A Letter to David Stern
| 18
|
by user Bwell316
Dear Commissioner,
I am writing to you today not out of anger, but out of gratitude. I want to sincerely thank you for creating the NBA Draft lottery. No, I am not a fan of the Portland Trail Blazers or Seattle Supersonics, I am a Boston Celtics fan.
You are probably wondering why I would be sending you a thank you note in light of last night's events, which probably set the Celtics back another 10 years. The reason is I now no longer have to worry about finding time for Celtics games. I no longer have to worry about spending money on League Pass, or shelling out that extra 10 bucks a month to subscribe to the sports tier with NBATV on it. I can now finally watch that documentary on Hitler that always seems to coincide with an NBA game. I can take that money I would have spent on an Oden or Durant jersey and donate it to Dogs Deserve Better or another worthy charity. I can spend a little extra time watching cartoons with my kids. I don't have to worry about staying up late to watch the Celtics play on the West Coast when they go out there, because it won't matter.
Since the Celtics extended Doc Rivers' contract last week,I should have been expecting this shot to the groin area. Unfortunately, I tried to be an optimist. I watched an interview with Danny Ainge last night as he was trying not to throw up on television, and he talked about trying to trade the pick. A worthy idea in theory, however, is there really a team out there who wants the 5th pick in this draft?
We are approaching nearly two generations of fans now who no longer remember the Celtics being the elite franchise in the league, remember the NBA on CBS, remember playoff triple headers being shown on NBC, or even remember the original Dream Team. We are closing in on the basketball generation that will remember Michael Jordan as the guy who kicks Kevin Bacon's ass at trashcan basketball instead of the dominating force of the 1990's Bulls. I remember a Celtics/Lakers game this year in Boston where the crowd chanted "MVP" for Kobe Bryant. Could you even fathom that happening in the 1980's? I mean seriously, Magic or Kareem getting MVP chants in the Garden? It's like a Muslim prayer group giving Jesus a standing ovation in a mosque in Iran.
Because everyone felt that the 85 lottery was fixed, the NBA has gone to great lengths to ensure they could never be accused of that again. It was great in theory, but now that nearly 75% of the good talent is now in the Western Conference, the Knicks and Celtics are awful, the thought of another Detroit/San Antonio NBA Finals makes network executives come down with gastroenteritis, and that the majority of NBA playoffs are now on cable and have a tough time competing with VH1 Reality shows, I think it's time to shake things up a bit.
Your league, which was saved by Magic and Larry and Michael in the 1980's is coming very to close to being even more irrelevant than it already is. Oden and Durant are two "can't miss" prospects that could have been marketed for years to come, and now they are going into the basketball purgatory of the northwest, and one of them is going to a team that is trying to leave town. Fantastic. It's too bad the NHL has an incompetent commissioner who can't take advantage of this, because you are presenting them with a golden opportunity to be relevant in the USA again.
Once again, Mr Stern, thank you. Thank you for not giving the Celtics cap relief after Reggie Lewis died, even though you gave relief to teams in similar situations later on. Thank you for suspending Amare Stoudemire in game 5 against the Spurs this year and depriving fans of watching a team that can make their jump shots and keep a game interesting. Thank you for putting the playoffs mainly on cable and having gaps of three days between games. If you hadn't done all of this, I would have less time and money for other things. I hope all is continuing to flourish in "Stern-World", I hope the sun is shining and the birds are chirping, because here in the real world, the NBA is falling apart and you are doing nothing to stop it.
Sincerely,
Someone Who Used To Give a Damn About the NBA
