The Milwaukee Bucks captured the NBA Cup last night as every publication depicted it as a big accomplishment.
Unfortunately, this is where the problem lies, the NBA has a product issue. This tournament means nothing for the remainder of the season. It is merely a cash grab for the players. Giannis literally said this after their victory that everyone gets their $500k. You might as well name it, "The Greed Cup." Rui Hachimura said his motivation for the NBA was the money. He is slated to make $18 million this year on salary. That tells you a lot right there.
Here's the problem: The NBA players make too much money to even care for a better product. The Bulls and Hornets combined to miss 75 three pointers on Friday. NO ONE WANTS TO SEE THIS! As a fan growing up watching the game, we were spoiled to see big men inside the paint dominating on a nightly basis. In the 90's, we had Ewing, the Admiral, Hakeem, Shaq, Zo and a host of others. Also, defense, despite being boring, helped teams win and intimidated opponents. Look at the game now, they restricted hand-checking because they want players to score more. They want their centers to avoid the paint and chuck up threes. Prospects coming into the NBA want to showcase their offensive skills more than their defense. This is not the game that I watched growing up. I realize that everyone will read this and say how I'm stuck in the past and that the NBA is evolving so I need to do the same thing. I say, NO! NO! Clearly, I'm not the only one as viewership has gone down. If that's the case, then everyone is stuck in the past.
Out of the four men's major sports commissioners in the United States (sorry, MSL), I thought Adam Silver was the sane one of the four. When he kicked Donald Sterling out of the NBA as his first act as commish, many shouted, "Yes! We finally have a sports commissioner that gets it." Ten years later, "Oh, wow, he's just like the rest." He is more of a money grabber than Roger Goodell, as gimmicky as Rob Manfred and becoming vile like Gary Bettman. His pursuit of destroying tanking and having superstar players play all of the time has made him desperate. The NBA Cup and the Play-In Tournament has proved that. Instead of NBA players having the motivation to play hard every night with the millions of dollars that they already have, let's have meaningless tournaments to be sure that they are motivated and get even more money in the process. Seriously, this is being spoiled. I get that some of the players don't make a lot, so they really need it. If that is the case, owners should pay them more. The Play-In Tournament is just a copy of what March Madness does, which is also meaningless. You win it, only to be destroyed by the #1 or #2 seed, unless you were the Heat in 2023.
The All-Star Game, oh, lord, the All-Star Game has become a sad sack as of late. The players do not make an effort to at least care. They tried a fantasy type way to select teams, that didn't work. They are now trying this....(checking notes)....four-team tournament, are you (bleep)ing kidding me?! Another tournament that no one cares about, what the f.....
(We'll be right back)
We're back, see what I mean about that? Also, the Slam Dunk and Three-Point contests and Futures game were the staples of All-Star Weekend, your basic steak, potatoes and beer. Now they added the Skills Competition and 2-on-2, something that really shouldn't be added because the Skills Competiton is boring, and 2-on-2 wasn't my cup of tea. They had that one year when the Dunk contest was at halftime, this is when I realized that even the NBA didn't care. Since money is the motivation to the players, have a prize to the winner of the All-Star Game. If you get four steals, that's a $50,000 bonus. If they can be motivated for a trophy and prize money that no one cares about, I'm sure they will play hard for an All-Star Game that can get fans excited.
I haven't watched the NBA this season due to reasons, but watching the highlights, it's clear that the NBA needs to go back to basics. The product is soft right now....yes, I'm saying that. It is a chuck fest where no one wants to play defense, and centers shoot threes for no reason (Unless you are Nikola Jokic). Bring back hand-checking, have centers back his opponent down in the paint, have the All-Star Game be meaningful, get rid of tournaments that do not mean (bleep)...the draft prospects learn to have an all-around game......Yada, Yada, yada, but since the NBA just made some cash with Amazon and NBC, and also, Inside the NBA was saved by ESPN, you can be back to where you should be.
Let's hope.....(Also, if you think about putting Stephen A. with Inside the NBA, it's like putting broccoli sauce on ice cream.)
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