In mid-December I wrote a column pointing out how the NBA is in serious trouble. The Latrell Sprewell incident had just taken place, Charles Barkley recently had tossed a man through a window in Florida, and another marijuana arrest had been chalked up.
However, while all the doomsayers were citing the aforementioned incidents, I believed the demise of the NBA was upon us for a completely different reason.I wrote then: "the moment there is any doubt of the purity of the competition or, more importantly for a fan, the viability of their franchise to compete, the league is over. . . . it's the off-the-court brokering by agents that ruins the viability of all franchises . . . it cuts at the core of any league's existence."
At the time I was focusing on how the agents manipulated the NBA draft, specifically the drafts of Kobe Bryant and Keith Van Horn, both of which were controlled by their agents. In those cases, teams were informed not to draft the player because they wouldn't report, or if they did draft them, to trade them.
The agents successfully were able to coerce, threaten, or more simply leverage the teams and get what they wanted for their players.
Over the past week we have seen the power brokering all over again, but this time the effect was on NBA trades.
This should be completely terrifying to any fan of the NBA. There are three ways to acquire players and build your team in the NBA - free agency, the draft and trades - and all three are now controlled by the agents. The demise of the NBA is upon us.
We have always known that NBA free agency is controlled by agents. The definition of "free" agency is that a player led by his agent chooses the best situation available. In this realm, the agent's job is to control, dictate, and manipulate free agency. The league created free agency, and this is expected and accepted.
What wasn't expected is that agents would grab control of the NBA draft. Big-name players are no longer going to teams in the order of selection. Agents are brokering trades and manipulating draft selections, eliminating the ability of teams to choose the best player available or the best player for their franchise.
And, last week, franchises lost control of the trading aspect of the NBA. It used to be that two teams made a trade and the players simply swapped and the contracts were fulfilled with the new team. Those days are gone.
It all started when Kenny Anderson said he didn't want to go to Toronto. This was a bit alarming. Then Rony Seikaly's agent put the kibosh on the Jazz-Orlando deal. This definitely was eye-opening. Then Doug West, the Minnesota Timberwolves' ninth man, threatened not to report to Vancouver. Though he eventually did report, the fact a ninth man even thought of not going proves that pure lunacy is upon us.
Let's focus on the Anderson and Seikaly deals. Anderson simply didn't want to play in Toronto. His agent, David Falk, the No. 1 power broker in the NBA, told Toronto his client wasn't coming and then called up his buddy, Boston coach Rick Pitino, to arrange a trade. Be aware that Falk also represents Pitino's two best players, Antoine Walker and Ron Mercer.
This deal opens a huge can of worms. Will Falk repay Pitino with easier negotiations with Walker and Mercer when the time comes, or will Boston get the inside track on Falk client Matt Geiger, the center the Celtics badly need, when he becomes a free agent this summer?
The great mystery of the Seikaly trade is why, if he wanted to play in Utah so much (as he told several interviewers), he didn't get on a plane and come to Utah? There is only one answer: His agent told him not to.
It is my belief the agent put a stranglehold on the Utah deal to make sure be got his client in New Jersey, hoping for more money down the road. Was the deal killed because Utah wouldn't let him be a free agent, or was it because Utah wouldn't do an illegal deal? These questions may never get answered, but what is clear is that Seikaly's agent didn't want his client in Utah.
The third element of franchise-building, trading, has gone by the wayside along with free agency and the draft. As previously stated here, "The demise of the NBA is upon us (because) the power-brokering agents eliminate the equalizing measures of competition and destroy our fundamental desire to support the game and our team."