NBA All Star
weekend is an event like no other. Slam Dunk Contest, Three Point Shootout,
Rookie Game, Stay in School Jam, and of course, the game itself. A few
years back, Sprite decided to become the official sponsor of this event.
During NBA telecasts, it seemed like every other commercial featured Grant
Hill encouraging people to play Sprite’s much ballyhooed Under The Cap
Game. The premise was simple, buy a bottle of Sprite, look under the cap,
and see if you win a trip to the All Star Game. Little did the marketing
whizzes know, NBA teams would soon be playing their own version of the
under the cap game. Sprite drinkers went under the cap for a chance to
see the All Stars, while NBA execs went under the cap to win a chance to
employ them.
Jerry Krause
had just witnessed the end of a run that brought 6 championships in 8 years.
Unlike other general managers who routinely preside over disaster relief
projects, he knew that he was now held to a standard of Championship or
Bust. No exceptions. The Bulls lost the greatest player of all time, they
lost the best second banana of all time, they lost the Zen Master, and
they lost the league’s leading rebounder. It was time to make a bold move,
and Jerry Krause has never been afraid of those. Sure he had Jordan, but
there was a lot more to be done to turn that moribund franchise into a
winner. He traded for freakshow Dennis Rodman, he hired the head coach
of The Albany Patroons, and he gave up a promising big man named Olden
Polynice for an unknown from a small school named Scottie Pippen. Krause’s
response to all of this was interesting, risky, understandable on many
levels, but ultimately flawed in more ways than the average fan can see.
Kornel David,
Dragan Tarlac, and Rusty LaRue were brought in for no other reason than
to position the Bulls way below the salary cap As the basketball world
snickered, Krause was betting that in a few years, Chicago would have their
pick of choice free agents. Krause knew firsthand what guys like Jerry
West, and Red Auerbach learned during their legendary careers. You need
superstars to win big. I am not talking about David Stern’s pre-sold superstar
packages which are sold to us every year. I am talking about superstars
of the Jordan, Bird, and Magic variety. Truly special players who can turn
it on at any moment and put a team on their back. Krause wanted another
superstar, and what better way to make your team attractive than to make
it the highest paying? The past few offseasons, the Bulls have been one
of the few teams able to take a maximum salary onto their payroll, yet
Tim Duncan, Chris Webber, Grant Hill, Tracy McGrady, Antonio Davis, and
Eddie Jones all ended up in cities other than Chicago. Each player factors
many things into picking a team, and it would be a waste of time to sit
here and speculate about who likes warm weather, and which guy doesn’t
want to play for a college coach. But there is one thing that people forget
about all the time when they talk about free agency, so allow me to dispel
the myth that is NBA free agency.
The NBA salary
structure is designed to encourage players to re sign with their team once
their contract has expired. While any club can offer the same maximum first
year salary, the team that holds the rights to the player can offer a higher
annual salary increase. Over the life of the contract a few percentage
points per season turns into a significant money. Therefore a team under
the Cap can not offer a player the same amount of money in a long term
deal as a player’s previous team Star players all want the maximum 7 year
deal, and they make a lot more money if they get it from their current
employer. But this does not mean that players will never go elsewhere.
Let’s say for argument’s sake that a good young power forward wanted out
of his current situation. Let’s say that he was an Olympian and an All
Star. I am sure Chicago would have loved to add a young 20-point-a-night
scorer to their roster, and I am sure Chicago fans would have been thrilled
to see a young stud on the court. But I have to ask myself, would the addition
of one star to the Bulls really make them into a winner? I don’t believe
so, and I will use the case of Shareef Abdur-Rahim as an example.
Shareef came
into the league as the third pick of the 1996 Draft, behind Allen Iverson
and Marcus Camby. The Grizzlies were an expansion team that had almost
nothing in place to make the team a winner overnight. But Abdur-Rahim starred
from Day One. Profiles were written about how he was the league’s secret
superstar, and his name has been up amongst the scoring leaders for several
years now. Vancouver added heralded point guard Mike Bibby, who handed
out 8.4 assists per game, and his former Arizona running mate Michael Dickerson,
who dropped 16 points a night. Even with these other young talents, the
Grizzlies kept losing, night after night. Bibby and Dickerson are certainly
comparable to the best of the bunch in stripped down Chicago, so I have
a hard time believing that one guy would really make that much difference
with such a hideous cast around him. Jamal Crawford, Ron Mercer, Ron Artest,
Shareef Abdur Rahim, and Dragan Tarlac wouldn’t scare anybody. You’ve got
some nice players, but is it really worth three years of losing to put
these guys on the floor together? The Bulls won 15 and lost 67 last year.
That is painful no matter how much cap room you have. One of the worst
teams in history, just to have a chance to get a free agent, albeit less
of a chance than appears on the surface.
The Bulls took
a big gamble, and they are paying for it with their attendance and won
lost record. So Chicago is now going with a youth movement, moving their
best player, Elton Brand, for Tyson Chandler. I suspect that more losing
will follow, and I am fairly certain that Jerry Krause will be out there
offering the big dollars next summer. Someone is eventually going to take
his money, and maybe one of these high school guys is going to set the
league on fire and put the Bulls back into the winner’s circle. But it
has been nothing but misery since Jordan left, and I really think that
a lot of what went on in Chicago was unnecessary. No matter who is looking
good in next year’s draft or free agent market, teams have an obligation
to put a decent product on the floor 82 times a year. Next time you hear
about a team playing the under the cap game, just remember that there are
games to be played this year, and being under the cap does not guarantee
a brighter future.
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