Dear Hornets Fans,

Losing a superstar sucks.

What is even worse is the time spent walking the NBA wilderness in search of the magical thing known as "potential". When things are going great with a CP3 or a KG in tow, it's easy to forget that there simply aren't that many people on planet earth who are super tall, super athletic, super coordinated, and who can throw a little orange ball through a hoop with amazing efficiency. Finding these sorts of creatures with a GPS and the intertronz can be a sticky wicket. Throwing a lottery and a draft into the mix lowers the odds to even murkier depths.

As amazing as it is to think about how Anthony Davis would look in a home NOLA uniform, or as fun as it is to create draft board after draft board after draft board, the truth is that far more often than not those real losses turn into real final records which turn into real lottery balls that turn into actual draft positions who turn into Baby Bulls, Syracuse Duos, Adam Morrisons, and, if you're really lucky, Jerry Stackhouse-level players.

You were dealt a bad hand with Chris Paul leaving town. The cards played by David Stern were even more brutal. Instead of fielding a team based around Goran Dragic, Kevin Martin, Lamar Odom, Luis Scola, and Emeka Okafor, you have been asked to participate in sports austerity so that a super-rich and potentially local owner (who probably does not exist at the moment) can feel like his (or her) up-front investment can pave the way for massive profit based on franchise valuation. (This is a fun cheer at home games: "Go Valuation!")

You are being asked to get excited about equally non-existent things like cap space and future draft picks. Eventually the potential of these things will become reality and, chances are, that reality will, in no way, shape, or form, be worth what you think it one day could have been. This isn't something you want to wear at a home game:

Your favorite team was offered a middle class existence that would have made its fans happy in the present. The league decided that they needed to live in poverty for a while so that some rich (and yet to be discovered) a-hole can buy the team for a big tax write-off before he (or she) heads on over to Baton Rouge to ask for money for a new arena.

The league won't tell you this, but for the vast majority of fans, the NBA really isn't about winning it all. That requires luck, and luck is above and beyond the control of even the best GMs. Sam Presti isn't Sam Presti without Portland getting itself Pritch Slapped (is Sam Presti the new Kevin Pritchard or is Kevin Pritchard the first Sam Presti?). The Bulls drafted 2 top picks before having to wait another 7 years for Derrick Rose. They may have even had a Rose-esque player in Jay Williams before he got stupid on a motorcycle. The point here is that finding a player who can take you to the 1 place in the world that every other pro team wants to get to is 100% dependent on things that are out of your (and your team's) control.

Instead, this league is, for most of us, about simple entertainment. It is about getting your money's worth on the same night as the date on that $30 ticket you just handed to the guy/gal at the gate. It isn't about cap space, trade exceptions and caches of 1st round picks that hopefully/maybe/someday will give you a shot at the title. That's just the nonsense that the league will sell you while they keep costs as low as possible for the still-imaginary rich person that will eventually ask you for more tax dollars for a new arena.

As bad as things might seem right now, and as much as you are being asked to suffer while waiting for magic to happen at income levels well beyond the bills in your wallet and with numbers beyond what you can dial, you still have things to legitimately be hopeful for. You have a good GM in Dell Demps (when the league actually allows him to do his job), you still have average-to-above-average professional players (Eric Gordon, Emeka Okafor, Carl Landry, and hopefully Chris Kaman and Trevor Ariza), and you appear to have a really good coach.

As a fan of a team that went through 7 straight 1-and-done post seasons before coming within a Sam Cassel injury of winning it all, and who has spent the last 7 years rooting for some of the worst basketball that you can possibly imagine watching, I can honestly tell you that there is nothing wrong with being just good enough to have the chance to watch an extra 7 games a year. Those extra 7 games are a much more likely possibility for entertainment than is landing the transcendent player who can take you the distance. You had that guy. He's gone. Things can still be good. Things can still be entertaining.

One of the things we joke about over at Canis Hoopus is that someday, all of the losing will be worth it--someday, all the suffering and money and dashed draft hopes will pay off in an amazing title run (they're going to be the league's first 80-win team). Someday, the payoff for all of this crap is going to be worth...well, the truth is that a team built around Kevin Love, Al Jefferson, and, had they drafted well, Steph Curry or Ty Lawson, has the same "upside" as a team built around Kevin Love, Derrick Williams, and Ricky Rubio. Future assets are rarely worth what you have to deal with in the meantime. The seas are always stormy. Make the most of what you have in the here and now instead of filling the books with "assets" that will turn into gold after (insert magic here). Denver seems to be the only team in recent memory that realizes currently good players > "assets".

