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By Jeff Lenchiner
It’s simple logic. Fewer teams in a sports league would mean more stars getting to play together, which presumably would make those teams better, and make for better basketball.
I know plenty of NBA fans who would love to see the NBA reverse directions and knock some teams out of the league, but even with David Stern suggesting that the idea is not to be totally ruled out, no one expects it will ever happen.
And, of course, no fan wants to see their favorite team cease to exist. So, the very idea of contraction is bound to frighten those whose local squad tends to not produce much in the wins, attendance or jersey sale departments.
But, count Miami Heat superstar LeBron James as a player who would support NBA contraction (eliminating some teams from the league) if it was to occur.
Brian Windhorst of ESPN reports:
“Hopefully the league can figure out one way where it can go back to the ’80s where you had three or four All-Stars, three or four superstars, three or four Hall of Famers on the same team,” James said. “The league was great. It wasn’t as watered down as it is [now].”
In fact, James seemed to have a couple of ideas of which teams could go and some players that would make other teams better right now.
“[Contraction] is not my job; I’m a player but that is why it the league was so great,” James said.
“Imagine if you could take Kevin Love off Minnesota and add him to another team and you shrink the [league]. Looking at some of the teams that aren’t that great, you take Brook Lopez or you take Devin Harris off these teams that aren’t that good right now and you add him to a team that could be really good. Not saying let’s take New Jersey and let’s take Minnesota out of the league. But hey, you guys are not stupid, I’m not stupid, it would be great for the league.”
Personally, I’d be quite happy if there were 20 teams instead of 30. Unless one of the teams that would cease to exist happened to be based near me, of course. Because then the idea is crazy and evil.
What’s your opinion? Share it with other fans in this forum topic.
