NFL is almost here, but NBA is coming!

Summer is winding down and that means only one thing. NFL is round the corner. We are in the NFL pre-season, also knows as the "rip the season ticket holder of their cash" season. It's good to have the nation's most popular sport back. Summer's reality will give way to fall's fantasy football soon and we will all be sucked in. It will be big business as usual and we will be craving more football every day. With all that said, there is something different every summer these days as we get ready for the national football league. The dark cloud and negativity around the league is only growing. Players are continuing to punch their wives and girlfriends and thats not a good look for any league. The Kaepernick controversy and the rumored black-balling of him is not endearing by any means. Moving 3 teams out of their home markets in less than 2 years shows you NFL doesn't spell either Greed or Goodell without a capital G. NFLPA's executive director DeMaurice Smith tore into the league for their greed and for lying to the players and is threatening a lockout next time around during the CBA negotiations. None of this is great off-season marketing programs for a league and every off-season lately seems to follow the same script.

But the 10000-pound elephant in the room continues to be concussions, brain damage, and the sport's impact on athlete's health. There is no way around it and the sport just can't sustain this way for long. The recent news that 110 of the 111 brain donations of dead NFL players showed signs of CTE was another shocking reminder of how dangerous this sport is. Granted, the science on this is not exact and most donations probably came from players and families who had a reason to suspect CTE, but thats still a sobering number. And then to hear former Raiders QB and legend Jim Plunkett say "his life sucks" because he is in so much pain breaks your heart. Guys have been pummeled to the ground repeatedly for decades and given the knowledge at our disposal today, the sport seems like a flat out horrible idea! As a fan, I can't help but feel complicit in this unintentional crime against these athletes. And given what we know today, is it even unintentional anymore? We know exactly what football is doing to these athletes on the field and it's not pretty. Many fans are walking away from the sport. It's not a financial crisis for the league yet, but it might get there eventually. There is a pall of gloom descending over the sport of football for sure and I don't see how it can survive this way long-term.

The sport has morphed a lot over the last decade, but it has to change drastically still. It almost can't look like football to be safe enough for kids and adults who play it. The biggest challenge for the league is to get there and continue to look like football and retain the fans along the way as this massive transformation happens. Knowing this greedy league, they will continue to move slow until their pocketbooks are hit hard. May be we as fans should force that and they may start to look at the safety aspects of the sport with more diligence and sincerity. Their behavior over the last 10 years on the issue has been pretty shady to say the least. Football is already on it's way to losing the pipeline of future athletes as most parents are not allowing their kids to play the sport. It is going to be the next boxing in the sense that only the desperate and the poor will take to it. Not the best way for a sport to attract top athletes. The sad part is, the real painful stories are probably with the ex-college and ex-high school athletes who never get covered in the media. At least in the NFL, guys make decent money, get some media attention, and have good pension, health care etc. I can't even imagine what current day players in the NFL are thinking and whats going through their head when they take the field. It should be a torture for them everytime their head hits the ground or they get a headache or whatever. To know what they know now and continue to play the sport at this violent level is something I will never comprehend. No wonder some players are retiring very young.

The NFL athletes are also rightfully asking for guaranteed contracts and may fight for it during the next CBA. They see the sky-rocketing salaries in the NBA and the mass celebration and hysteria around free agency every summer and it should feel like an alternate universe for them in the NFL, though they are playing the more popular sport. As for the NBA, they have been enjoying a great renaissance behind transcendental stars like LeBron and Curry, historic teams like the Warriors, and an enchanting style of play. NBA has been dominating the summer for a few years with very interesting off-season chatter. NBA draft, free agency, and trades are almost as popular as their regular season now. Thanks to LeBron's stupid "Decision" in 2010, every NBA summer is now the best reality show on TV. NBA has also learned a few things from the NFL and are slowly mastering the art of becoming a 24X7, 365-day league. They are coming for the throne. NBA's popularity is clearly on the rise and you can just feel it from the chatter in the summer. It will take a while for the NBA to pass NFL in the popularity charts, but the NFL is helping the NBA with every stupid mistake it makes. NBA's momentum is real and many folks are talking about it in the media. One of the reasons for it is also the issues in the NFL.

Even today in mid- August, there is tremendous interest in the Kyrie Irving trade rumors. Speaking of which, the Suns are very much in the chase. They don't want to give up Josh Jackson for Kyrie. Not sure if it's smart or dumb to treat JJ as an untouchable asset when he has not played a single minute in the NBA. But I am OK with it. I trust the Suns front office when it comes to evaluating their young talent and prospects. I expect and trust them to do the right thing here. Also, I am not a big Kyrie fan. He is a phenomenal offensive player. But he is a horrible defender and the rest of the Suns are not great defenders either to compensate for him. Plus, his tantrums and attitude off the field is a little concerning too. I get the feeling the trade will still happen. Suns are negotiating wth the Cavs and will get him one way or the other - with or without JJ. It's a sobering thought that the Suns are expected to finish last in the West even with all the excitement around their young stars. Of course, they are all still too young and will take another year or two to mature. In the meantime, the Western conference is only getting better and better. Kyrie will give the Suns instant credibility in the West, if not more wins and the team will be fun to watch. I say I am fine with those results for 2017-18.

NBA's super problem

NBA free agency is winding down after a nice run. There were some big moves as expected and it was an exciting couple of weeks. Even before the free agency kicked off, the Chris Paul trade to the Clippers and the Phil Jackson firing by the Knicks set the stage for a fun off-season stretch. Even as CP3 left, Blake Griffin decided to stay in LA and canceled a previously scheduled meeting with the Phoenix Suns. I was excited a bit for that meeting, but all things considered, I have to say the Suns dodged a bullet. Blake is too much of a injury risk to invest that kind of money. The unexpected Paul George trade to the Thunder was a nice wrinkle as even the 24X7 NBA twitter machine had no clue about that one. At the end of all of this, the best story of the off-season might have been Kevin Durant taking almost 10 mill less than market this year.

The Warriors were constantly on the off-season news though they didn't have to make any big changes. Just keeping their team together as expected was a big and expensive activity. They super-maxed Curry and brought back Livingston and David West. The guy who proved challenging was Andre Iguodala. He negotiated his way to what I would say is a very generous contract at his age. This meant KD ended up taking a lot less than market to help the team out. The Warriors could have paid 5 mill a year more than what they paid KD and gotten Paul Millsap who can do about half the things on the court that Durant can! While other guys like Millsap were getting overpaid, KD gave money back. Real nice of Durant and the Warrior machine showed once again that it's firing on all cylinders. They didn't stop there as they signed Nick Young and Omri Caspi and also brought back Zaza Pachulia.

