In the history of organized sports _ going back to ancient Greco-Roman tag team wrestling matches _ the modern NBA laps the field as the only league more interesting when no one is playing.
A dubious distinction, to be sure. But true.
The Association's regular season, at least, is unmemorable. Interminably long. The basketball is lousy, unless you're a fan of traveling, carrying the ball, missed 3s and dunks.
The best players take a quarter of the season off ("load management," the new NBA term for fleecing ticket holders) as fans who pay their mortgages to watch Understudy Games get foreclosed on. Teams don't always show up. The star-driven officiating is horrible.
But then free agency begins, the rumor mill spinning out pulp fiction by the minute.
The season that matters begins with the handing out of the O'Brien Trophy, which is supposed to be when it ends.
The anticipation for this free agency had been insane, like Sheldon, Leonard, Howard and Rajesh standing in line for Comic-Con. When it finally opened, it became a drag race (except for patient Kawhi on a tricycle), complete with burnouts, going zero-to-60 in two seconds.
Beaten into submission over the years has been the overused commissioner's creed: "For the good of the game." Until now.
Six of the 15 members of the 2018-19 All-NBA teams no longer are with their clubs.
Remember when then-Commissioner David Stern nixed Chris Paul's trade to the Lakers for the game's good. Current commish Adam Silver either doesn't have the power or simply doesn't want to use it.
He doesn't want to. He loves this crap.
But how long can a top-heavy league stand?
I don't give one damn that L.A. again is the center of the league's universe, now that the Lakers have added A.D. to LeBron, and the Clippers, of all people, Kawhi.
Leonard basically brokered the deal that sent Oklahoma City's Paul George to the Clips that will give the Thunder every draft pick for the next 10 years (etc.) _ and then OKC picked up more when it shipped Russell Westbrook, the most misunderstood great player of all our lifetimes, to Houston.
Thunder fans in recent years have lost James Harden, Kevin Durant, George and Westbrook? OKC called Tom Werner for fire sale advice.
The best players, in charge now, dictate where they want to be. Not good for any league.
The smaller-market teams are going to go the way of the dictionary.
The NBA is an expensive ticket. Why would fans attend when their teams can't keep their attractions? How can they know in advance which visitors are sitting?
