Is the Player Empowerment Era Good for the NBA?
This summer was the most insane NBA free agency offseason in history. Six of the 15 players who made All-NBA teams changed uniforms. In case you were not paying attention, here is a list of the top players who moved and where they went.
Kawhi Leonard -> Clippers
Paul George -> Clippers
Russell Westbrook -> Rockets
Anthony Davis -> Lakers (Teamed up with Lebron)
Kevin Durant -> Brooklyn Nets
Kyrie Irving -> Brooklyn Nets
Jimmy Butler -> Miami Heat
Kemba Walker -> Boston Celtics
Al Horford -> 76ers
Mike Conley -> Jazz
DeAngelo Russell -> Warriors
The most surprising move of this off-season and the one most pertinent to this conversation is the Paul George trade to the Clips. He signed a 4 year contract with the Oklahoma City Thunder last year while standing on a stage at a house party that teammate Russell Westbrook’s threw for him. This was a huge victory for the OKC Thunder who took a gamble and traded for a guy who publicly stated he wanted to play for the Lakers a year earlier. He is now a Los Angeles Clipper, not because the Thunder wanted it, but because Kawhi Leonard wanted it. Kawhi called him up and convinced him to team up and make the Clips a contender. Within a few days, Paul George called the Thunder, demanded a trade, and OKC had no choice but to move him. This level of collusion brings the player empowerment era to another level and many are asking: Is this good for the league?
Some History on the Player Empowerment Era
Lebron is the architect of the modern player empowerment era. In 2010, he was the best player in the world, and after spending 7 seasons with the Cavs who could not put a decent team around him, he made ‘The Decision” to team up with Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh and join the Miami Heat. They instantly became the best team in the NBA. They went to 4 straight finals and won 2 championships. He was the first player to take his future into his own hands and decide not only where he wanted to play, but who with.
6 years later, Kevin Durant decided he wanted to play with his friends and win some championships too. He signed with the Golden State Warriors in the summer of 2016 creating the dynasty that we all know and hate today. Fortunately, this team was dismantled this summer when KD decided he wanted a change of scenery and teamed up with another lifelong friend, Kyrie Irving in Brooklyn. Although many criticized these moves, they made sense and were well within the players rights’ because KD and Lebron were free agents and under no contractual obligations to any team.
Fast forward to 2017 and Kawhi Leonard decides he doesn’t trust the San Antonio Spurs organization anymore and he wants to move back home to LA. With 2 years left on his contract, he sits out an entire season (while being paid), demands a trade and orchestrates his way out. San Antonio had no choice but to trade him or they would risk losing him and getting nothing in return (I hate him). The Raptors were bold enough to make the trade knowing Kawhi most likely would not be a Raptor the following year and it worked out for them, they won the NBA Championship. Last year, Anthony Davis and Jimmy Butler both decide they were unhappy on their teams and demanded trades, derailing their franchises. All three of these moves were seen as less cool because they were still under contract. But, the teams had no choice but to sit them and eventually trade them.
This brings us to Paul George. There has never been such an egregious disrespect for a contract. As the mayor of OKC recently tweeted, all NBA stars are free agents now.
The bottom line is that if you are good enough, it doesn't matter how many years you have left on your contract, you have so much leverage over the team that you can move teams if you want. Are the players’ growing power good for the NBA? Let’s take a look at the stakeholders who make up the league and factors that go into this conversation to try and get a sense of how everyone feels about it.
The Players
The players are obviously ecstatic about this. No longer are they confined to a certain team, city, or market regardless of their current contract situation. They are taking control of their futures and why shouldn't they be able to? They are the greatest basketball players on the planet and there is not a league without them. No one would watch average people playing basketball. Imagine being so good at something, that there is a billion-dollar industry centered on watching you do that one thing. Of course, they should have power and control over that industry. At the bare minimum, they should be able to choose where they want to live and what organization they want to work for, like every other human on the planet. Teams can trade players whenever they want regardless of contract, why shouldn’t players have similar power (poor Blake Griffin)? Let’s be clear, only the top 10 or so players have this power and I doubt a player would be able to get out of a contract with 4 or 5 years left so their power is still limited.
