The NBA is a league that is full of itself. Wherever you look around the league you see the selfishness that has become American professional basketball. Long gone are the tenets of teamwork, hustle and sacrifice. Now it’s all about me, the benjamins and luxury. That’s why I laugh when I hear that NBA teams will be playing European club teams.
David Stern, commissioner of the NBA said, four NBA teams will hold training camps overseas and play preseason games against top European clubs in both 2006 and 2007.
He said:
What we are doing here tonight, and have done, is to assure that elite athletes will increasingly bounce the ball rather than kick it. I think we’re increasing the viability of the sport on a global basis.
You already are global. The best players around the world still want to play in the NBA, but maybe you’ve forgotten how much the NBA players have sucked in the world championships and Olympics lately? The world has actually passed the NBA by.
Heaping on the bad news, David Stern said that a four team tournament will be held in a fifth city. It will include two NBA teams, as well as the defending Euroleague champion and runner-up.
Ouch. That’s going to hurt.
I’ll go out on a limb, without even seeing the teams they are sending, that the NBA teams will lose that tournament.