[MD Longhorn]

We all wait on pins and needles (note: I’m tuning in at about 5 minutes before it ends) to learn where our self-appointed NBA King and future recipient of the Karl Malone award (for the best player to never get a ring) will spend his next several winters and springs. We discuss around our water-coolers where the ego will land, and all agree at how appalling it is that someone not named Favre has to hold the world hostage wondering what he’s going to do with his career.

The situation, however, illustrates to me what a ridiculous mess the NBA’s sham of a salary cap has become. It was never a true cap, but it has evolved into something I don’t believe it’s creators envisioned. When it was born, only the true best of the best – perhaps 3-4 people per season – were given “max deals”. As it grew, and as the sport became more successful, the top range did not keep pace with the total growth. Teams began using the cap to overpay their own best guy to keep him from moving. And this is something the league wanted, thus promoting continuity. Then was born the dreaded sign-and-trade… a nonsensical method of a player being so selfish and greedy that he insists on making “Staying with my team” money while still moving to a new club AND forcing his new club to get rid of some talent just so that player can get the extra cash. Ridiculous. So not only are you eating up more than your fair share of your new team’s cap – they’ve gotten worse by obtaining you during “free” agency. OK….

But now it’s worse. Now, with the true value of a player, as based on a percentage of the total team cap, far exceeding the maximum a team is allowed to offer, we have the absurd situation of the VERY best player potentially making exactly the same amount as that team’s THIRD best player. Instead of promoting parity like the NFL and NHL caps attempt to do, the NBA cap denies it. The point (supposedly) of the salary cap was to force some level of evenness on the relative talents of the league. If you want the best guy, you’ve got to pay him what he’s worth, so consequently the guys around him will be a little less valuable. The teams with slightly less valuable guys at that position have slightly more to fill other positions – as long as you’re not horribly unlucky, horribly incompetent, or named the Lions, you have a chance to compete every year.

Not so in the NBA. There is no premium paid for the supposed King of the league. Sign him, and it’s just like you signed the 45th best guy as far as the cap goes. In fact, play your cards right and you can sign 3 of these max guys, use 2 loopholes in the rules to get a couple of decent starters around them, and another loophole to let you go over the cap to fill the rest of your roster. It’s no longer about parity – it’s about which cities are the most fun to live in. Until this is fixed, even the most savvy GM’s in Houston, Dallas, Portland, the entire Midwest will never have a real chance to compete against the Lakers, Celtics, Heat, and in a real world the Knicks (see above regarding horribly incompetent).