Don't buy into potential picks, cap space, trade exceptions or any of the other nonsense your ticket reps, the league, and (eventually) your front office will approach you with. Demand a good product on the date of your ticket. You don't deserve and should not accept anything less. The NBA middle class (even the upper-lower-middle-class) is nothing to turn up your nose at, and the chances of these austere measures being for the benefit of anybody but a super rich owner are slim.

I hope you find an owner and I hope that owner realizes that those top picks can best be spent on landing more above average players to put around Eric Gordon, Emeka Okafor, and Carl Landry so that you can win 50 games and get to the playoffs a hell of a lot quicker than you can when Anthony Davis and whoever Eric Gordon is flipped for wins 50 games. Oh, you'll have to cross your fingers a whole lot with that 2nd option.

Good luck and live in the now.

PS: I'll leave you with the following updated FDR quote:

But while they prate of economic laws draft picks and cap space, men and women are starving fans are suffering and increasingly apathetic. We must lay hold of the fact that economic laws rebuilding rules are not made by nature. They are made by human beings owners who want you to continue to pay for a bad product when you shouldn't have to.

[Promoted from the FanPosts: a great look at what may lie in the Hornets' future this season - Rohan]

In this day and age it's hard not to become personally attached to a professional athlete. Their lives get closer and closer to our own each passing moment with the developments in social networking technology. As fans, we develop a sense of closeness with guys we follow on Twitter or see in media day interviews on YouTube, when in reality we may have never been within 100 miles of them. But that's just the way things are in this era of technology, we've become connected and intertwined in ways we still don't quite understand, and because of that, we have a lot of trouble watching even the smallest of players leave town. However, when a trade goes down including our "favorite player(s)" we have to step outside ourselves and measure things up, remember what the real goal is, and learn to accept and understand that, whatever it may be. As Hornets fans, we have been through a lot, probably more in the past ten years since the team has been here than most fan-bases have had to deal with in a lifetime, but that's the way it has to be with a small market team; in order to win big, you have to lose big first.

The Hornets have started down the path of rebuilding, they're seeking their second rebirth project in the last 5-6 years, and so far they are off to a great start. They acquired Eric Gordon, Chris Kaman, Al-Farouq Aminu, and Minnesota's unprotected 1st round draft choice from the Los Angeles Clippers in exchange for Chris Paul; a fair exchange of talent, potential, and assets for any rebuilding team. The Hornets also traded Quincy Pondexter to the Memphis Grizzlies for point guard Greivis Vasquez, and signed Spanish League sensation Gustavo Ayon. The amount of turnover on this team is incredible as only one player has been here for more than a year (Emeka Okafor), and only three others were on the roster for all of last season (Ariza, Belinelli, Smith). With the rapid exchange rate we have experienced, we're beginning to have our feelings dulled towards players, and this is a good thing for our situation. Players come and players go, but it's on the coaching staff and front office executives to put the right players into their system like seeds in a flower bed. And finally, to get to my point, I brought all of this up because I want to talk about what comes next because I can assure you that Dell Demps is not through making moves, not with three valuable big men and a 3-point sharpshooter. But I'd prefer to focus on just two of these guys: Carl Landry and Chris Kaman. They are our two most movable assets and can easily be flipped to a contender, and it's those possibilities that I will expand on.

The Front Runners

There will be several teams in the running for the services of Landry and Kaman, but a couple of them really stand out. Those teams are the Dallas Mavericks, the Boston Celtics, the Portland Trail Blazers, and the San Antonio Spurs. All of those teams have a desire to get better down in the paint and want a big man who can be reliable as a post player and also hit an 18-footer, Kaman and Landry can do those things. Both players have differences though; Landry is smaller, but a better athlete and scorer than Kaman; Kaman is a better shooter, rebounder, and shot blocker than Landry. Now we see how each player fits into those teams.

