WFNY wonders just where the NBA is heading and how the latest e-mail to fans plays a role
Hey, Cavs fans! Come buy tickets to see other teams!It is time to ask the question: Has the NBA as a whole completely lost sight of its fans?
I knew at least one guy had lost sight of the fans when LeBron James executed “The Decision” this past summer. Now, it seems that James and Chris Bosh were just the first dominoes in a not-so-isolated case of fans being an absolute afterthought. Carmelo Anthony forcing his way out of Denver and to New York is just more proof of the Miami Heat’s off-putting concept.
LeBron truly is the king... in terms of burning the most fans. Give Carmelo Anthony some credit, I guess. In executing his exodus from Denver he only burned one fan base. LeBron was intent on trying to burn fans of the Cavs, Bulls, Knicks, and Nets simultaneously. To cap it all off, he ended up going to a place where the “fans” seemingly can’t muster the energy to “fan up” and jump on the bandwagon.
If you are keeping score at home, the Knicks and Heat are loaded while the Cavs, Raptors, and Nuggets suffer. If current trends continue, you can add the New Orleans Hornets fans to that list when Chris Paul points his compass toward NYC sooner rather than later.
Care not that there are only a few teams in the league with any real chance of winning in the playoffs. The NBA has some real premier match-ups for TNT, ESPN and the playoffs, right? In the end, it seems that great TV ratings are synonymous with league health and a sport’s quality. Except it really isn’t.
That’s the same backhanded dismissiveness that Yankees fans use when the Texas Rangers and San Francisco Giants are in the World Series. “Boy the networks must be ticked because they missed out on huge TV ratings!” they say. As sports fans, can someone remind me again why we care about TV ratings? It is nice to see big stars on the biggest stages, but no league can’t survive on exhibitions alone.
At least Dan Gilbert and the owners in the NBA still care about the fans right? I sure thought so. That was before I got my latest email from the Cleveland Cavaliers. Check out the image above.
Big names coming! The Knicks, Thunder, Magic and Heat! That’s right, the Cavs are now attempting to sell us on visiting teams. Big names who have found ways to consolidate talent in a city other than Cleveland! Catch them all! Live!
I always thought the Knicks were a horrible example for the way to do business in the NBA. They tanked for a number of years and failed miserably in their attempt to win “the summer of LeBron.”
Apparently I was wrong. They ended up getting Amar’e Stoudemire and then somehow became the desired landing spot for Carmelo Anthony, seemingly for no reason other than geography. Now the Knicks suddenly find themselves as the selling point for a Cavaliers marketing e-mail. Talk about failing to the top.
That isn’t even to mention the fact that the Cavs have the gall to include the Miami Heat in their sell job to Cavs fans. The team that represents absolutely everything wrong with the NBA in the majority of Cavs fans’ minds is now some kind of selling point to get people to The Q?
If you want to give the Cavs the benefit of the doubt, maybe they are just reminding the fans to come out and boo like crazy. Then again can you give them that benefit as they attempt to sell the Knicks, Magic, and Thunder to the once proud fans who used to have their own team a mere season ago?
I know Dan Gilbert is competitive and wants to win desperately. Then again, he also wants to win at business as well. Is it possible that he and the organization have been beaten into submission by the way the NBA is running?
I have supported Dan Gilbert, because of the resources he committed to winning over the last few years. Given the Cavs’ latest email, it appears this league’s problems surpass even Dan Gilbert’s deep pockets and willingness to compete. This is an entire league based on a set of principles (or lack thereof) that are tough if not impossible to stomach. Meanwhile, Cavs fans are expected to wait patiently to figure out if their team can ever climb the giant hill of relevancy ever again.
Some mountains are worth climbing because getting to the top is a proud achievement. The further and further this league devolves under the tutelage of people who seemingly couldn’t care less about NBA fans, the more and more it looks like a mountain that I don’t really feel like climbing anyway.
I thought maybe the NBA wasn’t as broken as I first suspected after LeBron and “The Decision.” I thought maybe it was just me being sensitive because Cleveland came out on the losing end. As more and more fans find themselves sitting on the sidelines for super-teams it becomes more and more apparent that I wasn’t wrong. Cleveland was just a leading indicator of the disease that is coursing deeper and deeper through the veins of the NBA.
Is there a doctor in the house? Anywhere?
Source: http://www.cleveland.com/wfny/index.ssf/2011/02/does_anyone_in_the_nba_care_ab.html
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