Skyline of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, home of the NBA's Bucks
The National Basketball Association’s 2020-21 campaign has been full of surprises. The Phoenix Suns and the Utah Jazz finished the regular season with the top two records in the Western Conference. The defending champion Los Angeles Lakers had to survive a play-in game to qualify for the postseason. The Knicks were good. The league’s Most Improved Player was a seven-year veteran. Neither of the Eastern Conference’s top two seeds survived the second round of the playoffs. With the condensed schedule, especially after the All-Star break, load management was actually encouraged. And every round of the playoffs was hampered by injuries to top players. Once the dust settled, three of the four survivors participating in the conference finals (Atlanta, Milwaukee, and Phoenix) were based in smaller television markets; the fourth one (Los Angeles Clippers) is considered a second-class citizen in its own city. As a result, as was the case in the 1970s, the NBA’s small-market blues have once again become a topic of conversation.
What’s all this talk about NBA small markets, anyway? The idea had certainly evolved, with television market size being king before the internet and free agency came along. For example, the Boston Celtics were not located in a huge television market in the late 1950s and the 1960s when they won nine of the ten championships decided in that decade. But based on that run of titles, they became a basketball brand. Teams located in the larger population centers like the Los Angeles Lakers, the New York Knicks, the Chicago Bulls, and, most recently, the Brooklyn Nets have always enjoyed clear advantages over the franchises located in some of the league’s mid-sized cities if those advantages are utilized. For example, the Knicks are in the largest media market, but like the franchises located in smaller cities, they have been unable to attract the top free agents.
The franchises located in the smaller cities and those in larger cities that don’t take advantage of it have to approach roster-building differently from their more recognizable counterparts. They must draft well, develop those draftees, and create an environment that would make those players want to stick around once their rookie deal expires. They also have to get maximum mileage — in terms of wins — out of their draftees in their first few years in the league or risk losing them. These franchises can sign free agents but are simply non-factors in the chase for top free agents. Everyone can’t go to the Lakers, but they aren’t going to the Minnesota Timberwolves, either.
The National Basketball Association has 30 franchises across the United States and Canada. of those 30 franchises, how many have a realistic shot at landing a top free agent? Of course, all 30 teams can land the complimentary free agent. Still, with the money being equal, today’s potentially franchise-changing player will, with rare exception, choose a warm-weather city, preferably with beaches, where they can win. Franchises in Los Angeles and Miami have a clear advantage over the rest of the league there. Still, the next level of teams can sneak in and nab a free agent or two if they have a good reputation with current veteran players on the roster and are close to being a title contender.
And, of course, it doesn’t hurt if a top free agent can find another one to join forces with at their chosen destination.
In either case, franchises in cold-weather places like Minnesota, Cleveland, Detroit, and Toronto, or places like Portland (ridiculous travel), Washington and Orlando (small fan bases), and others are at a clear disadvantage where top free-agent signings are concerned.
Lebron James was involved in multiple runs to the NBA Finals as a member of the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Miami Heat. People tuned in anyway because regardless of the location or market size of the franchise he was representing, basketball fans wanted to see him perform. Others wanted to root against him, and they watched, too. When Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls were winning six titles, their opponents from the Western Conference included the Utah Jazz (twice), the Phoenix Suns, the Seattle Supersonics, the Portland Trailblazers, and the Lakers. The presence of teams from the smaller markets in the Finals didn’t matter because folks were tuning in to watch Michael Jordan.
What we saw in the 1970s were small-market teams a) winning titles and b) matched up against one another in the finals. For example, we saw the Milwaukee Bucks play against the Baltimore Bullets in the 1971 NBA Finals. There was definitely star power with Lew Alcindor, Oscar Robertson, Earl Monroe, and Wes Unseld around, but the league wasn’t as popular then, especially globally but even nationally. We also saw teams like the Portland Trailblazers, Seattle Supersonics, and Washington Bullets win titles, including two consecutive years with a Seattle versus Washington matchup in the finals.
Wilt Chamberlain began his career as a member of the Philadelphia Warriors and finished his career with the Los Angeles Lakers, winning a title there.
Kareem-Abdul Jabbar was drafted (Lew Alcindor) by the Milwaukee Bucks in 1969, won a title there in 1971, and was later traded to the Los Angeles Lakers to win five more titles.
The Los Angeles Lakers drafted Magic Johnson with the first overall pick in the 1979 NBA Draft after finishing the 1978-79 season with 47 wins (they’d acquired the New Orleans Jazz’ pick earlier) and winning a coin flip against the Chicago Bulls. Magic would go on to win five NBA titles with the Lakers.
