Sacramento Kings moving franchise to the OC, CA.

Because the league is shit, run by a despot sleazebag who fixes everything in the league from the lottery to the playoffs and everything in between (including player movement) and has ensured smaller and middle markets cannot succeed in the long- and, increasingly, short-term. The faster the NBA blows up under the weight of Stern's arrogance and scumbaggery, the better.

 

As it is, the NBA is carrying the New Orleans Hornets because George Shinn had had enough and they couldn't find another buyer.

 

And your point is?

 

That, and the league doesn't want to be seen as abandoning the Big Easy post-Katrina. But, if fans aren't supporting the team at an adequate level, why? New Orleans sports fans seem more emotionally invested in the Saints, then LSU and Tulane, before the Hornets. It's not like the NBA hasn't worked in New Orleans before, either.

 

Or so you (and David Stern, and Tim Donaghy perhaps) hope.

 

Then why hold it behind closed doors? You are a moron if you have blind faith that the NBA and David Stern are 100% legitimate and never twist the rules.

 

The only way it will work out for the Maloofs is if they try and build the team to peak by the time Kobe retires and the Lakers take a step back (until they sign or draft their next superstar - the Lakers are never down for long). Even then they might keep perhaps 10 percent of the bandwagon jumpers.
If you're the Maloofs, you have to market the team to the under 30 crowd, lower ticket prices, younger "celebrities", and maybe, just maybe they can craft an identity in SoCal.

 

So we could have a market with three NBA teams but zero NFL teams? Yeah, that makes sense.

 

The Maloofs made some poor financial decisions the last few years, expanding their casino empire at exactly the wrong time, and have serious cash-flow problems. The weird thing about being a billionaire is that it takes a huge amount of cash to keep the wheels turning on all your many investments, debts and other obligations andkeep everything from crashing down around you.

Anaheim is stupid place to go, but the Honda Center wants a second tenant and it's an easy fit. They'll be there briefly and move on, I'm guessing. It's not that the area couldn't support 3 NBA teams if fan bases were close to equal, it's that the Lakers command so much of the market share.

 

NBA teams definitely tank. They do it for different reasons, sometimes completely strategic. I remember a Lakers game when Shaq and Kobe were there. They had played the previous night and were playing one of the worst teams in the NBA on the road. I think the two played a combined 20 minutes and the Lakers, who were a double-digit favorite, lost by double-digits.

The Spurs have admitted that David Robinson could have come back the season before they drafted Duncan. The Celtics were so obviously tanking that year and Pitino was betting his entire NBA coaching career on getting Duncan.

 

What other conspiracies do you subscribe?

Government blew up the Towers?
No plane hit the Pentagon?
Aliens living at Area 51?

What league doesn't have it's warts?

MLB? Awesome minor league teams being passed off as major league teams.

NFL? Lockout. Concussions. Greedy owners.

College sports? Ah, the purity of the game.

The NBA isn't perfect but to wish the league would go away would do more damage than harm in the ancillary jobs and businesses that would be hurt.

 

OOH!