LeBron Makes Another Decision

Once again LeBron James made a decision as to where to take his basketball-playing talents, and once again I don't like it.

Harumph!

Only this time my opposition is more, I don’t know—noble? At least to me. You decide.

His first decision came in 2010, when he staged The Decision, a televised show in which after an hour or so of yapping about this, that and the other thing, Lebron announced he was taking his basketball playing talents to Miami.

And not Chicago, where I wanted him to go and where, for one bright shining moment, he seemed like he might venture. Taking Dwyane Wade with him, thus forming a power-house squad with Rose, Deng and Noah that had me dreaming of Grant Park celebrations.

Alas, the Bulls signed Carlos Boozer—an inadequate substitute, to put it mildly. 

The point is I had no problem with the show, The Decision, as opposed to the decision itself.

In LeBron’s latest decision, Chicago was never, not even remotely, in the running. Instead, James announced he'd be taking his still--at age 42--prodigious talents to Philadelphia, where he'd be joining an outstanding assemblage of superstars named Embiid, Maxey and Brown.

Might as well give them the championship right now. Assuming of course they stay healthy. 

I don't care that James went to Philly--if nothing else it will be fun to root against that powerhouse team. What irritates me is what he had to do to make it on the 76ers. Follow me, folks--I'm about to take you on a treacherous journey into the netherworld of high-stakes NBA capitalism. Buckle up...

Imagine these guys AND LeBron…

In order to preserve the competitive balance between big and small market teams, the NBA owners have forced the players’s union to accept a salary cap which does exactly what it says--caps the the dollar amount each team can play in aggregate salaries to the players on their rosters. If a team exceeds that cap, they're punished. Forced to pay a fine or give up future draft choices.

Again, the owners claim they're doing this for the fans, especially those in smaller markets. So big-market teams--like the New York Knicks or Los Angeles Lakers--can't just dig deep into their pockets and fill their rosters with well-paid superstars that the smaller-market teams can't afford. 

As you might expect, I don't believe the owners. I don't think they've created a salary cap to protect the fans. I believe they did it to benefit themselves.

The owners are a fabulously wealthy cartel of fat cats who have enough money to sign any superstar they want. No matter where their teams are located.

They profess to believe in a free markets so long as they dominate those markets. As such, many of them undoubtedly endorse Citizens United, the Supreme Court ruling that allows wealthy people and their corporations to donate as much as they want to political campaigns. Cause the owners knows that the vast majority of people don't have enough money to keep pace with them when it comes to making donations, and, therefore, they will win. Or the pols they pay and control will win.

But when it comes to competition with other fat cats who are as rich as they are, they want nothing to do with free markets. In that case, they become sorta socialistic and they push for salary caps that will protect them from having to go one-on-one, if you will, in a free and competitive market.

In short, they love free markets when it locks in the advantage they already have and they can smash their opponents. And they hate free markets when they actually have to compete in one against someone their own size.

So what does this have to do with LeBron's latest decision? Well...

In order to sign with Philly, LeBron had to take a massive pay cut--from the $52 million he got last year from the Lakers to about $4 million.

If he signed for his true worth, the Sixers, already approaching the salary cap, would not have been able to sign him without being punished, paying a hefty fine or giving up a valuable draft choice.

Now, if LeBron wants to work for less to win a championship, more power to him. The man's already a billionaire--it's not like he needs the money.

However, there's something inherently unfair and hypocritical about a system that rewards owners for playing their players less and punishes them for paying their players more.  If you're gonna punish a team for exceeding the salary cap, you should also punish them for circumventing it by paying their players on the cheap.

Relatively speaking, of course. As $4 million is not exactly starvation wages.

So I believe the 76ers should have to pay a fine or give up a draft choice for the cap-busting maneuver of signing LeBron for less than he's worth. Same goes for the Knicks and the Spurs, who swerved around the salary cap by convincing Jalen Brunson and Victor Wembanyama to return some of the salary they had coming.

Either that or all three teams must reduce their ticket prices by whatever amount they're saving on Lebron, Jalen and Wemby.

Since this is, you know, all about looking after the fans. Ha, ha, ha...