• Dallas Mavericks, Best Fit: Chris Kaman
  • Why: The Mavericks have no center. Brendan Haywood has declined faster than anyone could have imagined and appears to have lost all ability to play basketball effectively. Adding Kaman to the roster gives the Mavericks a bit more of a presence down low. Dirk can slide back into his power forward position, and Odom and Marion can rotate between starting small forward and backup power forward/center. The only problem here is that Dallas is lacking any pieces the Hornets may want, and there's no conceivable way to make the trade work salary-wise without getting very creative.
  • Potential: Unlikely
• Boston Celtics, Best Fit: Chris Kaman
  • The Celtics are old, not quite at the same level of oldness as the aforementioned Mavericks, but their "Big 3" are now the "Old 3", and this team is also lacking any semblance of a presence in the middle. Jermaine O'Neal is far past his prime and hardly a backup at this juncture, much less a starter, so adding Kaman makes a ton of sense for the Celtics. A legit starting center means Garnett can play his true position more and get some much needed rest. The acquisition also opens up the offense a little more as the Celtics will have two well rounded offensive threats with Garnett and Kaman up front. But, again, the Celtics don't have a lot of assets and must also do some tinkering to make the trade work.
  • Potential: Somewhat Likely
• San Antonio Spurs, Best Fit: Carl Landry
  • The Spurs are riding the Tim Duncan train on fumes right now, and adding Carl Landry would be a good attempt at juicing the gas pedal one last time. Duncan has lost several steps and is a lot closer to retirement than many of us had expected, but he's going to give one more solid year before the gas eventually runs out. Pairing the up-tempo Carl Landry with him gives a pretty nice one-two punch in the front, and what they may lack defensively, they can make up for with scoring and ball movement, and Gregg Popovich is a nice bonus, too.
  • Potential: Fairly Likely
• Portland Trail Blazers, Best Fit: Either Player
  • The Blazers made no secret about wanting to add Carl Landry to the mix this off season, but in the end, he chose to come back to New Orleans for a bigger payday. The Blazers have a very good team right now, but lack another legit post player to pair with stud LaMarcus Aldridge. Marcus Camby is moonlighting as a defensive specialist in the starting lineup, but should his team acquire either of these players, he's in line for longer resting periods. This trade would make sense for both sides because Portland offers young talent.
  • Potential: Highly Likely

We won't hear too much about these guys moving until early February, so it's safe to put a lid on things for now because a lot can change throughout the league until then. But it's not hard to see these guys names pop up frequently around the trade deadline as teams start figuring out what they need to make a push for a championship because this year presents a unique opportunity for other teams to win it all. Until then, keep faith in the future of this franchise and try not to get too attached to anyone on this team, except for Monty Williams; that guy's a stud. Geaux Hornets!

Anyone know how I can watch whole games hours after they've happened? I used the free NBA TV pass to watch the first hornets game but it meant staying up til 4:45am (I'm in the UK so the time difference is a nightmare!). I don't really want to pay $150 or whatever for NBA TV access if I can't watch any games at a reasonable hour, and won't be able to stay up that late once I'm back at work.

I thought about trying to set my laptop up to stream the games while I sleep and somehow record them, but I don't know how to do that.

Thanks, in advance.

Just wanted to say hi and wish the Hornets the best as the team moves on from CP3. I know it must be quite difficult to part with your best player, beloved superstar, and active community leader, but I think the Hornets made out with a really good deal and is probably on the fast track to rebuilding.

You all will be very happy with Eric Gordon. He's a classy, talented, hardworking kid with a shy demeanor. And yes, he can ball too. Most of us at Clips Nation think he is the best young SG in the league. Some of us Clipper fans also feel that Aminu has the potential to be the next Gerald Wallace if given the time to grow. And then there's that pick... =]

Good luck this season NOH. I'll be rooting for you guys from LA - especially for our former Clips Gordon, Aminu and Kaman.