Dubs have reloaded and only JaVale McGee is not in the fold yet among the players they realistically want back. They apparently went way over budget and may even be better than last year. Don't forget the 3.5 mill they paid to get the second round pick Jordan Bell in the draft though they didn't have a pick this year. It reminded me of the Suns during the Nash golden era when they were trading away all their draft picks to save a mill here or there. That right there might be the difference between true championship teams and the wannabes. Back then, I didn't realize how stupid the Suns were because we were all entranced by the Nash-Amare-Marion brilliance and thought we don't need no damn rookies! But rookies are cheap and the Warriors know how to use them right. The Dubs are definitely not holding back their wallet and if you are a Dubs fan, you should be very happy about how they run their team.

Gordon Hayward was one of the most prized possession this off-season and his move to Boston was not a major surprise. He did the free agency dance, but ended up where he has been rumored to be going for 2 years now. A big blow to the small market Utah team. LeBron James maybe the only true super star left in a small market team now and if the rumors are true about him wanting to leave Cleveland next year and goto the Lakers with Paul George and others, the league in general and Cleveland in particular will have a tough challenge in their hands. LeBron not actively recruiting free agents this year to the Cavs only strengthens the rumors. Cleveland has spent a lot of money and mortgaged a lot of their future to keep the King's court going. If he bails, they maybe in a worse situation now than in 2010 when he first left town, though the championship he won last year softens the blow for the fans.

NBA has a decent economic system. I rank their system way above the MLB's when it comes to competitive balance between big and small market teams. Of course, NFL is the best system in that regard with their hard salary cap etc., but you could argue NFL is a modern-day slavery involving millionaire athletes. NBA strikes the right balance between player prosperity, flexibility for the teams, and competitive balance. But, despite their best efforts, the teams are having issues retaining their stars. The NBA system always enabled teams to overpay for their own players via Bird rights etc. They expanded this even more in the last collective bargaining agreement, but the players are still leaving their teams to go wherever they want.

The players do seem to be leaving for the right reasons, but the small-market teams are hurting in the process. They seem to be leaving mostly to win and to play with other stars they like. LeBron started this trend, but everybody is trying to create their own super teams now. So, Harden recruits Chris Paul and CP3 joins him forfeiting a more lucrative contract with the Clips. Though the rumor is, Clips didn't want to pay CP3 that much and he decided that in that case, he will just go to Houston. Hayward gave up extra years and money too when he decided to move to Boston. I think 2 things are happening here. One, the off-court earnings for superstars like Durant are so high that they don't mind giving up some shekels for a ring and to play with friendly superstars. You would think this may actually be good news for small market teams.

While the big market teams definitely have more money, cachet, and sex appeal to bring multiple superstars together, the fact the stars are chasing winning and friends more than money should mean the market size matters less. If the small market team and their incumbent superstar play their cards well, they should be able to attract other stars to town to build a winning roster. They may have to go over the luxury tax threshold and thats a challenge for smaller markets, but it's doable. If this doesn't ever work in their favor and if smaller market teams are perennially hurting, I am sure the NBA will bring an even bigger hammer to the next collective bargaining negotiation and make sure the luxury tax penalties are even more severe and the players have to give up even more to leave their home markets to go to greener pastures. I trust the NBA process and they will figure this out.

Secondly, there may be a temporary phenomenon at work currently with the players. The sudden 35% jump in salary cap last year has thrown the salaries out of whack. This generation of stars were hoping to score a max contract in the range of 18 to 20 million a year until last season. Suddenly, their choices now are either 32 mill or 38 mill a year depending on where they want to play and I think even the players themselves are confused and overwhelmed by it. They think it's great to make 32 mill and win with a star teammate of their choice rather than mortgaging everything for a 38 mill contract. It's all huge money anyways. So, who cares if it's 5 or 6 million less! This might change with the new crop of stars starting with the Lonzo Ball era as these kids may expect to make those kinds of money and they may be less willing to give that up. Their reference point may be different. Thats just my theory. Lets see if I am right in a couple of years.

In short, the players seem to have all the leverage, especially the stars. They pick the city, the teammates, the contract, and the options on when to become a free agent again. In some ways, the teams have themselves to blame. They wanted shorter contracts and more flexibility. But this also means the players have more flexibility as well. It feels like every star is a free agent every other year. It's fun for the larger NBA fan base in the off-season, but stressful for the GMs and the home town fans who are worried about their stars. On top of that, this season, it's very clear that the Warriors have sent every team into a frenzy. Every team is looking to build a super team to challenge them and the stars are obliging.

It almost feels like fantasy basketball as teams like Houston go get CP3 and are still in the market for Carmelo. And they have committed almost 220 mill to Harden. Wonder how much more he can make if he plays defense too! Cavs want another piece, Boston wanted a couple of pieces, John Wall was trying to get Paul George to Washington, and there are already rumors of how LeBron will join Paul George with the Lakers and get John Wall to join him too next year. John Wall coincidentally is represented by LeBron's buddies at Klucth sports and Wall is refusing to sign the big money extension with the Wizards. The league is gone crazy in a good way and the Warriors are pushing them over the edge. LeBron started the super-team trend in 2010 and it's getting worse now.

NFL has always been the envy of every other league. They have the most fans with the most attention span throughout the year and other leagues were trying to mimic them and steal their ideas. But when it comes to free agency, NBA has got it figured out. Even NFL has to be jealous of all the hype and attention the NBA free agency generates. The calendar is not even well thought out because it was not that big a deal in the past. Most big signings happen during the July 4th long weekend, which is not ideal for the media hype cycle, but the whole free agency period still generates intense buzz for 2+ weeks. As stupid as "The Decision" show was in 2010, we have to thank that for what has now become the modern free agency. Nobody will do that kind of a show anymore, but the activities of player movement and super team creation in July have become a yearly trend now.

This is all good as the NBA keeps us busy and occupied during the dog days of summer. NBA is experiencing a definite renaissance and you could attribute it to many things including a new set of talented stars and a fan-friendly style played around the league. And don't forget the health and concussion problems hurting the NFL either. But it recently struck me when I was listening to Bill Simmons talk about this that we have had couple of historic NBA records and events happen just within the last 2 years. I personally thought I will never see a team win more than 72 games a season or anybody average a triple-double in a season. The Warriors last year and Russell Westbrook this year achieved those 2 amazing feats. Those things are real fun to watch and track and no wonder NBA is on a magical run. The attention it draws during free agency and it's summer league may be the best proof of it yet. Hope the good times keep rolling for the association!

