be lost, there can be made an exception. The reasoning, which the Judge
agreed with, was that the $2 billion offer of Steve Ballmer may not be matched,
and that trying to sell it on the open market (rather than by bidding for it
blindly, as happened) would surely make the team not fetch such a hefty price.
It is a huge blow
for Donald, though rightly no one gives a damn.
Judge Levanas not only rules in favor of everything that Shelly wanted,
he also reprimanded Donald for the type of testimony he used, and in general
the shoddy nature and backwards reasoning of his various arguments. He tried to say that Shelly was up to
something sinister in trying to remove the team from him, and the Judge simply
dismissed the notion, mockingly saying that he found it hard to believe Shelly
was up to some “secret plan.” He also
tore into their attempt to use Dean Bonham and his absolutely uneducated guess about
how much the team would sell for as expert opinion. It only discredited his fight the more.
Then, there is other
administrative news. The Bucks are
slowly flushing out all the bad from their system. They recently fired their Chief Financial Officer,
and this
week replaced him with Patrick McDonough, longtime CFO to the Knicks. They also added Bob Cook, executive at HNTB,
the Midwest based engineering company, who will bring his expertise to the
issue most pressing to the Bucks now: the construction of a new stadium. It is yet another promising move signaling
the GM work of John Hammond is going well, and the ownership of Wesley Edens and
Marc Lasry is a good thing.
Next, the Kings put
on their purple hardhats. They
started work on their downtown site for their new arena yesterday. Cones, fences, signage aplenty. This is absolutely great news. The real sledgehammer thwacking should start
next week. The arena itself is planned
to be open in 2017. And not a day
too soon—this should have happened about five years ago.
SacTown
Royalty is going to keep us updated with whatever stories develop. But the amazing thing now is simply that it is getting done, finally, finally. The collective relief in the city is nearly audible. Now all that needs to happen is the team has to get its act together. All in all, though, a great and exciting day for Sacramento.
Finally, there is news
floating around about expansion teams.
Seattle is long due to get their team back, and people who are into the
investment have dug up a lot of indications that the NBA is leaning towards
doing so. There are also rumors that the
NBA may consider putting a team in Louisville, and reviving the old bizarre
legendary Kentucky Colonels of the ABA.
Though there isn’t
any official talk of this sort of move net by anyone in the NBA, the general
sense among supporters is that the NBA will be dealing with the Donald Sterling
affair and the TV deal for the foreseeable future, and once that is dealt with,
they will immediately go after expansion teams.
That’s discouraging in one sense, very encouraging in others.
It would be somewhat
of a blow for Kansas if Louisville ends up getting a team first—they have that
new Sprint Center downtown, which has been ready and waiting for a few years
now, and which would be a wonderful place to play a basketball game. But they may soon also get the NHL to pull
off a deal there, so at least they may be entertained in the meantime.
All in all a pretty
busy week. The next one will be busy
too, with the Hall of Fame ceremonies kicked into high gear this year because
of David Stern. He will be entering the
rather confused and strange pantheon of players in the HoF, and it will be yet
another time to look at his legacy. With
so much going on in the league right now on the business side, it is an
opportunity to appreciate just how successful he made the league. It is also clear he may have stayed on a
little too long, and created a few problems and a few ways of doing things from
which the league still has to wrest itself away. It should be great entertainment, certainly.