Just looking at the potential going forward, it is very exciting. Gordon is a great talent that we can build around. I really like the resigning of Landry. Now assuming we will have 2 pretty good draft picks next year, I think we should look to add a scorer with Gordon, and bolster the frontline with a young talented big man. This is a very solid draft class. Scorers like Harrison Barnes, Jeremy Lamb may be able to step in right away. There are some nice bigs, not necessarily true centers, but guys like Anthony Davis who will be good. Then I like Belli coming off the bench. I would say target a PG, but there isn't much after Austin Rivers and maybe Jordan Taylor late in the draft. However, next season is filled with quality point guards in FA. I assume Rose and Westbrook will be resigned, and Paul and D Will should have their own bidding wars. But we can still land a floor general with experience such as Ray Felton, Kirk Hinrich, Andre Miller, Beno Udrih. There are several others like Mo williams, Dragic, Randy Foye, Augustin, Jameer Nelson. We will have a lot of cap space most likely. I can honestly see this team being vry competitive in just 2 years time. Looking forward to the future!!

Simple poll and discussion:

Which trade did you like better? The Hornets/Lakers/Rockets trade or the Hornets/Clippers?

I like that we got a 1st rounder and Gordon in the clippers trade, but that first one we would have got so much more talent right now and had a chance for the playoffs this year, but I guess when you lose Paul and West...you go into rebuilding mode for the most part.

VOTE!

I have been playing around with scenarios on how the CP3 trade could go through and the Hornets(/NBA) are demanding a lot of young talent in exchange for CP3. The Wolves have a lot of young talent, they could facilitate this trade scenario.

The previous deal almost made CP3 a Laker, which the NBA rejected is:

Lakers gets: CP3

Houston gets: Pau Gasol

Hornets gets: Kevin Martin, Luis Scola, Lamar Odom, Goran Dragic, LA 1st round pick, Houston 1st round pick

In a new scenario, the Wolves would facilitate this trade instead of the Rockets. Wolves have a lot of young players that they could throw to the Hornets (or the the NBA's/Commissioner's face).

However there are pros and cons in every trade. And we will break down the trade below...

Continue reading this post »

Bill Russell ain’t got nothin’ on Dwight Howard. So maybe Bill Russell won a few championships (alright maybe more than a few, 11), put together an MVP season or two (or 5), and, hell, even coached himself (and his teammates) to an NBA championship once upon a time (as one of the only successful player-coach stints in recent sports history)[1], but the great Bill Russell was never wise enough to be a personnel man.

Dwight Howard is a new breed. Sports pundits have always marveled over what a perfect athletic specimen D12 is for the center position, but his brilliant brawn has blinded us from his acute managerial and scouting prowess. Little did we know, but he has a knack for knowing what creates a championship team. By god, he has the secret formula! Let’s get him some chalk and a board and see what he can teach us…wait, your grand plan for improvements around the Amway Center is Monta Ellis and 31 year old Stephen Jackson…hmmm…can we get that chalk back, I believe Office Depot allows same day returns.

Player-GMs

Mr. Howard was quoted as saying a big piece of why he is forcing his way out of Orlando is because he does not have a “voice” in team personnel decisions. “The stuff that I have asked for, the stuff I felt our team needed to get better, none of it has happened,” said Howard. And Howard is not alone in his desire for executive and personnel decision-making power as a player.

Dwayne Wade perhaps the “OG” Player-GM pushed Pat Riley aside last summer and pulled off the greatest free agent coup in NBA history in recruiting LeBron James, Chris Bosh, and of course, himself to his very own “Miami-Wade” county. Carmelo Anthony (or shall I say LaLa Anthony) catapulted into “management” last season to extract himself (herself) from Denver and paired himself with Amar’e Stoudemire in mid-town Manhattan.

This era is brand new, so we cannot break out our “jump to conclusion mats” quite yet as to the success of these new Player-GMs. However, early indications are not promising. While Dwayne Wade recruited the most talented basketball player in the world in LeBron James, the two virtually play the same position and spent the entire last season stepping on each other’s feet as much as two kids at a middle school Sadie Hawkins dance. Carmelo and LaLa’s executive decision matched his small forward offensive focused game with offensively inclined power forward Amar’e Stoudamire arriving at six seed and a sweep out of the playoffs.[2] And then you have D12 and his desire to acuire Monta Ellis, yet another shoot-first point guard who cannot get him the ball (a lot like Gilbert Arenas with better knees and cooler tattoos).