Dubs Dynasty

The Warriors wrapped it up in 5 like I had predicted at the start of the finals. Me and 2 billion others called it the same way of course. It was really a no-contest at the end, but a riveting finals nonetheless. The reasons for the excitement were a few different things. The fact that there was history between these two teams meeting in the finals for the third straight year was a huge factor. Also, the monumental collapse of the Warriors last year gave folks false hope and anxiety depending on which side you were and made this contest look a lot closer than it really was. I have never seen a more nervous fanbase of a team that was up 3-0 and then 3-1 in a series returning home for a game 5 than this version of the Dubs fans. They were a lot more confident for game 7 last year than they were for game 5 this year! Last but not the least, the star power in the series and the great play by all of those stars made it worth the watch. Finals MVP Durant was unstoppable the entire series and so was MVK (Most Valuable King) James. Curry was great too, except for game 4, and so was Kyrie except for the first 2 games. We got to see basketball at a very high level. Hope we all appreciate that we saw LeBron become the first player to average a triple-double in the finals with a 33.6 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists series. 

There was a lot of talk about how the quality of play and the level of talent on display in these finals were off the charts. It sure was in my eyes too. We know that just the Dubs roster features 4 of the top 15 talents in the NBA today, possibly 4 hall-of-famers. And then you add one of the best players in the history of the game in LeBron James and another 2 All-Stars on the Cavs roster, you got some serious heat on the floor. One of the major reasons why the games looked so impressive was the style of play in vogue in the NBA today. Both these teams like to go up and down the floor shooting 3's and they did shoot real well in this series. All of that made the talent in this series look way more impressive than the matchups I had seen in the last 15 years or so. However, there is also a definite recency bias in all our assessment as this is not the first rodeo for the NBA Finals, which always features top teams by design. For instance, how much more talent did we really see here compared to the Bird-Magic finals or the MJ-Magic or even the MJ-Malone/Stockton finals? Hard to quantify, but this one was fun. The other reason we focused more on the talent in this one was because of the recent emergence of the "super team" concept. The older "super teams" were mostly built organically and we didn't obsess about the collection of talent on the floor all that much.

It sure was a riveting trilogy and the TV ratings bear that out. But the domination of these 2 teams through the playoffs meant lot fewer games and lower eyeballs on the TV overall for the NBA and the TV channels. I totally expect a 4th installment of this rivalry next year. LeBron is going to push for some upgrade of his roster and we may have an even better matchup next year. Boston with all it's assets is the only serious threat to dethroning the King in the LEast, but even they may be a year away from things coming together nicely. Dubs-Cavs it is for 2018. The question is, how and what does the King force the Cavs to do this off-season? They don't have a lot of flexibility, but may be able to trade Kevin Love. It would be a mistake to trade him for somebody like Carmelo, but will be an upgrade if they can score Paul George. I bring up Melo only because LeBron is friends with him. So is CP3. But I won't trade Kyrie for CP3. Kyrie is not a prototypical PG and doesn't play great D, but it is still going to be hard to get a better side-kick for LeBron than Ka. He is an amazing offensive force as he showed all finals. Plus CP3 is older and injury prone.

There is also a Boogie Cousins rumor for Love. Out of all the rumors, the one that should scare the Dubs most is Paul George ending up with LeBron. They would get somebody who can guard Durant and is also a well-rounded and tall offensive player. But can they still play well together and challenge the Dubs, who play great team ball to expertly mesh all the talent they have? The Cavs will have 3 great 1-on-1 players if PG joins them and they can take turns scoring. That should help when LeBron goes to the bench. The Cavs outscored the Dubs in many of the stretches when LeBron was on the floor and still lost the series 4-1. Thats an amazing +/- for the King and having PG on the floor during those times will be a huge upgrade. The problem is, Ty Lue and the Cavs culture may still play 1-on-1 ball with all 3 and it will be up to the King to involve everybody and bring this together. It's also easy to under-estimate Love's rebounding. PG can't rebound the same way. At least PG plays D. With Melo, you lose both the rebounds and don't upgrade the D either. There was a stretch in game 3, which Steve Kerr specifically called out in the presser, when Love got 3 offensive rebounds and completely dominated the Dubs and almost stopped their momentum. Cavs must tread cautiously with Love. However, LeBron will make the calls and he has to live or die with it.

The season is over, the finals are over, and even the parade is now done. The Dubs did it. Their entire roster now feels like headed for free agency. So it will be a fun off-season for the Dub nation to see who they re-sign and surround the big 4 with. Curry will finally break the bank. It was nice to see KD publicly offer to take just a little less to enable the team to make a competitive offer to Iggy and Livingston. Both may get great offers from other teams too. Let's see how this plays out. You can never fault the players for maximizing their earning potential. Both those guys are probably looking at the last major contract of their careers. Livingston especially deserves every dime after almost losing his leg in that horrific injury earlier in his career. Overall, the Dubs are in a good spot. The team will look different, but the front office has been immensely successful the last 5 years and it will be interesting as a basketball fan to see how they cobble up another team around the big 4. Special shout-out to David West for taking much less money to go through a championship experience. He got it done and was a key contributor as well.

I am really surprised and impressed with folks like West giving up their role and money to win a championship. I can see super-stars wanting the ring as winning a Finals MVP is a huge boost to KD's legacy for instance. But West winning this as a bench player is not a life changing event, but they still appreciate and chase that ring. I respect that! Not sure how many of us will give up serious money for a championship ring. West declined a 12 mill option with the Pacers last year to join the Spurs for 1.5 million. He then signed a similar contract with the Dubs this year. And his quote about how "you can't take the treasure with you as Egyptians learned" was a classic. Probably the best post-finals moment, way better than all the real or fake twitter wars between Draymond and LeBron. Speaking of, LeBron's take that he has never been a part of a super-team was ridiculous! He and his Heatles buddies were the creator the whole concept. Thats why what he did was so much worse than Durant. Without LeBron's precedent, the whole idea of Durant joining the Warriors might have not even crossed the minds of Draymond or Durant or anybody. LeBron is the pioneer of the concept and he has to forever share some of the blame for these other super-teams in this era.