The Los Angeles Lakers drafted James Worthy in 1982 with the first pick overall. The Lakers had just finished the 1981-82 season with the best record in the Western Conference and the second-best record in the entire league, then went on to win the 1982 NBA championship. They also owned the Cleveland Cavaliers’ first-round pick that summer, and the Cavs had finished the 1981-82 season with the league’s worst record. Back then, the teams with the worst record in each conference would participate in a coin flip to determine which franchise would be the first overall pick in that summer’s draft. The Western Conference’s worst record belonged to the San Diego Clippers, who would coin flip against the Lakers. The Lakers won the flip and the first pick overall and used it to draft Worthy, who won three NBA titles with the Lakers.
Kobe Bryant was drafted 13th by the Los Angeles Lakers in 1996 with a pick acquired in a deal with the Charlotte Hornets. He was a five-time NBA champion with the Lakers.
Shaquille O’ Neal was drafted number one by the Orlando Magic in 1992. In 1996, he signed with the Los Angeles Lakers as a free agent and won three championships.
Lebron James was drafted by his local franchise, the Cleveland Cavaliers, with the first pick overall in 2003 and played his first seven seasons there before signing with the Miami Heat as a free agent in 2010. He’d win two titles in Miami before returning “home” and winning one with then, in Cavs. Then, in 2018, James moved on to the Los Angeles Lakers as a free agent and won a title there in 2020.
Anthony Davis was drafted with the first pick overall by the New Orleans franchise in 2012. In 2019 he was moved to the Los Angeles Lakers in a swap involving multiple players and future draft picks. He won a title with the Lakers in 2020.
No clear pattern here, of course. We could debate whether the parade of top players to the Lakers over several decades results from sustained front-office genius or other factors. Still, the Lakers and the Boston Celtics have each won 17 NBA titles, combining 46 percent of the 74 titles won before the 2020-21 season. This is the stuff most NBA franchises can only dream about.
Hearing and reading some of the reactions to this year’s 1970s-like Milwaukee versus Phoenix NBA finals pairing reveals that basketball fans are not really excited about the series and think the matchup is bad for the league. The television ratings for Games 1 and 2, though better than the 2020 ratings for various reasons, support that. But, of course, there isn’t one simple reason for the lack of juice. Still, a combination of a matchup of two of the less glamorous franchises and Lebron James’s absence — however one might feel about him — or another top player that would attract viewers are contributing factors.
I don’t mind the matchup at all. Both teams did what was necessary to represent their conference in the NBA Finals. Neither should be denied the opportunity to lift the trophy merely based on their franchise’s location. In addition, the top players in this series are most efficient from mid-range and in, with some three-pointers sprinkled in, although this is likely more of an aberration than the start of a trend. If that were a trend, I wouldn’t care if the finalists were based in Miles City, Montana, and Casper, Wyoming. I’ll watch.
The NBA must now grapple with the idea that Lebron James is rapidly approaching the end of his career and has missed two of the last three NBA FInals after eight consecutive appearances from 2011 through 2018. Basketball fans under 25 years old won’t remember watching too many NBA Finals that didn’t involve Lebron James. The league must now hope there’s a young player in the NBA or about to enter it that will have a similar impact on the league, and that’s not realistic. In addition, this player cannot spend his entire career in one of the smaller markets. Lebron was big enough to lift the Cleveland franchise out of its small-market status for a few years, but we can’t expect that to happen again.
It’s unfortunate, but even with the salary cap, NBA’s small-market franchises are not playing with the same cards as some of the other franchises. They are considered less glamorous, often for reasons that have little to do with basketball. So surely, the injury factor affected the 2021 NBA postseason to an unusual level. Still, once the finals pairing was determined, you could hear whispers of asterisks being placed next to the eventual champion’s name, not in the record books, but the minds of some observers.
So why do we even have these franchises if their presence in the finals is considered a negative unless they’re playing the role of the Washington Generals against the league’s dominant players and teams?
And even though they managed to win five titles over a 15-year period. The “small-market” San Antonio Spurs still are barely mentioned nowadays. Of course, they were considered a small US market, but they were critical in the NBA’s effort to expand the product globally because they had so many international players. But they’re in San Antonio.
So fans of the recent title winners in places like Toronto and Cleveland, as well as this year’s winner, had better hold on to those memories. History doesn’t favor a repeat performance. Since 1980, right after the league held its nose while small-market teams were winning titles while no one was watching, there have only been seven NBA Finals that didn’t involve at least one of the following:
It might have been eight without the shenanigans in 2002 where the Sacramento Kings (one of the better passing teams in recent memory), with a 3-2 series lead and a chance to eliminate the Lakers at home, couldn’t get a break from the referees. Of course, we’d have been looking at a Sacramento versus New Jersey Nets NBA final series that year, which would have been considered unacceptable.
Nothing will be done about this, of course, because it’s not really considered a problem. Everyone’s making money, and even the smaller markets can benefit economically from the presence of an NBA franchise in their town. It would just be nice to see some fresh faces have a shot at a chip and have it not considered bad for the league.
Photo by Tom Barrett on Unsplash
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