Be worried, the NBA is turning into the English Premier League

We are only now reaching the Conference Finals of this year’s NBA postseason, and already we have heard of two disgruntled stars who have voiced their displeasure at their current situation. Both Luka Doncic and Zion Williamson aren’t happy right now, and the media has delighted in speculating on their futures.

This is depressing because the fetishizing of photoshopping players into jerseys of other teams is something that has been taken to ridiculous heights in recent years. What is even more worrying is that, in the case of Doncic and Williamson, these are young guys who haven’t even seen out their rookie deals. Not veterans looking to win big after having put in the work.

The player empowerment era, which LeBron James is credited with bringing into the mainstream with “The Decision” of 2010, has had so many benefits for players. It has allowed them to control more of their own playing destiny, taking them away from incompetent owners, and that is great. It is also beginning to really put the squeeze on smaller markets and teams.

If you’re an NBA fan familiar with English football’s Premier League, then we’ve been here before, and you are not going to like how this ends.

One of the main draws that American sports has, and which initially baffled a curious European like me, was the inability to get relegated (which we tried recently, and failed miserably), as well as the fact players can’t be bought our sold. Once you get your head around this, it makes sports such as the NBA and NFL seem so exotic and cool.

As time goes on you come to realize that trading superstar players rarely works out for the seller and that the game still favors large market teams like the Los Angeles Lakers and New York Knicks (at least commercially). But in amongst that, you have great moments like the Toronto Raptors winning a title in 2019, a dynasty created by the San Antonio Spurs, and even outliers like the Orlando Magic getting to the Finals in 2009.

Drafting well and being smart in free agency, something the OKC Thunder has mastered, can set you up to be competitive for a long time. Even if you are based somewhere like… Oklahoma City. The recent outbursts of Doncic and Williamson threaten to change this, and not for the better.

Now organizations are on the clock immediately to do everything right in order for their young stars to feel like they are on the right trajectory. What doesn’t help, is that there are always younger players who have breakthrough moments earlier than expected, which puts the pressure on the other guys to look in the mirror and ask themselves what they have to do to get there.

Trae Young of the Atlanta Hawks is experiencing this quicker-than-expected ascent right now, while DeAndre Ayton of the Phoenix Suns has seen a complete perception change in his game. This is as much down to his hard work and ability, which he has always possessed, as it does the fact he plays with Chris Paul and Devin Booker on a potentially great team that now gets lots of national exposure.

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We all love to think about what might be in the future and also what players might team up together and where. Fantasizing better scenarios is one of the best parts about being a fan. It helps to combat the losing and the tanking if you are cursed to support a small market or mostly incompetent franchise.

But this year the NBA has crossed the line, and it is to the detriment of the product. If you’re a fan of soccer, then this is nothing new. Right now the European championships are taking place, but so much of the talk is about where Harry Kane of Tottenham Hotspur is going to play next season. Or else if Jason Sancho of Borussia Dortmund’s asking price is going to be met by Manchester United.

These are players with years left on their current deals. Their teams under no obligation to sell them, but by the end of the current championships happening, all of the pieces will be in place for deals to go through quickly. It is disruptive to national coaches and it takes up so much space in newspapers and online. Much more than the games themselves.

Or perhaps I’m just becoming older and more cynical about the process of it all. I was once a wide-eyed kid who had spent far too much money on Arsenal jerseys and watched as year after year their best players were sold to pay back the money spent on a new stadium. But it wasn’t just that they were sold, it was the same method every time.

Murmurs from “sources” as soon as the season was over, with a wild chase taking place across the back pages of tabloids over the course of a six-week span, including pictures of said players in Las Vegas or Abu Dhabi on their holidays. It was pure drama. Spectacle. Theatre. Absolutely devastating to watch play out in agonizingly slow detail.

Cesc Fabregas. Samir Nasri. Emmanuel Adebayor. Robin van Persie. He’s unsettled. A big offer has come in. Offer rejected. He’s staying. He’s leaving again. More money offered. A new team entering the bidding war. In the end, right before the new season began, a picture of the said player in a Barcelona or a Manchester City jersey, performing tricks with a football in front of cameras.

The NBA is not perfect. It has its own set of problems, but it also does so many things right. By turning too far in one direction, they are quickly becoming just like the Premier League. Where each year about three teams can realistically win it all, and if a smaller team threatens to break the established order, their best players are bought by the big teams and they falter once more.

At least with the Premier League, and all European football, there are chances to win cup competitions to keep players happy and make them feel like they’re winning. Not so in the NBA, where you get one chance a year in an insanely competitive environment. Whatever, I’m off to photoshop a Lakers’ jersey onto Doncic and Willamson into a Knicks kit.