We have arrived at a new era in the NBA one defined by: The Player-GM. Very few players throughout sports history have ever been able to be successful player-coaches (Russell, a notable exception). We are at the precipice of this new era, where the players know best how to construct a championship team. This despite the fact that many of these newly self-appointed Player-GMs have little or no formal college education, obtained no managerial experience whatsoever, and have never demonstrated any expertise in the nuances of understanding putting personnel together that fits on a chemistry level.

When Harry (Billy Crystal’s character) met Sally (played by pre-lip injected Meg Ryan) in the cleverly titled When Harry Met Sally he shared with her that “there are two kinds of women in the world: high maintenance women and low maintenance women.” She responds, “so which one am I?” He retorts, “you’re the worst kind, you’re high maintenance but you think you’re low maintenance.”

There are two kinds of NBA superstars in today’s Player-GM era: the ever lessening and endangered low maintenance types (self-driven leaders, inspiring of others, humble, lead-by-example) like Derek Rose, Steve Nash, and Kevin Durant[3] and then there are the high maintenance (but think they are low maintenance) types. Dwight Howard, LeBron James, and Carmelo Anthony headline this type of superstar; they have un-worldly athletic gifts, but also believe their shit (and awful personnel ideas) smell like Yves St. Laurent aftershave. These high-but-think-they’re-low maintenance types are driven by a narcissism[4] that somehow indicates to them that their basketball skills are so tremendous that somehow these physical skills instantly translate to brilliance in front-office decision making abilities.

As a fan, it is unnerving that NBA free agency is now hostage to high school like clique behavior. For true insight into where a player is going in future summers, it would seem the Chris Broussard’s and Adrian Wojnarowski’s of the media (both NBA scoop artists) would be better off hunting down which players are on Dwight Howard’s Xbox friend list or LeBron James’ birthday invitee list to ascertain where they may be on the move to next rather than where they will win the most titles.

The high-but-low-maintenance stars think they are low maintenance because they make basketball look so easy and inherently bring 50 regular season wins to a city near you.[5] However, the high maintenance behaviors arrive when they insist on playing assistant GM, demand their posse fly on team flights, or get their friends hired onto team payroll in the case of LeBron James with his tenure with the Cavs. Just ask Cavs owner Dan Gilbert, these I believe-I-am-low-maintenance-because-I-win-50-game types have more demands than a Van Halen world tour rider (only brown M&Ms).

These superstars skipped right past the player-coach dynamic (and have thus far missed on the whole actually winning NBA championships thing) and anointed themselves Player-GMs. They force the moves, demand their teammates, and then lose before late June comes around. It’s a real fun cycle like that.

Player Leadership

(cue the record screeching sound as the needle is ripped away from the previous paragraphs…I promise the snark stops here)

In fairness to Howard, Melo, and James, the guys with all the education, managerial experiences, and supposed knack for piecing teams together have not exactly done a bang up job as of late.[6] Isaiah Thomas, Danny Ferry, and David Khan all come to mind. I can have empathy for these guys if they are trapped in a situation where the GM (or even the owner) trade for all the wrong players and especially the wrong contracts or are convicted slumlords (in the case of Clippers owner Donald Sterling). However in the case of Carmelo Anthony, it gets less excusable. The Nuggets have committed ownership and a GM who made sound decisions. Same goes with Dwight Howard’s owner Rich DeVos (he just paid $62 million to Gilbert Areans NOT to play for his team, so his team could get better). That is commitment to winning. As for Magic GM Otis Smith, perhaps that topic is saved for my next essay.

Dwight Howard’s suggestion of the Magic acquiring Monta Ellis as the 2ndbanana for the team to re-enter Championship mode is particularly interesting because he does not seem to recognize the real flaw in his team (or his game). Ellis certainly can score. However, Monta has never been the embodiment of team leadership, rarely seems to extract more out of his teammates, and has never been known for his keen ability to distribute the ball to his teammates.