I can't believe I am saying this, but I agree with Stephen A in that, from Duran't personal perspective, his move was weaker or a easier way out than what LeBron did. Joining a 73-win team is an easy way out. But thats not the point and I am not too worried about Durant as an individal. He can take care of himself and his own legacy and I don't care about that all that much. But in terms of what it means to the NBA as a league and it's competitive balance, LeBron's move was much worse because he set a precedent that folks like Durant can follow. What LeBron did was repeatable and stars are trying to hook-up every off-season these days. Sometimes they are successful, sometimes they are not, but they all seem to try. On the other hand, Durant joining the Warriors was a unique situation created by a confluence of a few lucky breaks for the Dubs that may never happen again. The salary cap doesn't jump 35% every year. The 2-time MVP of the league (Curry) rarely enters that same season as the 82nd highest player in the league, thus enabling the team to chase another superstar with all that extra cap money. Without these two major aberrations, I don't think KD joins the Dubs. This obviously impacts the competitive balance in the short-term, but I am not worried about the long-term impact of this KD move. LeBron's move to Miami and even back to Cleveland with Kevin Love was different, more repeatable, and lethal development for the league. With all that said, super teams are here to stay in 2018 and we can only hope somebody steps up to challenge the Dubs. My smart money is still on the King and the Cavs.

Ka is Key

I heard in a podcast that the nickname for Kyrie Irving in his inside circle is Ka. Whatever his name is, he is the key to the rest of the NBA finals. He is the one who won them last year's finals too. I am not saying this just because he hit that game winner in game 7. But what he did throughout that game 7 and earlier in game 5 when both LeBron and him scored 41 each to will the Cavs to a victory was sensational. That was the turning point in the series. They could not have come back from 3-1 and won that series without Kyrie and the 41 he dropped in that game 5. LeBron is great and is the heart and soul, but as great as LeBron is, he can't do it alone. Not last year against that talented Dubs team and definitely not this year against the even more loaded Dubs roster. So LeBron absolutely needs Kyrie. The guy is unstoppable even against a great defender like Klay. And when he is in that mode, Dubs are in trouble. Kyrie has been that good in game 3 and 4 in Cleveland this year much like games 5 and 7 last year. Also, in game 4 against Boston in the previous round this season. He was not that great in games 1 and 2 of this finals and the Dubs won both easily. So, the Dubs better have an answer to Ka if they want a parade in Oakland this year.

Kyrie is not LeBron, but is a difference maker. Thats because LeBron's 30-10-10 is already accounted for. We might as well put that in the game 5 box score right now. He has been ridiculous throughout these playoffs and the finals and we all take his performance for granted. The guy is averaging almost a 32-12-10 in these finals and we don't even talk about him that much. And even with that, the Dubs dominated the series over the first 3 games. But once Kyrie got in on the act, Dubs have had their hands full. Through the nineties and early aughts, NBA was all about individual superstars playing isolation and 1-on-1 ball. It was fun watching MJ do it, but it got boring at some point and the league became a drag. The game opened up, thanks in part to some rule changes and thanks in part to teams like the CWebb-Kings and the Nash-Suns. They revolutionized the game, especially the mid-aughts Suns. Now, the Dubs have taken that Suns' style to a 'hole 'nother level with superstar talent up and down the roster, robust team defense, passing, and deadly 3-point shooting. Even with all that in place, even in this day and age, sensational 1-on-1 talents like LeBron and Kyrie can cause so much havoc.

No wonder stars always had the reputation of having all the power and basically running the NBA because individual talent impacts this game so much even against a well-oiled offensive and defensive juggernaut like the Warriors. Kyrie can again be a thorn on the Dubs side the rest of the way starting with game 5 tonight. Dub-nation has to be slightly nervous after what happened last year. It's again 3-1. Sure, it was 3-0 and then 3-1 unlike last year, but there are some similarities. The smart money for game 5 is still very much on the Dubs. It's basically the same matchup, except the Dubs have added  to that game 5 roster Durant and Draymond, who was suspended for last year. Thats a huge upgrade and even without them two, it took a sensational 41 point night from both LeBron and Kyrie for the Cavs to win last year. The chances are, those 2 are going to bring it again, but just like in game 3, the Dubs may still have enough to wrap this up. If not, oh boy! They will be in a lot of hurt! The pressure will be intense and they will probably lose game 6 on the road to force another game 7 at home under immense pressure with the Cavs knowing and feeling like they can win a game 7 at Oakland just like they did last year. The Dubs don't want it.

So, they better wrap this up today. This is why KD came to town and if he can't finish this, this whole season will be a bigger bust than last year when the Dubs won 73 regular season game and blew the finals. Few things in the world live up to the hype. There are 2 things in this series that have exceeded the highest of expectations. One, the entire career of LeBron James. No one was more hyped as a teenager and very few have delivered more as an adult than LJ. The other hyped up event that has played according to the script is KD joining the Dubs to make this a super-team. Some super-teams don't work out, but this one has worked out to perfection. They made it to the finals and were 3-0 and are now 3-1. They better finish that to make this a storybook ending. The longer this series goes, the more pressure on the Dubs. They have to contain LJ and Ka to wrap this one. One of the under-rated aspects of this 3-point driven league today is, how it's harder to double team stars. They are just going to kick it out to the shooters and you may give up 3 instead of 2. So, you have to single-cover the LeBrons and the Kyries of the world and hope a great defender like Klay can slow them down. Thats what the Dubs will do, but they need more than hope to drive this to the ground in game 5. They just might get it done.

Almost a sweep

The third installment of Cavs versus Warriors in the NBA finals starts tomorrow. Pretty much the entire World penciled this matchup in back in November. Of course, it took us 7 months and God knows how many games to actually get to this finals. Usually, at least the playoff games along the way are interesting. Not so much this year. The Dubs are 12-0 and the Cavs are 12-1 after 3 round of playoffs. I predicted a competitive conference finals, but that was not to be. Kwahi and Isaiah's injuries took away whatever little intrigue and challenge was left in the conference finals. This leaves us with these finals as the only hope for an intriguing playoff contest this season. This is the first time the same teams have met in 3 straight NBA finals and that tells you how rare and good these 2 teams are.

