Here’s a theory that is bouncing around — ha! — in hoops circles in NC which makes just a little too much sense to me.
Why is Michael Jordan so certain he can basically tank this season and still come out ahead? Because he knows that as an NBA icon, his franchise can never be contracted no matter how low it goes. But MJ will still lose a ton of money in the process, right? Not if the Bobcats benefit from contraction by landing Chris Paul.
Admittedly contraction is the fanciful linchpin of this house of cards. But what if David Stern and the bulk of the owners see that the only way to fight the looming MLBing of the league — with four or five deep pocketed teams sure to dominate while the others slowly wither away — is with either revenue-sharing or contraction? Now if you know revenue-sharing ain’t gonna happen — which is ultimately the conclusion that ran Bobcat Johnson out of the league — you are down to contraction.
Besides, contraction also has the effect of whipping the players into line, putting some downward pressure on crazy salaries. Revenue-sharing does the opposite.
So you resolve to contract two of your weakest franchises, spend $300m. to buy out the grateful owners who won’t be losing any more money — versus commit to funneling, what $10-15m. a year to each of 6 to 8 sadsacks, possibly forever? Contraction does not look like such a bad deal then.
And you get to disperse the talent on those teams to prop up other basketcases. At no direct cost. The New Orleans Hornets go poof and Chris Paul magically winds up back in North Carolina. The newly minted Anaheim Kings welcome former USC phenom OJ Mayo back to the City of Angels.
In fact, it was the bizarre situation involving the attempt by the Pacers to get Mayo out of Memphis before the trade deadline that helped to convince me that there might be something to this wild theory. The deal fell through at the last second because no third team could be found to make it work. It was almost as if the word went out that the league wanted Mayo to stay in Memphis, which along with NO and CLT make up the pool of the franchises most likely to be contracted on merit. Except for the Jordan Rules.
Anyway, just like the then wild possibility that Michael Jordan was headed to Charlotte — you heard it hear first.
