What's REALLY Killing the NBA

Stop blaming the high school kids. Stop blaming the “thugs”. Stop blaming lack of fundamentals. Here is a partial list of the true problems in the NBA, in no particular order.

Isiah Thomas
Chris Mullin
Billy King
Donnie Nelson
Larry Bird
Elgin Baylor
Kiki Vandeweghe
Billy Knight
Bryan Colangelo
John Nash
John Weisbrod
Randy Pfund
Jerry West
Mitch Kupchack
Joe Dumars
Danny Ainge


Who are these guys? This is a partial list of men who thought it was a good idea to give the likes of Adonal Foyle a 5 year, $41.6 million contract extension. Or Allan Houston a 6 year, $100 million contract extension before his current contract was even up. Or Austin Croshere a 7 year, $51 million contract after a couple of good playoff games. Or Chris Webber a 7 year, $123 million contract when everyone knew he only had one good leg.

To further illustrate the point, let’s take a look at the list of top 25 salaries in the NBA for 2005-2006. Look at how many of these guys are role players or out of the league completely.

Shaquille O’Neal $20,000,000
Chris Webber $19,130,000
Michael Finley $18,612,000
Kevin Garnett $18,000,000
Allen Iverson $16,450,000
Stephon Marbury $16,450,000
Jason Kidd $16,440,000
Jermaine O’Neal $16,430,000
Kobe Bryant $15,950,000
Tim Duncan $15,850,000
Keith Van Horn $15,700,000
Jalen Rose $15,694,000
Grant Hill $15,690,000
Tracy McGrady $15,690,000
Eddie Jones $14,560,000
Tim Thomas $13,975,000
Paul Pierce $13,843,157
Vince Carter $13,840,000
Antawn Jamison $13,840,000
Dirk Nowitzki $13,840,000
Baron Davis $13,770,000
Steve Francis $13,770,000
Shawn Marion $13,770,000
Ray Allen $13,220,000
Elton Brand $13,150,000


So the next time you want to complain about the NBA, thank all the NBA general managers that have paralyzed their teams due to these multi-year guaranteed contracts. After all, how do you give young men millions of dollars guaranteed and then tell them they are doing everything wrong?

BCS: Why is this so difficult?

I know this horse has already died three times it has been beaten so much, but here is my two cents to fix the BCS. Only six schools "miss class time" and the five current major bowls are still used. I know six is an odd number for a tournament, but it best utilizes the current bowl system. Currently, the BCS Championship game floats between Phoenix, Los Angeles, Atlanta, and New Orleans a week after the other major bowl in that city. This system could still be used under this format. The final BCS standings determine seedings. One qualifier I would add is if any team is undefeated and in the top 10 of the final BCS standings, they automatically qualify for the #6 seed. Call this the Boise State rule to give the little guys a chance. This also gets the college football season completed before the second semester as well as before the NFL playoffs begin. Depending on the calendar, the final game could easily be moved to New Year's Day as well.

December 16
Fiesta Bowl
#4 LSU
vs
#5 USC

Orange Bowl
#3 Michigan
vs
#6 Louisville

December 23
Rose Bowl
#1 Ohio State
vs
Fiesta Bowl winner

Sugar Bowl
#2 Florida
vs
Orange Bowl winner

December 30 or January 1
BCS Championship
Rose Bowl winner
vs
Sugar Bowl winner

I know...I know....it's too easy

I know that everyone today will be talking about the BCS and that it's too easy to just simply complain about the "system" anymore. But I want to specifically talk about the latest bunch of crap I keep hearing from the BCS apologists. They want you to believe that it's GOOD for college football that people are even having this debate and dealing with the controversy.

Now maybe I'm just too far set in my ways to see this any other way, but seriously, can someone remind me again why it's good that just about everyone in the country is complaining about this (outside of Columbus and Gainesville)? This isn't E! or Access Hollywood where "even bad press is good press".

Are people really going to try and convince me that if we had a playoff system that no one would care? ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Right now we would be looking at this format (assuming top 8 from BCS standings only, meaning no automatic conference champs and no Notre Dame unless they crack the top 8):

Ohio State vs. Boise State
Florida vs. Wisconsin
Michigan vs. Louisville
LSU vs. USC

Then
OSU/BSU vs. LSU/USC
Florida/Wisconsin vs. Michigan/Lousiville

and then the winners face off. So OSU/Florida OR OSU/Michigan could still happen. And at that time there would be nothing to be said other than how the teams got there and how there really was no debate on whether they DESERVED to be there.

Talk about a really nice lineup. And for those of you wanting controversy and bad press, I'm sure there are a whole bunch of delusional Domers out there thinking they deserve to be in this group. And maybe OU does deserve to be there also, but again...we are talking about teams fighting for a chance to be one of the last teams in...not the team to be in the national championship game.

I just can't take college football seriously until this happens.