We needed this matchup for a fair and equal contest if not for anything else. The first year they met, LeBron carried the Cavs without Kyrie and Love and almost shocked the Warriors. Then, last year, the Warriors dealt with the Draymond suspension and a banged up Curry in addition to Iggy and Bogut's injuries mid-series. So, though this is the third time they are meeting in the finals, this is really the first time both rosters as constructed are engaging in a healthy contest. Hope it stays that way through the series. My heart almost stopped when Kyrie twisted his ankle and went to the ground against Boston. Luckily, he not only got up, but dominated that quarter and the subsequent quarters in that series. He looks ready to roll and so does LeBron who has had an amazing playoffs this year.

The Warriors are clearly the better team, but the Cavs are the closest and the most serious competition. Curry had a very mediocre finals last year and the Warriors still were dominating until game 5 when Draymond got suspended. Thats how good the Warriors team is and they have added Durant to the mix. So it's almost stupid to pick against them in these finals. But this is sports and last year's finals showed us that anything can happen. If anybody has a shot against these Aarriors, it's this Cavs team. The Cavs are a super-team themselves and are the closest to the Warriors in terms of talent. Kyrie steps up against the Warriors and Curry to make it even more equal. Last but not the least, the Cavs have the best player on the court in the form of LeBron whenever they suit-up against whoever including these Warriors and the best player makes more of an impact in basketball than any other sport.

Given all that, this has a chance to become another epic finals like last year. But it also can end up being a sweep because these Warriors are so good. I think the biggest challenge for the Warriors is going to be mental if these games get tight. They have not been challenged a lot all season and a close game this late in the season might stress them out in new ways that they may not be entirely comfortable with. More importantly, it may bring some bad memories from last year and even the Christmas day matchup. A close game with the ball in Kyrie's hands will be the dubs worst nightmare. That may be the Cavs' best hope in this series - force a few close games and see if the Dubs crack under the pressure as LeBron and Kyrie execute flawlessly. Easier said than done against these Dubs. So I call this for the Warriors 4-1.

The Dubs are going to go for a sweep. I believe thats the new challenge they will be chasing now after all that happened last year. They won't talk about it, but thats the mindset they are going in with. It's going to be hard for the Dubs to sweep just because of everything this matchup brings including LeBron. It's his 7th finals and thats an amazing feat. Given the one week gap leading into game 1, all of the angles for this matchup has been a bit over-analyzed much like the Super Bowl. One common topic was whether LeBron will be ranked higher than Jordan if he wins this one. Interesting question, but let him get there first before we start breaking that down. The other topic that has been over-thought and analyzed is whether the best starting 5 from both teams combined will actually have 3 Cavs factoring in the positions? I don't think so. It still has to be Curry, Klay, LeBron, Draymond, and Tristan. Some folks are giving the PG spot to Kyrie over Curry and manufacturing some excitement by making a case for the Cavs starting lineup being better. Real cute and nice try! You can slice and dice it anyways, but 4-1 for the Warriors it is.

Law of enlarging returns.

There is always great expectation before the start of all playoffs, especially in the NBA. But once it starts, you always feel bit of a letdown. It's only natural as nothing in life is as great as we expect it to be before it happens. Except for LeBron James' career that is. The law of diminishing returns eventually kicks in. So, every year, I get jacked up before the NBA playoffs and then when it starts, it is usually great and I enjoy every bit of it. But I do feel just a little bit of a letdown in the early rounds. I call it human nature. But there is nothing "human nature" about the early rounds of this year's playoffs. It's been truly disappointing and a blowout-fest to the point that even Charles Barkley, who works the TV shows covering these playoffs and has every incentive to keep our collective butts in front of the TV, calls it the worst playoffs ever.  There has been several reasons for this. Number one, the dominance of the Cavs and the Warriors in either league and the inability of any team to even come close to challenging them. They are both sitting pretty at 8-0 going into the conference finals. But it's more than just the sweeps.

Typically, playoff games are competitive. I remember several sweeps even going back to the Michael Jordan years where the team will win the series 4-0 but every game would be a 2 to 5 point nail-baiter. This year is exactly the opposite. Not only are the Dubs and Cavs winning their games by 20 points, even closer series that take 6 or 7 games are featuring a bunch of blowouts. I blame it on the 3-point shot. There has been a lot of talk about the pros and cons the 3-point shot and how it is changing the game. I like the new NBA. But the underrated aspect of the 3-point shot might be the impact it has on victory margins, especially in the playoffs.  Somebody will study this soon. While the 3-point shot makes it easy to mount a 26-point comeback like the Cavs did against the Pacers in round 1, it also inspires a lot of 26 point blowouts. I was really excited for OKC-Houston and even the Portland-Warriors round 1 matchups, but both were duds. Portland never really challenged the Warriors after a half and Houston won easily in 5. The Boston-Washington series in round 2 is giving us a game 7 tomorrow, but they have only given us 2 good games out of the 6 so far. No complaints though since those 2 games were terrific and probably the best in these playoffs so far.

As the field narrows, the dominance of the Cavs and Dubs is expected to continue and the inevitability of their finals matchup looms large with a threat of the Dubs crushing the Cavs in the finals. Basically, there are 2 great teams, out of which one is a historically special team. That skews the whole setup. But fear not. I expect the conference finals to be competitive. Boston or Washington will have something to offer to the Cavs, whether its Boston's defense and toughness or Washington's speed and athleticism. The real story though is in the West. We have been waiting for and even ridiculously blaming the Warriors for missing the Spurs in the playoffs the last 2 seasons. They lock horns starting today. The Spurs are no match to the Dubs in terms of talent on paper, but you know Pop and Kwahi won't go down easy. They will show us new wrinkles and expose hitherto unknown weaknesses in the Dubs to give us decent theater. At least, it will be different from watching the Rockets go down to the Dubs again in the playoffs. If the Cavs stay the course in the East and meet the Dubs in the finals, that will be competitive too despite the Dubs being the better team. Look where that got the Warriors in last year's finals! And even if the Celtics get past the Cavs (and the Wizards), they are one of the few teams that give the Dubs some trouble.

Long story short, playoffs are going to get better and give us better returns starting today. I don't think the Dubs go 16-0. They go 8-3 the rest of the way to win it all. I will leave it to the reader to decide which series goes 4-2 and which one goes 4-1 :-) Hint: look at the order in which I mentioned 4-2 and 4-1. A record of 8-3 doesn't scream exciting basketball, but better than what we have seen so far in these playoffs. I will gladly take it and so should you.

