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NBA out of Control
Holy Cow. When it rains it pours. First Carmelo gets traded. The Nuggets break the hearts of Coloradans by including Chauncey Billups in the deal, and the Broncos make a move to keep Champ Bailey, all in a 24 hour time frame. I’m pooped just typing it.
So, here’s the deal. I drew 3 cartoons on Tuesday, this one for the syndicate about the NBA and why teams like the Nuggets have no chance to win an NBA title. So, because of the crazy Tuesday of drawing, I didn’t get the chance to touch on losing Chauncey or the deal to keep Champ Bailey. I’m hoping to get to those topics in the days ahead. Anyway, have fun with this “Pacman” spoof and I’ll be back on Thursday with more toons.
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Dear Drew,
Loved the cartoon. I believe it was Shakespere who once said,”Brevity is the soul of wit” Well your cartoons especially todays was indeed full of wit and done with great brevity.
I’m feeling better today. If laughter is considered the best medicine then you are better than penicillan (forgive mispelling) and chicken soup combined.
All the best
Louis
Good Morning from Omaha,
round and round it goes, where it stops nobody knows. denver loses MElo and billups but gets to keep champ bailey.Makes for an interesting week up there in the mountains.
and who knows what these new nuggets will bring to the table. Now it is george karl who has to deal with this mess. He has his or had his idea of how he wanted the Nuggets to play and created his system of play. Now he has been given,what is it 5 new pieces, which with to work. I don’t envy his task because he is basically rebuilding this team in the middle of the season and all this talk about playoffs? who is kidding who. If the Nuggets had wanted these players they would have taken them in the draft or pursued them in F/A. No these guys were foisted upon the nuggets because of one selfish players demands.
George was putting together a jig saw puzzle of a scene of lakes and trees and now find himself with pieces of a puzzle that includes a new york skyline and bridges? at the end of the season look for george to leave. No one should have to deal with the mess the nuggets management has given him.
the rockies season starts soon and what with all the trouble in the world we need some good news.
strive for excellence, nothing but your best.
Gene
Excellent one here Drew.
Dear Gene from Omaha,
You made an interesting comment about the Nuggets getting 5 new pieces. The moment you said it I had this mental image in my mind.
If the Nuggets were a car (to use this for an analogy) they didn’t have a “tune-up”. Right now they just had a complete engine overhaul. The only recognizeable parts to the current Nuggets are the driver (Karl) and their new “driveshaft” (Nene)
All the best
Louis
louis,
george needs time to break in the new engine in the car…forget the playoffs get through the season winning more than you lose. Oh wait,in the NBA that gets you into the playoffs! I saw the nuggets scored 120 last night against the grizz- maybe I am wrong about this “new look” team and only time will tell.
glad you are feeling better. there are some really nasty bugs going around, some so bad even drew toons can’t help.
see you in the funny papers, tomorrow!
Gene
Steve Atwater, Shannon Sharpe, Bill Romanowski, John Lynch, Champ Bailey, Rod Smith…Some of my favorite players ever played for the Broncos, one of my least-favorite teams.
Usually I agree with Drew but this is the first time I have to say I disagree. The cartoon would better be suited to major league baseball where you really only have about 8 or 9 teams who have a legitimate shot at winning it all.
Here’s the thing, NBA players want to be in the big cities and the hot cities because that is where the scene is. Remember the Steve Francis debacle? How about the Ricky Rubio failure? They didn’t want to play where they were drafted so one kicked and screamed, the other decided not to come to the US. The problem is not with the CBA per se as it is with the attitudes and character of the players. Granted, one would think this would benefit New York and New Jersey in particular, but their front offices have been in shambles for years now and the owner of the Knicks is soft in that particular case. Philly has had similar issues in recent years, especially with Allen Iverson’s departure.
L.A. on the other hand is the shining example along with Miami. NBA players loooove Hollywood, they loooove South Beach. Chicago was nothing until Jordan showed up but now there is a mystique to that franchise similar to that of Boston. If you put them in a place like Denver, or Milwaukee, or Utah the players feel like they have nothing to do, especially Salt Lake City and Milwaukee in particular. That goes for all sports, which is why Milwaukee is historically the worst sports city in country. They’ve had 3 or 4 franchises come and leave within a span of about 50 years. Cleveland’s never had that problem to my knowledge.
