Rick Reilly: NBA no longer fan-tastic

[Auggie]

2-23-11 / espn.com

In Denver, our hearts are as black as Johnny Cash's closet, our eyes mere lumps of coal. We are the emptiest thing fans can be: an NBA city without an NBA superstar. Don't laugh. You could be next.

This is what the NBA has become: very tall, very rich twenty-somethings running the league from the backs of limos, colluding so that the best players gang up on the worst. To hell with the Denvers, the Clevelands, the Torontos. If you aren't a city with a direct flight to Paris, we're leaving. Go rot.

There's no rule against it, so they do it. Ray Allen and Paul Pierce beg Kevin Garnett to please come to Boston. LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh connive to play in Miami. At his wedding in New York City this past July, Carmelo Anthony, Amare Stoudemire and Chris Paul toasted to all three playing in New York someday. Stoudemire switched this past summer. Anthony was traded there Monday. And Paul is set to enter free agency next season, bags already packed.

MORE: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?id=6150136

I'm a non-fan but do find this interesting

[madinmaryland]

1. I've always found Rick Reilly to be a whiny dick and have a hard time reading

his drivel.

[jakefrep]

16. I agree. This article was a bunch of chicken little bullshit.

The owners, not the players, will be the ones driving the league off a cliff, just like the NFL. In terms of keeping players, the deck is already stacked heavily in the owners' favor. What the owners seem to want is indentured servitude.

[joeybee12]

2. I think kevin Garnett is different, but Riley is onto something...Carmelo

wanted to go to the Big Apple not because of the opportunity for playing with the Knicks--face it, the Nuggets are a decent franchise...but because there are...ahem...more distractions in New York than Denver.

Same with Miami over Cleveland...we know what Queen James was really after...

[taterguy]

3. The NFL is more popular because of the blood-lust in this country

It has nothing to do with player movement.

Of course the turning point in the NBA that no one talks about was early in Magic Johnson's career.

He signed a big deal and decided he didn't like the coach who ended up getting fired.

After that the players knew they were in charge.

[trumad]

5. Blood lust...

Seriously---you had to be the last guy picked in pick up games.

Candy Ass.

[madinmaryland]

8. He can't even ride a bicycle without crashing and breaking his nose.

[taterguy]

9. 7,000 + rides. One nasal injury

Dumbass

[madinmaryland]

12. And you've posted that picture 7,000 fucking times, Francis.

Lighten the fuck up, francis! It may help your balance!

[taterguy]

14. I have never posted the picture of my bicycle nose injury

You don't know what the fuck you're talking about.

As usual.

[madinmaryland]

15. Nice try, Francis. You tried that sob story earlier today, Francis.

[taterguy]

10. Started four years in the interior line

Quit once I realized it wasn't much fun.

I enjoy watching it but any honest person recognizes that most of football's appeal is due to its violence.

[JonLP24]

4. Oh hell

This is an example of small market players moving on to large markets, as seen in MLB and possibly the NFL. The NBA transaction rules are set up to benefit home teams. Free agents can sign for more money signing with their current team. Sign-and-trade deals are set up so the current team can get picks/players and the player can sign for more money with the other team. If he is upset/fears Chris Paul going to another team, he should know he can make far more if he signs with New Orleans. Or if they can get a sign-and-trade deal, New Orleans can get picks/players.

[El Supremo]

6. Don't forget about La La Vasquez' reality show.

The trade is done but the next reality show is just starting.

VH1 plans to launch a reality show in August built around La La Vazquez as she and her husband Carmelo Anthony move to New York City.

VH1's 10-part, half-hour series, "La La's Full Court Life" (working title), started filming in January, picking up where the wedding special, "La La's Full Court Wedding" left off. Now that NBA Forward Carmelo Anthony is set to play for the New York Knicks, La La is preparing to move back home....

http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_17462304

[wilt the stilt]

7. why are you guys complaining

this is david Stern's dream league.

[Condem]

11. Did everybody hear?

Kennedy was assassinated.

[madinmaryland]

13. I always thought the Dead Kennedy's Band sucked. Good riddance!