Draft Heist

The NFL draft is now in the books. It was a major event like every NFL event tends to be these days. They moved it from the weekend to a Thursday kickoff a few years back. I don't know why, but should be for money and prime-time viewership or something like that. I have not really kept up with it that closely ever since it moved to Thursdays - I liked round 1 better on Saturdays. But I did catch some of it this year. The first big news was the Niners swapping their 3rd pick for the Bears 2nd pick plus a bunch of extra assets. The Bears then took North Carolina QB Mitchell Trubisky. The experts say he is a very inexperienced QB and a shaky pick at best. The fact that Bears traded up to get him makes it worse. But the real head-scratcher was them moving up just one spot to get him ahead of the Niners. That makes no sense unless there were other teams trying to trade with the Niners for him and undercut the Bears. Supposedly that was not the case at all and the Bears seem to have successfully bargained and negotiated with and against themselves. If the team right ahead of you is willing to trade that pick, that means they are not interested in the player you want at that spot. If they were, they wouldn't be trading that pick with you and willingly losing that guy to you.

So instead of rolling the dice, calling the Niners bluff, sticking with the 3rd spot, and picking their guy, they gave up a lot of assets to get to 2 from 3. Worst case, you won't get Trubisky and have to settle for another QB at 3. It's not like you are losing out on a consensus number 1 QB like a Peyton Manning or an Andrew Luck. Believe me, if it was Andrew Luck, Niners would have been trading up to 1 instead of dropping down to 3. The irony is, the 2 teams ahead of the Bears were probably the only teams that needed a QB worse than the Bears. Still, neither cared about Trubisky and the Bears went after him like he is Tom Brady and Cam Newton rolled into one. On the flip side, the QB position is the most important one on the field and I guess you go after the one you like at all costs. May be the Bears know something the rest of us don't. They may not deserve credit for being smart with this pick, but kudos to them for being brave. It was a great start to the draft providing folks like me on the couch a nice chuckle. Good luck to Trubisky and the Bears. After all, he can't be much worse than Jay Cutler, another QB the Bears gave a lot to acquire back in the day. I was driving from Chicago to Champaign, Illinois for work around that time and I still remember how excited the Bears faithful sounded on the radio the entire drive about Cutler.

The Niners under the rookie GM John Lynch deserve a lot credit for that Bears heist. He then used some of the assets at his disposal to trade back in to the later stages of the first round to get Alabama's Reuben Foster, who was free-falling due to off-field issues. The fact that Lynch was considering Foster even at 2 or 3 tells you how highly he thought of him. Lynch was supposedly talking trade with every team from pick 12 or 13 once Faster started to slide. Niners finally got him at 31 just as the Saints were calling Foster to inform him that they are going to pick him at 32. Little did they know the Niners stepped in ahead of them to take Foster. Great rookie draft for Lynch and I will give him a high grade overall. The third round QB pick of Iowa's C.J. Beathard was questionable. But you could tell that was coach Kyle Shanahan's choice. You have to trust his offensive instincts and hope Kyle is right for Lynch's sake. The Arizona Cardinals did good with their picks too. I like how they focussed their high value picks on defense. It was a surprise that they did not draft a QB though they can use one and they also hinted all along they would draft one. The consensus grade for them seems to be hovering around a B. I give them A+ for the names they drafted. You can't go wrong with a Budda and a Haason.

In the NBA playoffs, the first round had lesser drama than I expected. Houston dispatched Oklahoma rather easily and only the Clippers-Jazz went to a game 7. Not sure why though. Once Blake Griffin was hurt, Jazz should have run the Clips off the joint. They did not, but they won games 5 and 7 on the road to put the Clippers to bed. The Jazz have to play a lot better against he Warriors if they want to be a legitimate threat. They have some pieces that can cause the dubs some discomfort. But they can't play young like they did against the Clips. It looks like we are headed towards a Rockets-Warriors western conference finals anyways. I doubt if the Spurs can beat the Rockets. The Rockets are the kind of team that the Spurs can totally handle in the past. But this Spurs team is not in the same class anymore. They have the coach, experience, championship respect, and pedigree. But they don't have the same players on the floor. There is only so much Kwahi can do on both ends of the floor and they need to resurrect a versions of LaMarcus Aldridge and Pau Gasol from 3 years back to fortify this roster. The Rockets should have enough firepower to beat the Spurs 4 out of 7 times and if the Rockets want to show us that they can threaten the Warriors for real, they have to dispatch the Spurs in 5 or 6 games.  If Houston makes it, the Warriors would have missed the Clippers and the Spurs entirely in the last 3 playoffs.  No big deal and definitely not the dubs' fault, but it is an amazing and a very unlikely coincidence in the West.

The big NBA story this off-season  is going to be about what happens to the Clippers with the pending free agencies of CP3, Blake, and Redick among others. "Blow them up" seems to be the consensus, but I am torn. I am always wary of blowing a good team up when their stars are still young. Sure, this group is not able to get over the hump. Actually, they don't even seem to be able to get to the hump to try and get over it. So may be they have to rebuild. But then again, how easy is it to find players like Chris Paul and Blake Griffin again? Let me tell you that it's real hard. Those kinds of players don't grow on trees. I never understood how blowing up a team with such players who get your team to the top half of the Western Conference every year is going to help. I would tweak it rather than blow it up. Thats what they may do anyways and it does make sense in one respect. Blake seems to be injury-prone and may be you don't want to back up the Brinks truck for him. If you can swap him for some younger assets, may be reloading around CP3 and that younger asset is the way to go. Of course, that may not be ideal for CP3 personally and he may want to go somewhere he can win right away. In that case, may be blowing this up and rebuilding might be a necessary evil and thats probably where the media is coming from in the first place with that take. If I was Clippers owner Steve Balmer, I will try to keep CP3, trade Blake and go from there. Lets see what the crazy maverick does.

Sixteen Chapel

I thought the Warriors-Blazers series was over right after game 1. The Blazers came at the dubs in game 1 at Oakland with everything they got. Their best 2 players, CJ.McCullum and Damian Lillard, were both sensational the entire game and ended up scoring 75 combined points. They outplayed the famed Warriors back-court convincingly, especially in that first half. At the end of the day, the Blazers lost that game by a dozen points. That told me all I needed to know about the ceiling of the 2 teams. The Blazers' ceiling was basically about 15 points behind the Warriors. I can't even say that fourth quarter was the Warriors ceiling, but was definitely Draymond Green's magnum opus. Thats what makes the dubs a true super-team. You would think Draymond is their fourth wheel, but he is actually a superstar who does everything except score for this team. When he takes over a show like he did in game 1 on the defensive end and kills the Blazers independent of what his 3 superstar buddies did on the other end, you know this team is scary good. There is a block of Dame Lillard in that game that I would advise everybody to look up on YouTube. Draymond is guarding somebody on the perimeter on the strong side not far from Dame. Dame drives on his man from the same side and goes to the hoop. Somehow Draymond decides to chase him down and is right there to block his shot at the rim. Dray had no business being even in that TV frame, but he was there waiting for Dame. It captured not just his effort and his deceptive athleticism, but also his high basketball IQ. Long story short, the Blazers had no shot in the series, and when they fell short after their best effort in game 1, I knew they can't win this fight. I thought they may steal 1 in Portland if the Warriors fell asleep, but not so surprisingly, the Warriors put them away even without Durant in a convincing sweep. 

