Charlotte Bobcats
I've said some not so nice things about the NBA in the past, but I've been watching the Charlotte Bobcats pretty frequently this year. The thing that really bugs me about the NBA is the guys just don't try on a regular basis. I understand if there's a 20 point lead that you might not give your best effort (regardless of which end of that lead you're on), but it's not a legitimate excuse to not try b/c it's the 3rd quarter. I don't really see that on the Bobcats. They have won some games on effort and had some memorable close losses. W/ all the talk about teams tanking to improve their draft lottery position I think the good karma of the Bobcats will get them someone who will help them in the coming seasons.
My real purpose in bringing up the Bobcats is trying to figure out why the attendance is at the bottom of the league. Bill Simmons suggested in ESPN the magazine that the NBA eliminate them b/c they "can't support NBA basketball and never could." The next day he had to explain himself further b/c the old Charlotte Hornets led the league in attendance 8 times in 12 years and said "I'm not arguing that you DID support the team once upon a time" (well, actually that's exactly what you said), but he does bring up a good point that this team is at the bottom of the attendance charts. I think there are a few reasons why. One, they are a crappy expansion team. They have good young players, but people who pay hundreds of dollars to go to a game want to see a team w/ a chance to at least make the playoffs. Two, George Shinn poisoned the NBA environment in Charlotte. It wasn't just his demands for the city to build a new arena at no expense to him or the sexual assault trial, but the mismanagement of the team (trading Alonzo Mourning specifically) that made people wonder why they put their hard earned money into a team when the owner wasn't willing to do the same. Three, the Panthers have captured the heart of the community. They've been to the Super Bowl while the NBA franchise never went to the finals. Their proven success has taken some of the shine off the Bobcats. When the Hornets came into the league, they were the only game in town. Now, the Panthers keep people talking all year about their chances to go back to the Super Bowl. Finally, the NBA isn't as good as it used to be. When the Hornets debuted Magic, Bird, and Jordan were all playing. Now Lebron is about the only huge star that almost everybody wants to see. Kobe is a huge star but extremely divisive. Dwayne Wade (despite the championship), Steve Nash, and Dirk Nowitski only inspire NBA fans to go to the arena, not the casual fan you need to get big attendance numbers every night.
So how do you fix this? I only see one solution. Build a winning team. That starts w/ using the copious amounts of salary cap space they will have this summer and signing 2 players. Not some big name free agents, but Gerald Wallace and Matt Carroll who are already on the roster. They will have a high draft pick even if they don't win the lottery (can I hope for Greg Oden, no, how about Corey Brewer). The young players are there and if injuries don't keep Emeka Okafor and Sean May off the court they should be in the playoffs next year.
Now I have to go watch their last game of the season.
posted by Dan Smith at
6:59 PM
3 Comments:
Wow! An NBA post. I'm impressed.
The Bobcats are a curious team to me. I think they've done well so far building from scratch (although I'm afraid Morrison looks like a bust), but I suppose this ties into your first point about why the city hasn't embraced them. The Hornets were decent when they left and now Charlotte is back at square one. I guess professional sports franchises don't get second honeymoons.
I'm not sure about your subsequent points though. Yes, George Shinn is an abysmal owner and possibly a worse person, but he's not there anymore. Why should Charlotte penalize the Bobcats for his past transgressions? And I don't doubt the Panthers are #1 in the community now, but their season is over in, at best, February. That leaves at least two months of uninterrupted attention for the Bobcats. I guess the problem so far is that by that point, they've already been out of the playoff race.
Your last point about the NBA not being as good as it used to be is made often by many people, but I don't see any empirical evidence to prove that correct. I think people overrate the past and underrate the present. There have been numerous crappy games in the past that have been looked upon fondly (Chicago-Utah 1998 NBA Finals Game 3 96-54) while there have been some outstanding games this year (Phoenix-New Jersey 161-157 2OT on Dec 7th). The quality of the game is as good as ever. But I just think the casual fan is caught up too much in the cult of personality where one single player determines whether they want to watch. Whereas I would prefer to watch a good team play an exciting brand of basketball (i.e. Phoenix) or just watch an evenly matched well-contested series.
Ultimately though, I think you're right in that building a winning team is the only solution. The Bobcats do have a lot of cap space but they haven't shown that they're willing to use it yet. That might be related to the rumors that they're losing money by the bucketload. Remember you need cap space and actual cash to sign free agents. So that leads me to believe that they'll be sticking to building their team through the draft for awhile. If they get Kevin Durant this year, it may work.
3:30 PM
I think we agree that the casual fan is what drove the record setting attendance when the Hornets were in town, and that fan isn't coming out to games in the same numbers that they used to. I think there are several factors that drive that, but yes building a winning team is the only one the Bobcats control so that should be their big focus. I've heard Bob Johnson is losing money on the team and the biggest reason is tv. He tried to start a regional sports network featuring the Bobcats and it folded after one season (it was like channel 127 on my digital cable). Last year there were a few games on the UPN affiliate, but this year cable channel 14 (NC news) has shown a bunch of games in addition to the few that are still on the former UPN channel. That's really why I've become interested in them b/c I can actually watch them. I don't know what kind of $$$ they get out of these deals, but I'll be at the exhibition game they are playing in Greensboro this fall. Desmond has been hounding me to join the Bobcats kids club next year and take him to a game, so the tv exposure leads to more fans at the game, leads to more money, blah blah blah.
Now how do they go about building that winning team. Yeah Durant or Oden would a big step in that, but they still need to retain their proven free agents (Wallace might be looking at close to $10 million a year, Carroll could command close to $5 million per (I guess, it's all monopoly money to me), and you have to lock up Okafor long term). Morrison is interesting. I thought they might try and trade him since he looks like he'll always be a defensive liability and his shooting percentages have been subpar but it's only his first season and his rookie contract is cheap enough that they should probably hang on to him for 2 more years and see what happens. Ultimately, that lack of money could help them long term. Signing a free agent this year (Vince Carter, Rashad Lewis) to a huge contract just to make a big splash would set them back. The 3 biggest success stories on the team have been Gerald Wallace (expansion pick selection now the leading scorer and 2nd in rebounding), Matt Carroll (D leaguer who shoots 41% from 3 and over 90% from the line), and Walter Herrmann (was the 12th man the first half of the season and dropped 30 the other night) none of whom were highly regarded but all play a valuable role on this team. Maybe that's why I like this team. They are trying to get specific pieces to build a good team rather than getting guys who are great one on one players. If their biggest offseason acquisition is their draft pick and not Vince Carter, my excitement will roll over into next season.
11:32 AM
Nice blog--Rickey approves and is glad he discovered it. Keep up the strong work!
1:15 PM
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home