The underlying foundational problem for the Magic is that they actually need a “number 1 guy,” not a 2nd banana. The same for Carmelo in New York and the same went for LeBron before he left Cleveland (and gained Wade). Unbeknownst to these high-but-think-they’re low-maintenance ballers is what actually is required to lead a team: to start, how about leadership.[7] These three players in particular[8] seem to think raw talent trumps all. None of these players, in 7+ years of NBA experience, have been the #1 go-to-get-on-my-back-I-will-take-you-to-the-promise-land-guy deep into the playoffs.[9]

Leadership is a funny thing. In watching Tim Tebow overachieve the past seven weeks, and more importantly somehow extract overachievement from his teammates, pundits have pointed to his “intangibles” and “leadership,” but no one can quite put words to what precise characteristics he has that comprise his remarkable leadership. Let’s give it a try…

Family/Systems

In psychology, the study of teams and interpersonal interaction is largely done through the theoretical lens of what is referred to as “systems theory.” Practically speaking, it is not usually utilized to study teammate interactions or team chemistry issues (it applies quite well though), but instead intervening and helping with families in psychotherapy. Systems theory provides an excellent theoretical guide for how to understand groups of people and the complex web of multifaceted relationships that make up a group or family dynamic.

The “organization” or “structure” of a system/family (or team) is the most fundament piece to a successful system.[10] People need roles. Human beings thrive on knowing what is expected of them. If a role is too large or small for one member of a family or team, then problems will occur. If certain roles or tasks are occupied by two members of the same group, then conflict will arise.

The most critical element of the structure or organization of a family is good leadership at the top of the family. Leadership is a top-down process. If you go to the playground on a weekend and observe the interaction of kids with their parents for 2-3 minutes, you will know in a Gladwellian Blink-like second who is running that family and if there is healthy leadership at the top. A further example of this power imbalance is a really bad episode of MTV’s My Super Sweet 16: dad works all the time and can only be in charge gift giving, mom is lost in her world botox and calf implants, and the child is left to fend for him/herself. The brattiness of the child is usually a direct product of the void in leadership in the family. The effect of poor leadership is not just noticeable with annoying[11] behaviors of teenagers. Infants as young as 7-8 months are remarkable at perceiving and absorbing the emotional state (i.e. anxiety, confidence) of their caretakers; especially if the caretaker is not comfortable in their leadership role.[12]

A healthy hierarchy and familial organization is found when children know their parents are in charge and parents allow their children some developmentally appropriate autonomy, but still govern their children’s interactions in the world. This allows all family members the freedom to be themselves in their roles. However, children are constantly growing and changing and these roles change over time.

Changing roles is when things can get complicated because what is essentially asked of a group/family is for multiple individuals to change in congruence with each other (giving up some roles, gaining different new roles or tasks), and this usually takes place without any direct communication about each parties’ role change. It is a very difficult “dance” between multiple parties with little or no verbal communication; usually only subtle non-verbal cues of needed or desired changes.

This is where good leadership is paramount.[13] A good leader can sniff out the change that is coming, adjust their own role in whatever way is needed, foster communication about the changes that are emerging in the system and group, and help others psychological and emotionally prepare for their change in role. Or in the case of NBA ownership: allow their star players to shine as brightly as they can, build talent around them, but not cater to their every whim, in turn, ceding control to them.

A prime example of this kind of change is when Kobe Bryant forced Shaq out of L.A. This sequence is synonymous to an adolescent/young adult having success at an internship, but knowing that daddy paved the way for that opportunity. Kobe won 3 titles with Shaq, but also went through a personal/professional metamorphosis where he knew he felt ready to be the leader. You can never have two leaders on the same team.[14] It was a reasonable progression and expectation for Kobe Bryant to want to graduate to adult life, lead his own team. It was also understandable for Shaq to not want to give up the throne of L.A while he still had a year or two left in his prime. With grand poobah Phil Jackson, maybe the only member of the early 2000’s Lakers system that could have successfully intervened, off fly-fishing in Montana everything quickly spiraled out of control. What transpired next was a Roman like blood battle for the emperor’s chair that resulted in Kobe’s ascendance as King of L.A., the original talent-taking to South Beach with Shaq shipped to Miami, hurt feelings communicated in F-minus rap songs, and eventually a truce between Shaq and Kobe brokered by…are you ready to go full circle here…none other than…Bill Russell.