Of course every round of the playoffs become increasingly difficult and it's not uncommon for us fans and media to fall in love with a team after round 1 only to see the team struggle in the next round and lose in the round after. Even within a series, fortunes can swing big time. Ask the Warriors about the finals when they lost after leading 3-1 or Durant about his Thunder team losing after dominating the Warriors to a 3-1 advantage in last year's Western conference finals. So lets not get carried away and award the finals to the Warriors and the Cavs after their respective first round sweeps and hand the ring over to the Warriors yet. With all that said, the Warriors are the best team and the prohibitive favorites to win it all this year. There are several ways to look at this team and explain how it is one of the most historic collection of talent in one roster. I am not a basketball historian, but I can't think of another team where 4 of the top 20, may be even top 15, players in the entire league playing for the same team in their early or peak primes of their careers. Thats the other scary part. Klay and Draymond are probably still getting better. But the clear proof that the dubs are a scary good super-team has been in display the last several weeks and in this Portland series. Kevin Durant is a top 3 talent in the league today and is arguably the Warriors' best player. And they are a true contender without Durant suiting up. That blows my mind. If Durant sits out the rest of the playoffs, their odds will drop, but they will still be the favorites in Vegas to win it all this year. Thats like the Cavs being the favorites even without LeBron or the Rockets without Harden. Those teams sure don't have the talent or depth to pull that off. 

All of this brings us to the key question. Can the Warriors go 16-0 in these playoffs? This may sound presumptuous, but this questions is definitely making the rounds in the Bay Area and elsewhere and rightfully so. I have to say the dubs won't go 16-0 because it's hard to do. Also, the history says no as no team has done it before - only the 2001 Lakers came real close with a 15-1 run. Plus this dubs team could have a bad shooting night and lose one on the road. They do have a shot if Draymond makes it his mission to get to 16-0 like he wanted the 73-win season last year. If they make a commitment and go after it, we might see it, but I wouldn't bet on it. And the main reason they may not make it is the sad story of coach Steve Kerr's health. Kerr has had some major ups and downs in his life, but his health complications from the botched back surgery is really a depressing story. He has a team of a lifetime in his hands and is seriously staring at a legendary run that would rival the Phil Jacksons and Gregg Popovichs of the world if everything breaks the way we expect it to over the next few years. This is hard to walk away from and he might have to. Given his situation, his continued health and wellbeing is way more important than what happens with his coaching career. I wish him the best and would love to have him back, but if he can't coach again, I sure hope and pray that he can at least live a normal, healthy, functional life. But Kerr's potential absence might be the biggest challenge to the dubs going 16-0. The dubs are a well-oiled machine and I like coach Mike Brown, but I am not a big fan of Mike Brown's X's and O's capabilities. Not having Kerr on the sidelines is going to cost the dubs a game or 2. Thats usually a big deal in the playoffs, but when we are talking about a tram going 16-0, losing a game is not the end of the world. But this does mean I don't expect the dubs to go 16-0. With a healthy Kerr and Durant, it will still be a tough deal, but they may make it interesting and get real close. If they do, it's going to be another cherry on top of this amazing playoffs. This year's playoffs has been very entertaining and hoping the stories only get better. We don't need any more of these Blake Griffin injury, and Steve Kerr's ailment, and Isiah Thomas's sister's passing. But bring on the sweet sixteen!

NBA for real

After one of the most riveting regular seasons in recent NBA history, the playoffs, A.K.A the real season, kicks off this weekend. This year's playoff version looks even more appetizing than before. Dame Lillard and the Blazers gave us a couple of great games against the Warriors last year. They play the dubs in round 1 this year. Dubs, the presumptive favorites, are even better this year and should win this series, but the Lillard-Curry matchup is always fun to watch. The best matchup of round 1 is of course Thunder V Rockets. The 2 MVP candidates and former teammates in Westbrook and Harden will go at each other. I expect this series to go 7 and won't be surprised one bit if the Thunder win it in a upset. Not to digress, but speaking of the Thunder, I can't even imagine how their fans feel about their one-time core of Durant, Westbrook, and Harden, which is now completely dismantled with all of them  playing at MVP level in different cities. All OKC has left is the mercurial Westbrook, but at least they got him and he went nuclear this year. He gave us a season for the ages just like Curry did last year.

Of course the other upset result could come in the Jazz against the clippers matchup. As great as the Clippers have looked recently, they may have their hands full with the Jazz. There isn't a lot of intrigue in the East in round 1, but it's coming. A potential Washington-Boston second round matchup and a Cleveland-Boston Eastern Conference Finals are both very welcome. Eventually, I expect a Cavaliers-Boston tussle in the East and LeBron will make it to the finals again despite Boston having home court. When it's all said and done, may be we will be staring at the rubber match in the Warriors-Cavs finals trilogy. But the Cavs can't take anything for granted. Time for them to wake up from their slumber and turn on all the proverbial switches. We need a good finals to cap off this brilliant season. The season itself was great for several reasons, but the defining story of the year was of course Russell Westbrook averaging a triple-double and beating the record for total number of triple-doubles in a season. I never thought I would live to see somebody do it. He is unquestionably my MVP. Harden has been great and has more wins, but if a man averages a triple-double, just give him the MVP.

There are even some murmurs against the very basis and hype surrounding the concept of a  triple double. I personally love the stat. I think it's a simple and effective indicator of versatility and well-roundedness in a player. While we are in the topic of awards, I would also give Mike D'Antoni, the coach of the year award for what he has done with Harden and the Houston Rockets. Speaking of D'Anoni, Phoenix Suns, the team he coached during it's most recent heydays, missed the playoffs again. Despite that, this is one of the most exciting times in the recent Suns history. The team is loaded with real young talent. Devin Booker dropped 70 on Boston and that put him on the map nationally. He is only the 6th player in the history of league to score 70. He is in the most improved player conversation for this year. He may be a MVP candidate soon before we realize it. And the rest of the Suns roster looks very promising too. Plus, they should get a top 5 pick this year and that should help keep the momentum going. Booker will represent the team at the lottery for the second year in a row. I can't wait for the BBC show - Booker, Bender, and Chriss, to take off. May be it will be BBCC show if they also get Lonzo Ball in this year's draft. The possibilities are endless for this young team.

