I'll be honest and say that at the beginning of this season I did not view the Phoenix Suns as legitimate contenders, even though they went to the Finals last season and, as it currently stands, have established themselves as the best team in the NBA. Why is that so? Well to answer that question, I must first explain how I personally tend to analyze the National Basketball Association - the two sides of the coin, so to speak.
As a true fan of the sport, I always try to predict who I deem to be the best team on any given night or in any given series to win, even if said squad are not my sentimental favorites. That's one side of the coin. But on the other, I also try to analyze the NBA from the perspective of one of these businessmen who are making millions of dollars from it. And that's where the conspiracy theories come into play.
For instance, let's presume if there's a seven-game series, then the NBA bigwigs involved make, hypothetically speaking, $1million per game. So then even if one team is clearly superior, as one of these head honchos you would not want the series to be a sweep. Why? Because then you're only making $4million as opposed to a potential $7million. That's why sometimes I be thinking there shouldn't even really be anything like competitive professional sports anyway, especially in terms of how large the industry has become these days. And that's because when you bring all of these gazillions of dollars into the equation the temptation to rig would be great, not only as far as more-traditional outside tampering goes but also within the league itself.
And the reason I'm talking all of this shit is because I personally feel that the NBA helped the Milwaukee Bucks win a championship, ultimately over the Phoenix Suns, last season. And that's no insult to the Bucks, who have been a dominant regular-season squad for some years now. But it was apparent by like the 2nd Round that they weren't serious contenders. But it's like the old saying goes - you have to be in it to win it. So theoretically just making the Playoffs means that any team therein can win the gold.
But as a NBA conspiracy theorist, there are two main reasons why I think the Association chose the Bucks to win. First would be that they did not want Giannis to be tempted to bounce elsewhere. (And if so that plan sorta backfired, since he recently hinted at leaving anyway.) Secondly, relatedly and most importantly, the NBA wanted to grant a Championship to a small-market team.
A few years back some measures were put into place, I forget what they're called - perhaps collective bargaining or something - that were meant to legislatively encourage parity amongst teams in the NBA. Said measures are more or less moot in the age of superteaming, whereas superstars, sometimes even three+ of them, are opting to play together on the same squad. And when they do make such decisions, well, let's just say it may be a long time coming before we see two or three of the top 10 or 15 players in the NBA deciding to play for the Bucks. Instead they'd rather go to the more popular teams/cities, like Los Angeles, Miami or Brooklyn. So since the aforementioned measures weren't working, Adam Silver and them were probably just like 'fuck it, here's some parity for your ass', you know, Milwaukee Bucks' championship.
So what does all of this have to do with my early-season perception of the Phoenix Suns? Well if a team loses a series fair and square, they would most likely be like 'okay, we're going to do better next year'. But if they're gypped out of a victory, as I believe the Suns were during the last Finals, then the after-loss reaction would likely be more akin to demoralization.
To me, the quintessential example of this phenomenon was the 1999-2000 Portland Trailblazers. That team had one of the deepest rosters in NBA history. And included on that squad was Bonzi Wells, who was the real-life Kobe stopper (or at least Kobe neutralizer), not Bruce Bowen. They made it to the Western Conference Finals that season and, according to many spectators (including myself), got gypped out of making it to the big dance in favor of the Lakers (who did go on to win the Championship that year). And around that time, it was well-known that the Shaq-Kobe Lakers were the personal favorites of late Commissioner David Stern, i.e. the main businessman behind the NBA.
The Blazers then went on to meet the Lakers the following two seasons, losing on both occasions, before that iteration of the squad was more or less dismantled. And I'm not arguing that the those latter two series were also rigged, as I don't remember even watching them, but rather that by that time the damage to the team's morale, due to the initial rigging, had already been done. And considering that I do in fact believe the Suns were gypped out a Championship last season, then I also though that would be the case coming into this season, i.e. them being demoralized. And maybe it was, at first.
The second reason I did not consider them contenders was the fact that the biggest addition the Suns made to their roster during last offseason was JaVale McGee. JaVale, with three NBA Championships and an Olympic gold medal under his belt, is actually one of the most-decorated players in NBA history. And I did know, more so than anything, that the Suns needed to prioritize adding another bigman to their squad. Yet I didn't see the addition of McGee as moving the needle. But even I, an NBA guru, am sometimes wrong. And now that I'm actually writing about, it makes sense that McGee, who is known to have this infectious level of energy on his teammates, would be exactly the bigman the doctor ordered for a demoralized team.
And third reason was that whole DeAndre Ayton fiasco that commenced at the beginning of this season, whereas the Suns refused to offer their starting center - unanimously considered to be one of the best bigmen and highly compatible with CP3 and co. - a max contract. For about 90% of the star players in the NBA, whether or not they're max-worthy is always a matter of debate. But considering that Ayton was the number one pick in 2018 and some of the draftees that came after him, including Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the perennially-spasmic Michael Porter Jr., were given max extensions, then relatively speaking he should have received one also. But it's like bigmen are so undervalued in today's NBA. But that said, I thought DeAndre himself would also be demoralized or distracted by that reality and not give it his all.
And in my defense, the Suns did start off quite sloppy. For instance they're currently tied (with the Warriors) for the best record in the NBA at 20 wins and 4 losses. But three of those losses actually came back during the first week of the season.
CONCLUSION
Being the NBA conspiracy theorist that I am, I also believe that Kawhi Leonard may not have been as hurt during last season's Playoffs as the league would like us to believe. And if he had actually played, then it's hard to imagine the Suns having made it to the Finals considering how much trouble they had getting past the Clippers without Kawhi. So it's like, theoretically speaking, at any given time any team can be the beneficiary of a rigging.
But one thing I am hoping, if nothing else, is that this season, if things continue as they are, the NBA will do the right thing and give Chris Paul the MVP Award. He should have won it last season, even if he isn't as great an all-around player as Nikola Jokic. Moreover, there has been some major blowouts as of late, but it also seems that there are more close or overtime games than ever before. So considering that CP3 is hands down the most-clutch player in the NBA (with Kawhi still not playing), then it's like might as well give him flowers while he can smell them.
No comments:
Post a Comment