The Teams
If you are the General Manager or Owner of an NBA team, this movement does not make you feel good. Marc Stein from the New York Times recently wrote about how this phenomenon has created a sense of “ helplessness that some teams inevitably feel against the LeBrons and Kawhis targeting their stars.” The organizations are trying to put together the best team they can in order to compete for championships and make money. How are teams expected to do this when their best players are being stolen away by players on other teams? Or the contracts they sign don’t really mean anything when you consider the leverage that star has over the team and organization? What power do they have to keep their players and please their fans? There is more pressure than ever to make their 20 something year old stars as happy as possible to prevent them from wanting to move on to a shiny new team.
Small Market vs Big Market
Teams in New York and Los Angeles feel very differently about this phenomenon than teams in Milwaukee, Utah, or Indiana. In the last 2 seasons, 6 of the top 8 players in the league moved to either New York or LA. Lebron, AD, KD, Kawhi, PG, and Kyrie. This must make you scared if you are a Pistons fan or a Kings fan. The more desirable teams in large cities are ecstatic and teams located in middle America are pissed. For a small market team to be competitive, they have to draft extremely well, develop young talent, not sign players to bad contracts, make almost no mistakes and hope that they are good enough to compete for a championship before their star young players realizes they want the fame of LA and NY. Big market teams can draft horribly and make tons of contractual mistakes and still get Lebron James and AD. This has always been the case and well run organizations find a way to remain competitive despite the disadvantages, but the player empowerment era is exacerbating the issue.
Parity
When stars have the ability to team up with each other easily, the league has typically gotten less “fair”. This offseason was the exception. Had Kawhi chosen to join forces with Lebron and AD, there would be very little question as to who would have won the title next year barring any major injury. However he chose the other LA team and as a result, the league is as wide open as it has been in 10 years. Historically, this has not been the case and player empowerment has led to the creation of dynasties e.g. Lakers, Heat, Warriors. When Lebron moved to the Heat in 2010, they were instantly the favorites each of the next 4 years. The Warriors built their team up the old fashioned way, but when KD decided to join the fun, they were the clear top dog for 3 years. The parity of the league is heavily influenced by the whims of the best players now more than ever. What does this mean for the on-court product? What is more entertaining, a David and Goliath story or an even playing field?
The Fans
The most important stakeholder is obviously the fans. As much as there is no NBA without the players, those players would not be making millions of dollars if it weren't for the fans. This brings up the question: What do the fans want?
What happens when fans devoted to their teams continuously watch their star players leave to team up with their friends in LA or NY? Will they continue to invest their heart, soul, and money into those teams and players? Will this player movement upset so many fans that they turn off the games?
This makes sense, except for the fact that the NBA is bigger than ever. There seems to be a shift in interest where people care more about the movement of players than the actual games. It can be argued that the few weeks of free agency were more exciting than the actual NBA Finals. And it was an amazing Finals. Interest seems to be driven by player twitter beefs and social media clips. There is an entire web show devoted to the goings on of NBA twitter called “NBA Desktop” where @netw3rk just clicks through twitter and makes fun of the absurdity. That show won AN EMMY! (Its great!). Is this bad for the league? Kevin Arnovitz recently discussed this issue on the The Lowe Post podcast. The problem would be similar to people being obsessed with a movie star but never actually buying tickets to see any movies that star is in. If that is the case, movies are doomed. Is basketball doomed? This is a whole separate article, but it adds some complexity when trying to figure out what fans want.
Regardless of the odd infatuation with player drama, ratings are higher when the big market teams are better. That just makes sense. Ratings are also better when popular teams are in the finals and dynasties make teams popular. You either love them or you hate them and that drives interest. Parity typically leads to lower overall viewership.
So despite Thunder fans having to deal with the heartbreak of losing KD in 2016 and now the loss of PG and Russ this summer, everyone else is stoked. Even though Kawhi ruined my life and my team, I am more engaged in the NBA than ever before as you can probably tell from the amount of words in this article. (Thank you for reading this far). In conclusion, there are tons of a factors in play and it is honestly very difficult to tell how players taking control of the league will affect the general interest of the game. All I can say is that I love basketball and I am all in.