First things first though. Bring on this year's playoffs for us to enjoy.

Shameless!

The Oakland Raiders decided to move out of Oakland to Las Vegas last week. It was a sad day in the Bay Area. It was a day the locals were hoping will never come though it always seemed imminent. The Oakland stadium issue and the relocation threat, especially the LA story, has been hanging over the Raiders’ head for years, maybe even a decade. But it still feels like this relocation came quick and fast in somewhat of an unexpected way. That’s because the Raiders didn’t seem to have the money or the clout with the NFL to make a move happen. Cities like LA couldn’t muster any realistic plan for years and the NFL didn’t seem to want the Raiders back in LA anyways. As bad as the stadium and the financial realities were at Oakland, the fans were still hoping the Raiders are stuck there by default. And when Las Vegas came calling, it looked like an unrealistic negotiation trick at first if not a circus act since sports leagues have religiously avoided Vegas. And then the Vegas plan hit a couple of snags as well. But they eventually came up with the money and the requisite NFL vote to move them happened fairly quickly after that. Oakland is understandably shocked and upset.

The real culprit here might be the NHL. They seem to have opened the flood gates as far as putting a pro franchise in Vegas goes and they made it infinitely easier for the NFL to follow suit. I do think the holier than thou, pretentious snobs in the NFL might have hesitated to go to Vegas if they were the first sports franchise moving there. Of course, everything has a price and when Vegas came up with $750 million, NFL owner’s jaws and probably their draws dropped and they sold their soul in a minute. The Raider are expected to still play in Oakland for 2 or 3 more years since this thing came so quick and there is no landing spot for them in Vegas until the new stadium gets built. Unlike the Rams or the Chargers, the Raiders get to play in the same old city for better or for worse until the new behemoth gets built in Vegas.

The net-net of this is, 3 NFL teams have moved geographies in about a year or so. What kind of a league is this? The sad part is, NFL is neither apologetic nor ashamed about any of this. Sports teams are civic entities. A huge part of their customers and supporters are spending money on them because they belong to Oakland or Boston or Phoenix in their eyes. It’s not just another business along the lines of a Google or a Pepsi. People don’t search on Google because it is based out of Mountain View and I don’t even know where Pepsi is headquartered. Whereas everybody associate the Raiders with Oakland, Cowboys with Dallas etc. This is why billionaire owners of these teams shamelessly go to the city asking for money in the first place. Google and Pepsi are not asking for public funding for building their cubicles and conference rooms. Sure, cities do lure the corporations sometimes with tax breaks, cheap land, etc. for the jobs, but it’s only sports team that ask for straight cash (as Randy Moss would put it) from their host governments to run their core business. 

So, what are you, NFL? Are you a civic entity or a business? You have no right to ask for money from Vegas or Oakland or anybody else if you are a pure business. If you have the gall to ask for hundreds of millions of dollars from a city, have some decency and morality and show some concern for the local fan-base, your primary paying customer who have supported you for decades! You can’t have it both ways. And don’t even try to turn the argument around and say if the teams are a civic entity, cities like Oakland must pay public money. They don’t have to because the city will and can still will go over and above and help its sports team, the civic entity, in many ways. They can give you some land, invest in some infrastructure, and public transportation around the stadium etc. The idea of public funding to the tune of 100’s of millions of dollars for a sport stadium is a big no-no and such an outdated idea. Out of the many things you have to love about California, the fact that it’s the hardest state to get public money for sports stadiums is a true badge of honor. Even a sleepy suburb like Santa Clara barely voted to fund the stadium for the Niners, an incredibly beloved and popular team in the area. And look how that’s working out. There are all kinds of challenges and controversies in the city as they are still figuring out some of the financial details many years since the shovel hit the ground.

Asking for public funding and black-mailing the hometown is pure greed on the part of these billionaire businesses. And of course, who is going to stop now if cities like Vegas are stupid enough to line up and scratch a 750 mill check. Vegas has so many tourists and hotels that they can generate a lot of money by charging us tourists for this stadium grant. At the end of the day, we are going to be paying for it when we travel to Vegas. The whole thing is a racket and it made a little more sense when mom and pop were running the sports team in a prosperous America and didn’t have much money to refurbish an old, dilapidated home stadium. It doesn’t make any sense in today’s economic climate in our country to donate tax dollars to a 10+ billion dollar sports league just so that they could build better and newer stadiums every 3 months to generate more millions for themselves.

The fact that our richest and also the greediest sports league, the NFL, has uprooted 3 teams in a year from their hometowns and treated their paying customers like garbage tells you all you need to know about the National Football League. They should be ashamed of themselves if they have even a shred of integrity, which of course they don’t. Only the Dolphins owner seems to get it as he was the lone dissenting vote against the Raiders’ move. The other leagues are no saints, but at least the NBA made sure the New Orleans franchise didn’t ditch that town after hurricane Katrina. Maybe NFL was a little nice to New Orleans too, but NBA I thought was also very dignified and decent in the way it handed the Sacramento Kings. At one point, they were all but gone to Seattle, but the stakeholders worked some magic to pull it back.

NFL is apparently not into such feel-good stories. The only story they feel good about is going to the bank and cashing the checks. I like Draymond Green’s idea suggesting the fans should boycott the Raiders in Oakland. I total agree, but like my cousin pointed out, it’s just April and we are all already waiting for the first NFL Sunday. He says nobody is boycotting anything and I agree with that take too. NFL is king right now, but not for long if they continue in this arc. NBA is coming hard and fast! All of this reckless greed will catchup to the NFL sooner or later. But sports today, unfortunately, is the last surviving legal monopoly in our economy. They can and often do get away with murder and the Oakland Raiders are the latest casualty. On the bright side, at least the Oakland Athletics seem serious about staying in Oakland and there is new momentum on their stadium front since the Raiders news broke. The city might even pitch in. At least baseball gives the city 81 dates of jobs and beer sales as opposed to the measly 8 dates that the NFL brings to a 2 billion-dollar stadium.