Mavericks Talk: Yes, Super Teams Are Hurting the NBA
By Reid Hanson
In the current climate our beloved Dallas Mavericks reside, super teams rule. While ratings go up, the NBA and the game itself suffer.
As the Dallas Mavericks prepare to play the San Antonio Spurs and Cleveland Cavilers on consecutive nights, the topic of ‘super teams’ was broached. Super teams are the latest brand of dominance in the NBA today.
A super team is the joining of forces by the elite talents of the NBA. Instead of digging in their heels and forming rivalries, NBA stars team up to play for the same team, tipping the balance of power in their favor, and bettering their chances of success.
The Golden State Warriors, Cavs, Spurs, and to a lesser extent the Houston Rockets, are the premier super teams of today.
Joining forces to achieve instant success is hardly anything new. Disney and Pixar, Sirius and XM, and Sears and Kmart are a few business examples of that “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” mentality.
The futility is inescapable and works to dishearten otherwise vibrant fanbases.
The music industry also paved the way in the way of collaboration.
Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young; Them Crooked Vultures; and Temple of the Dog formed three most-triumphant supergroups.
The difference in all of these is the NBA is built on competition and entertainment. Business is about the bottom line (making money for the shareholders) more than about competition. And in the music industry, artists can still make music with their original bands and are not forced to abandon their roots.
Sports, in their purest form, are about competition. Sure money rules all but “money” and “competition” are not mutually exclusive goals. The NBA can have both, yet chooses to take the easy way and support an environment that encourages super teams.
Why Are Super Teams Bad?
Super teams destroy the idea of parity. In a sport like basketball, which plays only five players per team at a time, parity is already a difficult thing to achieve. In other words, one superstar can dominate more in basketball than any other professional sport (although Aaron Rodgers has been working hard to disprove that).
When a team loads up on superstars, they expand the delta between the contenders and the pretenders. A team like the Mavericks, who is scraping and clawing it’s way to the eighth seed in the playoffs, has virtually zero chance at upsetting any of these super teams in a seven-game playoff series.
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The futility is inescapable and works to dishearten otherwise vibrant fanbases.
“If you watch the ratings, it’s been good for the league,” Dirk Nowitzki said on Saturday. “The finals have been the most watched, even when LeBron and the big three were in Miami. All the hype was there.”
The NBA’s super teams have become villains to the loyal, and attractive to the disloyal bandwagoner more fluid of NBA fan.
Recently, fandom has no boarders. It’s not unheard of to see a never-left-the-state Indiana kid, rocking a Miami heat jersey. Two years later, it’s him in a Cavs hat.
Obviously the Mavericks and their fans would be singing a different tune if Mark Cuban was ever able to reel in one of those big fish he promised since dismantling the ’11 Championship squad (did I just make a music and fishing analogy in the same sentence?).
But that’s what parity is. It’s leveling the playing field and keeping every team interested. Because one singular thing could potentially put them over the top. Today? It’s going to take two or three GIGANTIC things to put a team like the Mavericks over the top.
“I think they’re good [for the league] because everybody roots against them, except the ones on the bandwagon,” Mark Cuban said. Eddie Sefko also reported that Cuban believes the rules in the new CBA will make it tougher to put super teams together.
So if super teams are good for the NBA, why is the league invoking new discouraging rules under the CBA, Mark? Mark knows full well this isn’t an either/or situation. The NBA can have high ratings AND parity at the same time. That’s what the NFL did and it worked out brilliantly.
There is a hard salary cap and no individual max contract in the NFL, yet there is both parity and dynasties, all wrapped up in mind-blowing revenue.
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Super teams hurt majority of the NBA. It may be fun to watch a face-off of super teams but it’s exponentially more depressing to realize the true futility of our respective home teams — Including our beloved Dallas Mavericks.