Recently, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said that the Warriors super team is bad for the league. His view reflects that of most of the owners in the NBA, whose teams don’t seem to have a chance at contending for a title against Golden State or Cleveland. Here is what Silver had to say:
“I don’t think it’s good for the league, just to be really clear. I will say, whoever is favored, try telling that to the 420 other players who aren’t on those two teams. We have the greatest collection of basketball players in the world in our league, so I’m not making any predictions.
“But there’s no question when you aggregate the great players [on those two teams] they have a better chance of winning than many other teams … It’ll be interesting to see what happens. But to be absolutely clear, I don’t think it’s ideal from a league standpoint.
“The good news is we are in a collective bargaining cycle, so it gives everyone an opportunity, from the owners to the union, to sit down behind closed doors and take a fresh look at the system and see if there’s a better way we can do it. My belief is we can make it better.
Not all owners are completely against super teams though. Dallas Mavericks’ owner Mark Cuban thinks that these teams are good for the league. From Tim MacMahon of ESPN:
“They become the villain,” Cuban told ESPN on Wednesday, a day after Silver indicated that changes in the collective bargaining agreement are needed to prevent similar situations from developing in the future. “Just like when LeBron James went to Miami, I loved that there was a villain. They become the villain. I’m fine with that. Everybody’s going to root for them to lose.”
It can’t come as a surprise that Cuban didn’t mind LeBron going to Miami. Of course he loved that, because his Mavericks team beat the Heat in the 2011 NBA Finals. But Cuban has a point: how much do NBA fans love to watch a team dominate, while cheering against them? Think about it.
When LeBron was in Miami, arenas sold out every night because every fan wants to see their team beat the villain. I can remember that they even had, “Beat the Heat,” chants on NBA 2K during this era. These villainous teams are popular among fans, and they generate a lot of revenue for the league. Cuban is right, these teams are good for the league.
