Matches Malone wrote:Jesus... it's like the whole world is against us in this Giannis thing. Clickbait crap all over the internet today. I'm so sick of all of this. I honestly care less and less about the NBA by the day.
It does make you stop and question why we should care about this decision, this team and this league at all.
It would be foolish of me to sit here and claim sports in general, or the NBA specifically, are played on a truly level playing field. Advantages exist and that's OK. Some teams call desirable locales home, other franchises are led by intelligent visionaries, some are bankrolled by endless reservoirs of money. Teams exploit whatever advantages they have because sports, after all, is a business of competition, often competition played at the highest level. And when people compete at such high levels, rules tend to be bent ot even broken. What makes things at least somewhat equitable is that major sports are governed by leagues-leagues consisting of structures and rules. These structures and rules provide said leagues and their games a sense of legitimacy, the feeling of fairness, no matter how much this fairness is flawed.
What's going on with Giannis' decision flies in the face of all of this. Is it understandable that leagues prefer for their superstars to be based in their largest TV markets? Of course, that's just good business. But preferences should have no impact on the actions a league takes when it plays the role of arbiter in settling disputes between teams. The veneer of impartiality is gone with the NBA's bogus investigation into the Bucks' supposed tampering concerning the failed Bogdan trade. Did the Bucks do something against the rules here? It is entirely possible that they did. But for the league and Adam Silver to suddenly pose for holy pictures and claim that the league won't stand for a practice that's as NBA as apple pie is American is beyond nauseating. It is, in fact, insulting, as it implies that we, the league's fan base, haven't watched the tampering dance play out in high gear over the past decade. It's akin to the butcher quoting you an inflated price with a straight face as you stare at his thumb resting firmly on the scale.
Not only is the league guilty in this case, but the media is as well. At best, the media-spearheaded by ESPN-is merely complicit in Shanghaiing the Bucks and at worst they're leading the strategy themselves, as they have a vested interest in seeing Giannis relocate to one of the coasts as well.
So that brings me back to my original point-if the league is going to operate this way and stack the deck against Milwaukee and the Bucks, are they really a league worth caring about or following? I think fans situated throughout flyover country should pay close attention to all of this because today it's about us, but tomorrow it could easily be about them. It is then they'll have to answer the question that some of us are grappling with right now-should we even care about this league of they continue to tilt the scales in favor of a chosen few?