The problem with the new generation is most of these guys have not been on teams where they have learned how to win championships. Kobe’s time with Shaq (and Phil Jackson) was a tremendous luxury for him as he learned what it takes to win at the highest level. Especially for the new generation of players who usually soak in only one year of college, they miss out on learning how to win and lead (especially for those fortunate to study under Professors Krzyzewski andddddd…oh wait all the teaching coaches are gone from the college game). Unfortunately one of the last vestiges for teaching winning with dignity, leadership, and honor, the amateur coach, has been replaced with sleazy salesmen who only excel at recruiting. Is it any wonder Doc Rivers sent his kid to Duke?

The greatest NBA players and example of leadership had some of the most gifted teachers and leaders the game has ever seen. Michael Jordan had Dean Smith. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar had John Wooden. Bill Russell had Red Auerbach. This is not a coincidence. Leaders are not simply born into the world, they are fostered and taught to understand that within the fiber of their beings they have the ability to lead themselves. One who can lead himself, quite easily leads others.

NBA Management Leadership

The final piece of this diatribe on the State of the NBA Union is the leadership at the top. Like we visited before with the family analogy, leadership is top-down. A system is only as successful as its leader. With the NBA, individual teams succeed or fail based on their leaders: owners and GMs. The healthiest and most consistently successful mid-market teams (using mid-market teams in order to control our measurement for success by removing teams like the Lakers that have inherent advantages like marketing $$$, an abundance of sun and busty-attractive woman, killer nightlife, and beaches) have the strongest and smartest leaders: Dallas (Mark Cuban), Oklahoma City (Sam Presti), and San Antonio (Greg Popavich, R.C. Buford). Reciprocally, the teams mired in the most turmoil for the past decades the Knicks (James Dolan, Isaiah Thomas) and L.A. Clippers (Donald Sterling) are devoid of strong, healthy leadership.

Question: You randomly stumble across 500 million dollars in a brown paper bag on the bus tomorrow morning and have the privilege of purchasing your very own NBA franchise.[15] In just as great a stroke of luck David Stern, the benevolent fella that he always is, says “just because I like you I am going to give you a special choice in starting your team.” You can either start your team with Sam Presti as your GM for the lifetime of your ownership or I will place LeBron James on your squad for you to build your personnel around. Who do you choose?

I do not know the answer to this question…but at least it leaves you thinking. I will say though that there are probably on 5-6 super-duper stars in the NBA that guarantee you a certain amount of on-court success. We as fans and media get extremely caught up in the importance of these players and drool at the possibility of our team acquiring one of these players (just look at the fan commotion surrounding the Suck-For-Luck movements early in the NFL season). But mustn’t there also be 5-6 super-duper GMs in the league that can simultaneously win now without sacrificing the team’s future. Obviously fans are drawn to the on court athleticism, as should be the case, but just know that if you are lucky enough to obsess over a team with great management you will probably be a less frustrated and agitated sports fan (cut to the scene of Green Bay Packers fans smiling and nodding right now).

Commissioner

Let’s zoom out one more layer to get a fuller picture of the current state of flux and leaderlessness in the NBA. NBA Commissioner David Stern is in the most precarious, uncertain moment of his entire career. The firedavidstern.com domain sale papers have surely been drawn up in the last couple of weeks.[16]

The NBA is lacking at the top. Not just in need of someone to hand out fines if guy’s get into fights. The NBA is lacking the true patriarch it blossomed with in the 1980s and 1990s. With the talent pool in the NBA right now, the league should be stronger than ever.

Which begs the question, “Who the fuck[17] is in charge of the NBA right now?” If you asked a completely unknowing observer from the outside and simply had them view the last two years, they would say the league is run by its superstars.

It is David Stern’s responsibility to put a structure in place to prevent the NBA from being run by 25 year old athletes. He wildly swung and missed at such measures to do so in the recently signed Collective Bargaining Agreement. It is David Stern’s responsibility to help all facets of the league to know and understand their respective roles. Anything less is a failure in leadership.

By no means is it an easy job, but he has clearly lost the psychological power to impart his will on the players and owners. Dwight Eisenhower once said of this challenging task, “leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.”[18] As a leader, attempting to forcefully jam a solution down another party’s throat (like what we are seeing in Stern’s methods with his handling of the Chris Paul trade) is an admission you are no longer in control. For it is the leader who gets the other party to chew, embrace the flavors, and willfully swallow that which at first they did no want to eat.

