"To me, designing a complete collective bargaining agreement to promote and guide the allocation of star players to different teams is the fairest mechanism and ecosystem for the league." NBA President Adam Silver signed Kevin Durant with the Warriors in 2016 When asked about his views on the "super team", he said, adding that he would try to correct the over-expansion of the league's "power" by changing the terms of free agency and the playoff system.
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Super teams are rampant
In recent years, "teaming up" to compete for championships has become a trend. Although there have been many cases of superstars being on the same team in the past, such as when Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen went to Boston to reunite with Paul Pierce to form a "GAP" connection. Most people think that their way of forming a team (trading) and their older age cannot be considered a team. However, GAP was the first stone thrown into the pond, creating the subsequent collective team-up effect of superstars.
In 2010, they were ruthlessly eliminated by the Celtics in the playoffs.LeBron JamesJoined as a free agent with the then Dragon King Chris Bosh, who was also unable to compete with the Celtics.Dwyane WadeFor the Heat, James and Bosh were only 26 years old at the time. Together with 28-year-old Wade, this was the first time in NBA history that three top players from the team at their peak joined the same team.
Further reading:The three Heat kings create dominance! Top 5 of LeBron James’ playoff peaks/winner moments during the Heat era
The gathering of the Heat's three kings also officially opened the NBA's superstar team era. Chris Paul joined Blake Griffin, DeAndre Jordan's Clippers, and the Lakers.Dwight HowardPaired with Steve NashKobe Bryantand Paul Gasol et al. But in 2016, the Thunder lost to the Warriors in the playoffs, and then Durant joined the Warriors. Whether it was public opinion or the league's ecology, it pushed the super team trend to another peak. Every team clearly understood that they wanted to defeat the Warriors. Only by embarking on the same path of collecting superstars.
Further reading:A prelude to greatness! Kobe Bryant "#8" Top 5 regular season peak moments (until 2005-06 season)
The team-up effect has also created another strange phenomenon in the NBA. In order to meet the salary ceiling and accommodate enough superstars to join, super players must take the initiative to cut their salaries to achieve mutual success. James and Durant both took the initiative to bargain to create super players. team,Klay ThompsonHe has already said that he is willing to cut his salary in the future to maintain the Warriors' championship lineup.
This also exposes a long-hidden contradictory institutional culture in American professional sports. The United States, the giant of capitalism, actually hides a professional sports league built with socialist barriers.
Socialist America and Capitalist Europe
"Give me liberty or give me death!" This was the end of a speech by Patrick Henry, the hero of the American Revolutionary War, and it became the slogan of the revolution. Freedom is the core spirit of the United States. In addition to personal freedom, free market economy is the most important value in capitalism.
From the context of the capital system, its most important core concept is the reliance on the free price mechanism to coordinate the allocation of market resources, or, to paraphrase Adam Smith, the father of modern economics, in The Wealth of Nations. The "invisible hand" mentioned in Nation) controls resource allocation. If we regard professional sports as an economic system, then teams and players should be guided by "an invisible hand" and pursue their own best interests freely and without boundaries, without being regulated by any system.
"However, the irony is that the motherland of capitalism actually hides a professional sports league where socialism is the rule." said Nate Silver, a famous American media person.
In the highest-level professional league in European football, there is no so-called salary cap or various salary restrictions. European football league teams may have a huge M-shaped society. After the stars have paid most of their salary, The remaining fraction is divided among other players. And this has also resulted in the phenomenon that the giants are always the strongest, such as Real Madrid and Barcelona in La Liga, the four giants in the Premier League and Juventus in Serie A. Their formations are always star-studded and star-studded.
However, the NBA's economic system implies various "controls" and "redistribution", such as team salary caps, minimum salaries, etc. The purpose of the NBA is to try to maintain fair competition, player mobility, and game excitement. feel. In order to spread the star team evenly, the NBA even intervened. For example, in 2011, Paul was originally going to be traded to the Lakers, but the then NBA commissioner David Stern vetoed the transaction for "basketball reasons." Most people speculated that this was The league is preventing super teams from overly monopolizing the NBA.
However, the main reason why European professional leagues and the NBA have not set up salary caps is not complicated. There are five major professional leagues in Europe. Once one of the leagues sets a salary cap, players will move to other leagues one after another. The NBA is a single and In the closed top basketball hall, basketball players cannot escape from other systems and can only comply with the management and labor relations established by the NBA.
In order to establish a competition based on fairness, the NBA, in addition to setting a salary ceiling to eliminate the power of the wealthy, also implements another system in line with the spirit of socialism, which is to provide protection for the weak and redistribute resources. This has also led to the "tank" turnaround method that has become popular in the NBA in recent years, making being at the bottom the road to victory.
When Loser Wins
In socialism, the most important link is the social insurance system. The social insurance system originated in Germany and has been popular in Europe for more than 100 years. It is only passed through national legislation and provides economic compensation to workers due to various situations. The purpose is to protect basic living and compensate for the disadvantaged.
Sound familiar? Yes, the draft is like a social insurance system, which "reliefs" the best drafted players every year to the teams with the worst records, trying to balance and redistribute the league's strength in this way. The NBA, where socialism is at the forefront, has created the fastest path to reconstruction today. That’s right.
