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I was one of them. Probably one of you, which, I apologize even lumping you into such a group. It was after The Decision, and the end of the NBA was nigh. Sure, in the short term, the league would win … because the Miami Heat were now some amalgam of Loki, the Green Goblin, Magneto, and Ultron all rolled into one.
Villains sell a whole lot more than likeable characters in sports, which is why the San Antonio Spurs have been turned off and tuned out nationally since forever.
But in the long term, the game was screwed. Players were going to opt only for big markets and bully their smaller market franchises into trading them (cough, hack, Carmelo Anthony) and every year would be Heat-Knicks for the right to play the winner of Lakers-Who Cares.
We were all wrong. The panic was misguided.
Whether Lebron James intended to do it or not with The Decision, five years later, he seemed to empower guys to make their own decisions. I’m not crediting Lebron with giving guys the sack to do what they want, but I am crediting him with falling on his own self-made sword not knowing that the runoff would be what we’re seeing now.
Anthony Davis … the heir apparent to Lebron as the “best player in the game” resigned with the New Orleans Pelicans, when everyone said he would get scooting out, ASAP. Teams are keeping their home grown talent, and more than ever, the pipeline to the top is the NBA draft.
Lamarcus Aldridge basically said, “playoffs and a ton of money aren’t enough … I’m taking it on the arches” and no one criticizes him. There’s no, “where’s the loyalty!?” talk. Guys feel comfortable hoeing their own row. Some stay where they were drafted (Paul George), while some say it’s time to move on (Aldridge).
Guys move around now without much of a peep. And on top of that, the big market takeover thing dissipated right quickly. The Knicks stink. The Lakers stink. The Heat stunk last year after Lebron left. The Finals were a team from Oakland and one from Cleveland. And we were all captivated.
If The Decision did anything, it empowered guys in the NBA to do whatever the hell they wanted, free from public animosity because it would never be as bad as Lebron had it. And the league enters a stretch where the salary cap will increase beyond anything it ever has, mostly because of the international influence the game has (which is why that lily liver’d snake Roger Goodell keeps throwing games in London … money), but also because it has become a transient league where your stars may stay … or may go. You never know.
Lebron took the bullets, but the league ends up being better off because of The Decision, mostly because he made The Essay to go back to Cleveland. The NBA has never been more interesting or better across all franchises. Time to admit we were wrong, in part. DOOM didn’t happen. And we’re all better off for it.
