We are about to witness the departure of NBA commissioner David Stern and I, for one, am glad. All these analysts have been very kind in their words about him, but I will not.
I've seen him introduce different basketballs for really no good reason. I've seen him eliminate the wear or compression tights (and let's be real, it was only because the NBA wasn't making money off of it seeing as they didn't make them). I saw him add an age limit provision to entering the NBA. It stated you couldn't declare for the NBA draft straight out of high school. The timing didn't make sense because it came after Amare Stoudamire and Lebron James won back to back Rookie Of The Year awards, who were both straight out of high school .And at the time, some of their best players were straight out of high school (i.e. Kobe Bryant, Kevin Garnett and Tracy McGrady). He also introduced these non-flattering sleeved jerseys. He also nixed the Chris Paul trade to the Lakers. To add insult to injury, he then approved a Chris Paul trade to the Clippers, with whom the Lakers share the same arena. Stern good riddance, no Green Day.
The Cleveland Cavaliers are not living up to the expectations that a lot of people had for them. They were suppose to be better than they are right now. One thing that plays a part is that they had the first overall pick in the 2013 NBA draft and took a player that NO ONE had pegged to go that high. They chose Anthony Bennett and it was so surprising that even Bill Simmons gasped in the mic while doing live commentary, but wasn't suppose to be talking at that moment.
That made me think where 2 teams would be right now if they made different decisions on 2 particular draft nights. The Detroit Pistons entered the 2003 NBA draft with the #2 pick, in a draft where Lebron James was the consensus #1 pick and Carmelo Anthony was the #2. The Pistons were the best team in the Eastern conference at the time and only had the pick because of a trade. They could of really bolstered their depth by selecting Carmelo but instead chose Darko Milicic, who isn't even in the league anymore. The NBA was in the midst of acquiring hidden gems from overseas, so that was the logic behind the pick.
The Chicago Bulls in the 2006 for some reason drafted LaMarcus Aldridge but traded him for 2 players that aren't currently in the league. Some would argue that the pick might of changed the course leading Chicago to draft Derrick Rose a few years later. But only time will tell how good a pick Rose was considering the injuries he has sustained over the last couple of years.
The all-star team reserves were announced last night and there were major snubs on both teams. The new commish Adam Silver should look into changing the way voting is done. Fans choose the starting lineup whereas coaches choose the reserves. I think the players should pick who starts seeing as they are the peers. The coaches should still pick the reserves except for the 2 wild card players. I think the fans should get to pick those. The fans just make it a popularity contest when they pick the starters and usually choose players that don't deserve an all-star starter nod and sometimes pick someone injured. I think picking the wild cards will force them to make better decisions on more deserving players.
Well this is my first post of 2014. And seeing that it was about the NBA, I got through this without mentioning my hopes of Carmelo Anthony going to the Chicago Bulls...I just did, didn't I?!
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