"Tan" is a strategy that uses losing as a strategy to improve the team's draft position. The most successful example currently is the 76ers. In the 2013-14 season, they tied the league record with 26 consecutive losses and in 2015-16. The 28-game losing streak that broke the North American Professional League record this season allowed them to be selected into theJoel EmbiidandBen Simmons, before returning to the playoffs.
Further reading:Dance with the Lion King! Joel Embiid’s top 5 regular season moments
When the Sixers are constantly at the bottom, or even breaking through the infamous record, they are happy with it. This is just the "process" of rebuilding. No matter how bad they play, there will be no punishment. On the contrary, there will be priority draft picks. The only punishment is to accumulate infamy. This system of rewarding losers is the most contradictory professional system in the world.
Now let's take a look at how other professional leagues "punish" losers.
From Europe to South America, football and women's volleyball leagues implement a "promotion and relegation system." The main concept of the promotion and relegation system is that the team with the worst record in the season (usually the top three teams) will be relegated in the next season, while the top three teams in the minor league will be promoted, with Serie A as the For example, the first level is Serie A, followed by Serie B and so on. The lowest level can even go to the amateur league. Even if Juventus, the top team in Serie A, falls into the dilemma of poor record, it may be relegated. This format is used in many international events, such as the World Baseball Classic and the World Cup, both of which use a promotion system.
Therefore, the promotion and relegation system can effectively prevent the team from failing in the later stages of the season. Therefore, in the second stage of the football season, in addition to the Tianwangshan battle for the championship in the early stage classes, there are also many exciting relegation battles in the latter stages of the season, which not only prevents the team from being in a bad situation. It's bad, and it also increases the watchability of the second half of the season.
In comparison, although the professional leagues in the United States all have similar systems. The NBA has a development league system for players to move up or down, but the teams do not. The Development League or MLB's minor leagues are part of the professional leagues. Therefore, even if the Warriors have a poor record, it is impossible to replace them with the Santa Cruz Warriors, let alone extend to the amateur leagues.
Once the seats for the playoffs are determined, the NBA and other American professional leagues will enter garbage time. Teams entering the playoffs will enter rotations and lineup adjustments, while bad teams will stage a different kind of tank battle. Last season, the owner of the Mavericks Mark Cuban publicly declared on the show that he wanted to mess up, "I told the players that losing is the best choice for this season."
However, does using the salary cap to limit wealthy teams and draft the draft to compensate the weak really achieve the "fair competition" that Silver claims he is pursuing?
When the high wall gradually collapses
After the start of the 2018 free market season, the Warriors suddenly announced the signing of star center DeMarcus Cousins, creating an almost shocking five-star super lineup.Stephen Curry, Durant and Cousins (before injury) are all at the top level no matter which team they are placed on.Klay ThompsonandDraymond GreenThey are also the absolute main force level. Although the risk of Cousins' injury is unknown, it is almost unprecedented for the defending champion to add stars.
Further reading:Epic shooter Stephen Curry’s top 6 playoff moments
But a more realistic question is, why do super teams still appear in the socialist-led NBA?
In recent years, the principle of equal wealth that the NBA values has almost collapsed. In addition to benefiting from the new TV broadcast contract and entering the era of big maximum salaries, more importantly, the players' desire for championships has driven them to challenge the system, whether in the past The above-mentioned salary cuts, short-term contracts, or simply paying the luxury tax directly. Although the salary has been reduced, in fact, looking beyond the system, American capitalism allows players to make up the difference through endorsements, advertising or sponsorship, and players have more room to achieve the goal of competing for the championship.
On the other hand, the Warriors and LeBron James previously formed super teams in the Western Conference and Eastern Conference with the Cavaliers respectively. The other teams or players immediately realized that the only way to compete for the championship was to form a team. Ever since, at that time Rockets fusion Chris Paul andJames Harden, Thunder team compositionRussell Westbrook,Paul GeorgeandCarmelo Anthony,Jimmy ButlerJoin the Gray Wolves to join forces with Karl Towns and the CelticsKyrie Irving, Gordan Haywood and AI Horford. And to this day, the arms race between the teams has not stopped.
Teams seeking to rebuild rely more on the system's draft bonuses, causing the NBA to enter a quasi-M-shaped society. The powerful rise, and the weak can only accumulate enough talent through sinking to gain a chance to turn around. The NBA is different from MLB and NFL. What's interesting is that rookies with outstanding talents can often achieve immediate results, just like last season.Donovan Mitchell, Ben Simmons andJayson Tatum. There are also many teams whose strategy is to accumulate talent on the one hand and wait for the Warriors orThe golden era of LeBron JamesIn the past, teams such as the Suns and Kings continued to accumulate potential stocks.
Whether it is moving towards socialism or capitalism, it is an institutional choice, and the purpose is capital-oriented:
Strengthening the visibility of the team to strive for more profits, however, the NBA, which is based on fairness, has fallen into a quagmire. The problem is not the gathering of superstars, but that under the current salary cap restrictions, the stars are more unscrupulous in choosing to join forces. , and the ugly battle.
How to prevent too much garbage time during the season is the current main task of the NBA. Silver has also proposed policies such as improving the probability of winning the draft and tightening rotations, but so far it seems that these are only treating the symptoms rather than the root cause. How to learn from capitalism and correct today's socialism will be a great challenge facing the NBA.
