Candidate Number:
000-233-051
b/r
bleacher report
How the New-look NBA Is Going
To Drive Fans Away
By: Student on September 13th, 2012
On the night of August 10th, the NBA began its descent from being the most exciting and
exhilarating league in sports to a drab and ugly one. This very day, Dwight Howard was traded
from the Orlando Magic to the Los Angeles Lakers, in a four-team deal. The Lakers kicked out their
young phenom, Andrew Bynum, and sent him to Philly. In the same trade, Philadelphia’s Andre
Iguodala got sent to Denver. Although that may seem like a viable deal, it is nothing in comparison
to what the Lakers have now.
Imagine looking at the box score of a game; let’s say the Los Angeles Clippers vs. the Los
Angeles Lakers. Last season, the Clippers won the season series, and were the champions of LA.
Now, that seems highly unlikely. It’s just hard to fathom that Steve Nash, Kobe Bryant, Metta
World Peace, Pau Gasol, and Dwight Howard are the starting
lineup of one team. All of the weapons that other teams have will
be null considering the number of weapons the Lakers have.
Only a big-market team can generate the amount of revenue to
make this trade possible, thus creating a disparity between teams.
One could say, that the start of the “super-team” craze in
the NBA was ignited with the Boston Celtics in 2008. The
difference from the Celtics and the other “super-teams” is the
fact that they were a super-team. Every member on the roster
contributed to the Celtic’s championship. Rajon Rondo
blossomed, James Posey and Eddie House hit threes, and even
P.J Brown would flush the ball. These were unknown players back then, but they were the ones who
pushed the Celtics to a championship. The way the Celtics played as a team differs from that of
today’s “super-teams”.
The Miami Heat, on the other hand, are a group of old or injury-riddled players, who
luckily have the chance to play with 3 NBA superstars. Moreover, the team just added Ray Allen to
the mix as well. They look unbeatable. The Heat’s “Big Three” averaged 67.2 points per game
while the entire Miami Heat averaged 98.5 points per game. Their bench consists of three point
shooters now, and not a single solid NBA center. How can that be a team? The Heat’s strategies for
winning the NBA championship were to lockdown Durant and have Lebron shoot the ball like a
Candidate Number:
000-233-051
madman. That is a complete difference to how the Celtics won their title. The game has lost the
aspects that make it beautiful. Where is the teamwork? What about the hustle?
Let’s rephrase that: the Heat “looked unbeatable”. Since Dwight Howard was traded to the
Lakers, the Heat do not seem invincible. The Lakers, on the other hand, have a team that should win
every single game. Then we can compare either of those teams to the Denver Nuggets, or the
Minnesota Timberwolves. See the difference?
The cause of this disparity was the unsuccessful CBA agreement that was produced almost
a year ago. Its very goal was to increase the revenue for NBA owners because many of them were
struggling financially. The money that supports all NBA teams comes from the owners, so it was
obviously a big conflict that needed a resolution. It was thought that the smaller-market teams
would benefit from this deal. What happened though, was a massive increase of percentage
regarding all of the Basketball Related Income (BRI) received by the owners. Meaning that the
owners will be getting a lot more money in regards to team earnings; such as ticket sales,
concessions, and merchandise. Ironically enough, this increase of wealth, is only allowing the
small-market teams to barely make it in terms of profit. On the other hand, the large-market teams
have an abundance of wealth, and now they can overreach for better players during free-agency.
The wealth gap between cities, let’s say LA and Oklahoma City, is now a vast trench. Los
Angeles will bring in a lot more BRI than OKC, thus leading to a greater influx of wealth for those
teams in a larger city. This will cause more and more “super-teams” to be formed like the Heat and
Lakers, as in, for example, the Knicks and the Nets. To get these superstars on their teams;
however, is easier than it seems. Superstars nowadays are as superficial as they come. Dwight
Howard, for instance, made such a huge fuss about wanting to leave Orlando that he ended up
getting a Coach, and a GM fired. After the trade happened, Orlando got almost nothing in return,
and now they have one of the worst teams in the NBA. Money talks in this league. It’s that simple
As NBA fans gear up for this upcoming season there will be a lot more hype in regards to
the “super-teams”, but the season in general will be a lot less enthralling. NBA fans have slowly
diverged from being actually interested in the mechanics of the game, to focusing on dunks and
double clutch layups. Yes, those shots do take a lot of skill and talent, but they are not the essence
of basketball. Like the Boston Celtics of 2008, overall team play and strategy make way for the
most beautiful form of the sport. Now all the fans that enjoy seeing this intense flow of
interconnectivity in a team, will slowly leave the ranks of fan-hood. What irritates these fans the
most is the incessant ignoring of the rules to allow for sweet plays. The referees don’t even call
travels. Sadly enough, this is the newly negotiated NBA. Society today has become so materialistic,
that even the simple idea of teamwork has been tossed in the trash to leave room for a few more
alley-oops. This is not the game I used to play in high school. This sport has just become part of the
popular progression of America.
(word count: 988)
Candidate Number:
000-233-051
Works Cited
"Dwight Howard to Lakers Done Deal." FOX Sports. Microsoft, 10 Aug. 2012. Web. 12
Sept. 2012. <http://msn.foxsports.com/nba/story/dwight-howard-los-angeles-lakersandrew-bynum-orlando-magic-12-player-trade-081012>. (PHOTO)
"Miami Heat." Espn Go. ESPN, June 2012. Web. 5 Sept. 2012.
<http://espn.go.com/nba/team/stats/_/name/mia/miami-heat>. (Stats)
"NBA." Bleacher Report. Turner Sports & Entertainment, n.d. Web. 12 Sept. 2012.
<http://bleacherreport.com/nba>. (Layout Inspiration)
Candidate Number:
000-233-051
Rationale
This opinion article is related to the course because it clearly shows how media can
influence an audience in many ways. More specifically, in this article the influence tends to
center around more ideological foundations. Since this opinion article is written as if it
were part of the online sports blog, “Bleacher Report”, it is more directed towards sports
enthusiasts. Although this article is addressing problems in the NBA, it is not only focused
on NBA fans, but sports fans in general.
I wrote this piece as a disgruntled sports blogger, who has become fed up with the
new “super-teams” in the NBA. This article is directly referencing the new free agent
pickups by the Lakers, and other recent occurrence’s in the world of basketball. The main
purpose of this article is to show how the new CBA agreement will end up destroying part
of the NBA’s fan base. To achieve this, I included a lot of emotional and ethical appeals,
while adding one fallacy. The appeals were used because they make the audience feel
connected to the “deeper” part of basketball. This is where the ideological influence
applies. In theory, team sports should be played with synergy and grace. What I tried to
accomplish was the use appeals to show how the new “super-teams” will slowly drive away
the fans that love the true essence of the game. To reiterate this point, I used Ad Hominem
to attack the Lakers and the Heat as the entities that are making the NBA a sport based on
esthetics, rather that teamwork.
In the end, this opinion article sets itself on presenting and antagonizing the new
materialistic NBA in contrast to the old, workman-style, down-to-Earth NBA.
(Word Count 285)