Matt Moore

The best of both my worlds would be the players folding at 47% & Jordan shutting his crap team down.

To those of you taking the side of the hard line players, all I can say about you is that you are idiots!!!

Excellent post Voudou58

Hardly a surprise given MJ's track record.  He's one of the best to grace the court, but he's far from a bastion of shrewd or good personal judgement.  This is hypocrisy in it's finest hour.  A "what have you done for me lately" type of feeling.  Now that he's an owner, he's forgetting about the roots to his riches.  Or maybe he's simply so full of himself that he feels he is solely responsible for his well-being and that the NBA players union was just a tool to getting what he wanted.

Maybe he he's gambling on the side on when the lockout will end and took the long side of the bet?


Good riddance to the NBA, for now.  We can all save some money during the silly season and hope the machine is fixed for the 2012-2013 season!


- Former NBA fan     &n
bsp;  

BRock2145,


Good call on SanAntonio but dare I say they pulled an even bigger rabbit out of the hat when (as a perennial playoff  team with David Robinson) Robinson gets injured and misses an entire year, they are awful and garner the #1 pick and one of the all-time greats in Tim Duncan.  You are definitely right that management makes a huge difference but nailing the high first round draft picks is just as important.  The Clippers seem to have finally nailed one after Olawakandi and a bunch of other flops.


Perhaps I did underestimate management as they can bring you down pretty quickly with some bad moves.  Basketball, unlike the other major sports, is so heavily reliant on having a superstar since he is accountable for at least 20% of the success at any given time.  In baseball and football, one great player can help improve a team, but he can't completely turn them around.  Only in hoops is it possible.  That's why owners are furious that the formation of dream teams will hurt the overall product.  I mean look at Toronto and Cleveland.  Bosh and James left those teams for Miami.  Toronto was never really that great but they were at least a playoff threat.  They lose Bosh and the team wins close to 20 games less than the previous season.  Cleveland was winning 60 games with Lebron and they went into high lottery status immediately.  It's a sham and should be stopped.  It's great if you're a fan of the Heat or Lakers but not so much for anyone else.

To compare Jordan's stance then to now is not entirely fair. 

A lot has happened since 1998.  The economy has turned.  The luster of the NBA, while improved over the past few years, is not where it was.

The landscape has changed.  How is the NBA going to increase revenue? Ticket sales are down. The prices are too high when you can simply watch games in HD in your home and guys don't play hard all the time.  The NBA has issues they are trying to rectify. 

I am all in on guys like LeBron, Kobe, etc...getting paid.  This is a star-driven sport. But nobody pays to go see TJ Ford, yet he gets paid $8 million.
Jordan sees the other side now.

And there are less people you can sell these teams too now. And that number will dwindle in a changing economic landscape.    &
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Do these morons know that MJ is now a owner and not  a player anymore?? If he had no ownership in a team im pretty sure Jordan wwould side with the players. 

MJ, is not selling out. That is absurd. He actually has the unique perspective of being a player and now an owner. MJ would not risk having no season or no NBA for selfish reasons. His point of view may be the most important. He knows what the league (owners and players) need to survive. To draw such a hard line means we need to pay attention to his position most keenly. The challenge is to create parity with the disbursement of media revenue and related revenue. The NFL has the best model of revenue sharing. Create parity and the teams will have a level playing field in creating their rosters and the NBA and the fans will both have a better experience. From there if an owner does not create a competive team to bring the fans then he will not succeed. Be objective before you lynch MJ especially if your just an average NBA player who may be making more than MJ did for most of his career.

MJ has always had a sense of where to be and the right moment to destroy his opponent.  MJ is addicted to winning.  If you oppose him then he will go for the jugular.  My favorite, the greatest Bball player of all time never, ever, was someone who was a great humanitarian.  He stayed away from social and political statements to protect his marketability. Why people think he is a great person is beyond me. He is a great Bball player and human like everyone else.