If you have appropriate control over a system, all parts fall into place. The David Stern of 1995 had complete control over how all aspects of his league evolved. The David Stern today looks like a tyrant grasping for the last bits of his power.

It comes back to 7-8 month old infants. Even they can perceive their caretakers’ uncertainty if its there. Of course the new generation of young NBA superstars can unconsciously sniff out that David Stern has lost his fastball. These players have filled this void with their own style of leadership and ideals for how they think the league should be run.

David Stern has responded very erratically in the past few days, especially as it relates to the Chris Paul trade. The worst thing a leader can do is communicate a confusing message, as Stern has done all week. Like any decision from a well-intentioned leader, there are usually good intentions behind it. In this case he would seem to be trying to protect small-market teams from becoming completely irrelevant (avoiding a league where you have 7-8 great teams and 22 chump teams with half-filled arenas) and also trying to extract maximal value for the New Orleans Hornets franchise. However, when you are trying to please many different parties you must be very skilled and strategic in your leadership.

A smart parent never tells their child not to explicitly date a particular boy they do not approve of. They deftly maneuver using indirect techniques to get their daughter to believe the boy is not up to her standards.[19] But if you use a very direct technique and say you cannot date that boy, than you have already lost.

The 2010 and 2011 free agency periods have fundamentally changed the NBA business. Players are dictating nearly everything.

Unfortunately for the fans, David Stern has his own teenage rebellionrevolution on his hands and no longer has the indirect techniques to quell this uprising.

Solutions???

Sometimes, you just need a change. Rumors say that David Stern was just waiting to complete this last CBA deal before handing off his role to his deputy Adam Silver. But in my eyes Silver is too close to David Stern. He will never be given a chance (by players or media) even if he does have good policy and ideas. David Stern has simply done too much damage in letting the league and the power structure shift to young players and owners not ready for the responsibility in front of them.

Once upon a time, David Stern and Michael Jordan were close allies. This era will go down as Stern’s most significant achievement. Management, ownership, and players worked in tandem to grow a better league.

Now we need a new figure that can work with this new generation of high-but-think-they-are-low-maintenance superstars. This leader must garner their respect, enough so that they can return to the confines of their roles as players and not fret so much and so loudly about personnel decisions.[20]

My solution: look to the beginning; go with a figure like Bill Russell. He is one of the few NBA legends that seems cogent, respected, and admired universally in the multiple facets of the NBA system.

I know very little about Bill Russell. I have not met him, much less read a biography on him. For all essential purposes all I need to know about him is what I have read on his Wikipedia page and the way I see the young players actually respect his presence in league history.

Right now the league needs stability. Bill Russell is not the long-term answer to the leadership crisis in the NBA (he is 77 years old after all). But he genuinely seems to care about the well-being of the league, as evident by his intervention with Kobe-Shaq. The league, Stern, seems to respect him enough to recently name the NBA Finals MVP trophy after him.

It’s time for a change. Sure, the NBA owners would flip out about the lack of fiscal credentials under Russell’s belt, but that is why the league has accountants and lawyers and other league lay people. They can handle the details, and the new commissioner can handle the big picture issues.

Stern and Silver must go and allow a new power structure to emerge that can handle and control this new generation of players and better help the owners help themselves.

Maybe all that the league needs to heal its leadership crisis is its first former Player-Commissioner.

-@HeadieSportsDoc, headiesports.com

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and I'm talking West sign and trade for O'Neal / Bradley, and Paul / Okafor for Odom / Bynum / Martin / Scola / Dragic then we'd have 11 players on the roster and a total wage bill of $71m. I doubt it'll be the last work Demps does but it's a worrying thought when you look at the fact it only includes 1 centre and he's injury prone! And Scola for 4 years and rising to over $11m...and he's already 31?!

I'm bored and like spreadsheets so here's the data. Contract is length with team options for Bynum / Odom / Ariza and Bradley. It's from HoopsHype, I don't know if it's accurate.

I honestly think this would be a great trade for the hornets but unfortunately I know this would never happen :( It would give Indiana the PF they want us youth, the lakers paul, and houston gasol. It also makes the Lakers eat some contract and Patrick P might be a young version of Dwest We'd also gain a lil more salary cap. So take a look and let me know what y'all think.

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