For years there has been a discussion in the NBA that deals with the accumulation of talent in a few franchises. Players, with far more decision-making power over their careers than a few decades ago, have an unprecedented ability to force trades. And for some time now it is common to see the stars of the League playing in a few franchises. It is rare to find one of the great players in the NBA who is not accompanied on his team by another of those great players and their team changes often go in the same directions.
Many place the beginning of this trend in the 2010 Heat, the Big Three by LeBron, Wade and Bosh, although three years before the Celtics joined Pierce, Garnett and Allen. Since then movements such as Durant’s to the Warriors, the forced transfer to limits difficult to imagine a few years ago from Davis to the Lakers or Kawhi’s departure to the Clippers on the condition that they sign Paul George have been examples of these practices. .
Now it has been Michael Jordan who has given his opinion in an interview with Cigar Aficionado, a website specialized in cigars, one of his passions. The former player and current owner of the Charlotte Hornets sees a clear problem in this practice: “I think you want to be able to have a competitive balance in the league, and if a player is able to choose / determine which team he wants to play for, then there will be some talent discrepancy in the league. If everyone goes to Chicago, then all the best players will be in Chicago. You start to see a bit of that now when all the stars are trying to come together on the same team, but I think it will start to hurt the overall look of the league from a competitive point of view. There will be two teams that will be great and the other 28 will be garbage“.
In the days of Jordan’s player it was less common to see so much movement of players, especially the stars, who had a different mentality regarding playing alongside other greats in the league. In general, the idea was more about facing each other than being teammates. Keep in mind that Jordan does not speak only as a former player. In fact, it sure does it more as an owner, in this case of one of the less successful franchises in recent years. On the subject of building a great team in a small market, such as his Charlotte Hornets, he also explained his opinion:
“The stars have no interest in going to the small markets, so your talent selection should be a bit more elaborate and selected for your team, your culture, your city and from the coach’s point of view. So I put more emphasis on the draft than I used to because you can’t get the LeBrons of the world to come to Charlotte. To compete in a small market takes a lot of work, which I’m not afraid of, and it takes a lot of vision for the future: seeing new talent, nurturing new talent, developing new talent. The biggest problem we have is that we are not a Chicago, we are not an LASo you have to create a winning culture and you have to be able to connect that basketball team with the support systems within that community. “.