San Antonio has figured all of this out and targets character players who don’t care where they play and they target the best foreign players willing to come over to America; this is where their success lies and Houston’s kind of catching on with that strategy as well as Dallas to a degree.
The bottom line is that players want to play for specific teams because of a track record of success as well as what the city has to offer. Why do you think people want to play for Orlando? I don’t think it’s just because Dwight Howard is there. How about Atlanta? Atlanta’s really not a big market and Orlando is certainly not a big market. Perhaps if players were more interested in skiing and other fun outdoor activities Denver has to offer, they would all but flock to Denver; but they don’t. They would rather enjoy South Beach, Disney World, Disneyland, Hollywood, or warm weather.
As for today’s toon: of all the team sports, basketball is the one where a single player’s performance has the most impact.
Football is dependent on team-wide execution of a play, with half of the team off the field at a given time…which explains Steve Young in Tampa vs. Steve Young in San Francisco.
Baseball rations out their offensive chances, and with the advent of the 5-man rotation and increasing dependence on long and middle relievers, a dominant pitcher is less a factor than in the past.
Hockey has fluid and frequent substitutions (approx. every 2-3 minutes, over 4 offensive lines and 3 defensive pairings), and in soccer, one great player on a mediocre team is quickly exposed (just ask David Beckham about his time in LA).
But basketball has five players on the court for a team at a given time (the smallest in-game team lineup of any sport), with a very small playing surface and, in the NBA, rules mandating one-on-one matchups that allow the best to isolate themselves with less-skilled defenders.
In such an environment, a great player becomes far, far more pivotal for a team, and their individual whims that much more important. LeBron wants to play on the Beach in Miami with his friends (I can’t say I blame him), it causes shockwaves; but if Terrell Owens splits from Dallas, Miles Austin gets his shot and makes the most of it.
Even the championship teams recently reflect that. The Spurs without Duncan? Out in the first round. Lakers without Kobe? Pizza without Cheese. And even the up and coming teams are building around one player: had Kevin Durant left Oklahoma City, the team could very well be packing for a Seattle return right now.
The Pistons of 5-8 years ago might have been the last true team-oriented lineup that met with Finals success. We’ll see a team like that again, but the nature of the game allows great players to dominate and change the fortunes of their team more than in any other game – and they know it.
Mr. Right: The Rubio failure is also an interesting piece of evidence…European basketball is quickly catching up to the NBA in skill and talent, not to mention money (keep in mind, the top hoops teams over there are also sister clubs of the biggest soccer teams, esp. in Italy and Spain).
I know the NBA has been kicking around the idea of European expansion for a couple of decades now, but the top clubs are becoming so well-established (and profitable) that the window for that may be slamming shut. Could a World Club Cup for Hoops be far beind?
A Buddy of mine on facebook had this great tidbit:
Major League Baseball is singled out for its lack of parity but it’s vastly worse in the NBA. Eight franchises account for all of the NBA titles going back to 1980. Just two of them (the 76ers and Heat) are single-title winners. That means six teams have won 29 of the past 31 titles. Throw in the Knicks as a major market player (last title in ’73) and still fewer than a third of the league’s membership has any title, much less any hope of winning one, in the modern televised era.
That would be: Celtics, Lakers, Rockets, Pistons, Spurs and Bulls. We’re also missing a big elephant in the room with these titles: the ability of a great coach to direct and keep all these egos in check.
Phil Jackson and Chuck Daly both got titles out of Dennis Rodman, for crying out loud. Pat Riley made Magic Johnson – who any other coach would have stuck as a small forward – into the engine of Showtime. And Greg Popovich took three Spurs teams that consisted of Tim Duncan and 11 who-are-theys and I-think-I-heard-of-hims to Championships. Saints have been canonized for less.
So, LeBron playing under Pat Riley? Understandable. And Melo is playing for…Mike D’Antoni. Never mind, he just wanted to be in New York.
And, as I type this: the Knicks trail Milwaukee at home for Melo’s debut.