TripleThreat wrote:meloshouldgo wrote:Teams that seriously need to tank keep talking all this politically correct BS because they are afraid of what? Does the league have an official position against tanking?
Adam Silver has come out publicly and said he was not opposed to nor felt the need to intervene directly with the 76ers and Sam Hinkie when they were clearly tanking. I mean outright, no holds barred tanking.
That was out in the press, face to face. Under the covers though, the NBA administration and the other owners were furious. Hinkie CHALLENGED THE ENTIRE SYSTEM. Which is clearly flawed. He highlighted that he understood what he was doing was a LOW PERCENTAGE CHANCE of working out, but it was BETTER THAN NO CHANCE AT ALL. Which is what the NBA structure creates.
The Warriors did it right. They are playing team ball. They are sacrificing. They are making good decisions. And clearly the league is trying hard to job them. They are not marketable. They are killing the ideal version of the playoffs where every series is a 7 game nail biter.
Sam Hinkie was basically taking out back and had a round put in the back of his head for doing his job. You can can disagree with the methodology, but you can't disagree with the principle. He committed to doing his job of making that franchise better. Even if it wasn't popular. And now he's been mostly vindicated. The 76ers are infinitely in a better position now than ever.
Hinkie was not a contrarian because he wanted to be proven right. He was a contrarian because he was trying do what he thought was right. I think in that kind of pressure cooker and culture, he was extremely brave. The guy has balls the size of the Empire State Building.
The NBA is horribly flawed. The open mantra is we want good solid fundamental team basketball and a commitment to team work and winning and unity. Blah blah blah. What they really want is some douchebag who can dunk over a car and sell a ton of shoes and can be involved in some wanna be soap opera storyline the networks can generate to incite drama. If Sam Hinkie had a brother who was a super executive at Nike, he'd still be in the league right now.
Lance Armstrong just came out and gutted people. He cheated. Everyone knows he cheated. When he was cheating, everyone knew it. But he was marketable. He was the face of his sport. He was a great 'story' to drive the narrative around. When he was finished and no longer useful, they went after him to increase the exposure to the sport. He even pointed this out. Where was all this backlash and this hunt when I was making everyone a ton of money?
The NBA wants its teams to win. As long it's the most marketable way possible. Otherwise, silently, no they don't want you to win. They won't want anyone who exposes how broken the system in place is, and how dysfunctional.
some good points. I think the most institutional starphuch of all time was the Roid era in baseball. Monster players gutting HR records and 43 year old fireball throwing pitchers were all the rage. Nolan ryan pitched 27 years, then a few years past retirement this world class athlete has a heart attack? Actually he had a scare and took himself to the hospital two years before he retired. Lat ball he threw was 98mph and they he was cooked. Yankees were a roid house for years. Think aaron boone, kevin brown, pettite, justice, giambi, shefield, arod, hitchcock, cleamons and others. Not saying they were the only team. Chili Davis played 19 years. At age 39 he had his 7th highest game total, batted .269, 79 RBI's and 19 HRs!!!! at age 37 he had his highest HR total in his career (30) playing for the Royals.
Think Paul O'neals temper tantrums roid induced?? Look at his career after he came to the yankees at age 30 and his power surge from age 33 on. Has best career year at age 35.
Scott Brocious becomes Babe freaking ruth as a yankee? Retires with one year at 7mm left on his contract while the Roid testing starts?
NFL is killing its players brains!!!
So Your outraged that teams sell its stars? Knicks fleeced its fans into thinking Melo was its savior.
NBA is flawed, but the sort of Hard Cap does help and give teams a level playing field and stars have stayed in small markets were they used to gravitate before.
Hinkie was cut down because the 76ers were joke and attendance on the road was awful. Personally I like the approach they were taking only because I found it interesting as they deviated from the norm.
Owner is a hedge fund guy and the thinking was to do something different and perhaps it adds up.
As for the outcome? Its still a work in process, but interesting as any.
