Holy shit, it looks like I missed an awesome game due to being on an equally awesome road trip. The Knicks are back, baby! And so is their rivalry with the Heat. Chyeaaahhhh! (Due to said road trip, I'm running on a combination of sleep-deprivation, adrenaline, excitement, and an illicit substance or two. Please disregard any homerism and hyperbole.)
Actually, I'm not kidding. If salaries get a cap, tickets can get a cap, too. There's a difference between "profit" and straight up price gouging, which is where we're at now. If I were to take my wife to a Celtics game and just have "average" seats, it's a $500 night. That's ridiculous. The league makes most of it's money on TV rights anyway. Yeah, but that happens at pretty much every job. There are doctors who make $400k a year and are worth millions to their practices. Nobody ever gets paid what they bring in. That's true as well. If you have a team like the Mavs, where the owner can afford to spend whatever he wants, luxury tax be damned, that makes it hard for other teams to compete. I agree, there should be a hard cap.
Read some articles from Forbes; the league makes most of its money from ticket sales. And it's not "price gouging" when an NBA franchise is operating at a loss. Finally, I don't know where you're getting the $500 a night figure; outside of a few marquee games like the Lakers-Celtics, average tickets for a Boston game are well below $250. Right, but fewer people complain about doctors being overpaid.
I just did a quick check on the Celtics-Grizzlies game, which is about as non-marquee as it gets. A decent Loge level seat (not nosebleeds) is $218 per. Club seats are $187.50. Nosebleeds are anywhere from $67 to $87. Add to it that to park anywhere near the Celtics/Patriots/Red Sox is $60, and there's $500 right there, not counting snacks/drinks/A cheerleader outfit for my wife to wear at home/whatever. Hell, $100 a seat is ridiculous as far as I'm concerned. I'd rather watch it at home than pay that.
Those are damn good seats though, not just "average" ones! I completely agree with you. And it's your right as the consumer to stay home. I just don't think these things should be legislated; if the team thinks they will get more money charging the prices that they do, that's their prerogative.
Couldn't the same argument be used against salary caps? If a team thinks they can make more money overpaying players, why not?
The difference is that salary caps kill the competitiveness of the league. Big market teams are more attractive, and can outspend smaller market ones. Essentially, those are like the "rules of the game"; you don't want to make two thirds of the league consistently irrelevant, right? Meanwhile, the decision on the price of tickets doesn't directly effect the results of the team, or the competitiveness of the league.
I don't like the idea of a franchise tag in a sport with such small rosters. If you let them use it repeatedly it just gets slapped on the same increasingly-upset guys year after year. If you limit its use, you just push the problem one year down the road. This story about Mike Bibby joining the Heat, who are already significantly over the cap, leaves a bad taste in my mouth, especially since they are going to have to cut someone to make room for him. The Cavs managed to get their payroll up to nearly 100mil when Lebron was there, and the Heat are going to the same thing if the current system stays in place. The Celtics, Lakers, and a few others are just as bad, with 3-4 players putting them over the cap by themselves.
Of course, the Heat have been tremendously unlucky in terms of "big shots" all season. They're still the best team in the league, and should be favored over every other team in a seven game series. They're probably not going to be worth betting on, but they're better than the Celtics, Bulls and Spurs.
Their top three guys are the best three guy tandem in the league. If it were a 3-on-3 tournament, they'd be awesome. However, they are currently not the best team in the league. They haven't beaten the Celtics, they haven't beaten the Bulls, and they got bitch slapped by the Spurs. They've been unlucky in "big shots", sure. But with as much talent as they have and how hyped they've been, it shouldn't be coming down to hitting game winners. And they damn sure shouldn't be blowing 20+ point leads.
They're not as much better in the regular season as people thought they should be, because a.) it's their first year together and b.)depth matters a lot in the regular season. I don't really place too much of an emphasis on random head to head matchups during the season, and I think in a 7 game series, the Heat would rightfully be favored over any other team in the league.
Yeah, except not. 7 game series, with some back to back games and them playing 2.5 vs 5 (+bench) a night is going to kill them. No way they have the gas, and Eric doesn't have the mental steroids to push them through it. I'd bet $100 on Bosh being one of the criers. He's too mentally soft. People can get to him and they have. Wade is breaking also. "The world got want they wanted, the Heat are losing." Are you kidding me? I love Wade since he's from the Chi and all but that was the biggest bitch comment ever. They're acting like they got knocked out of the season after game 1. You know who wouldn't cry after 4 losses? The Bulls, The Spurs, The Celtics and the Lakers. Ridiculous. Also, about my Bulls, man, think about if their 2 guard scored more than 4 ppg. Or if any of his stats were above 4 per game.
Actually, Nom Chompsky is correct here. This reminds me of all the doomsday, idiotic posts and columns people made when the Heat started out 9-8...until they went 20-1 from there. Look, they may be the 3rd Seed in the East, but at the end of the day, they will have the two best players on the court, or two of the best three when if/when they face Chicago and Orlando. You may catch them during the regular season when everyone is tired and facing a different opponent every night, but beating them 4 out of 7 games in a series is a completely different beast, folks. It can happen, and I HOPE it does, but it's a completely different issue than how well they're playing during a stretch in the regular season. I'm curious where your belief that Eric Spoelstra isn't a quality head coach comes from. I know why most people parrot it; because he's the easiest man to blame, and casual fans don't understand jack shit about what coaching is and isn't, but I'm interested in your reason. Several moves Spoelstra has implemented this year have been downright brilliant, and he managed to rally the Heat after starting 9-8 and everyone demanding his job. (tough to do) Also, if you look at some of the fancier NBA sites, the plays he draws out of timeouts are terrific. What's your issue with his coaching?
Actually, Nom Chompsky is correct here. [/quote] Funny, A) I don't remember the Celtics Big 3 choking like that in their first year, and B) the 72-10 Bulls (which everyone pegged them as being better than) damn sure would have gone out and tried to kill everyone, regardless of game. I remember DWade in the Finals against Dallas. He's a fucking KILLER. I just don't think Lebron or Bosh are at that level yet.
Yeah, it was an easier, weaker league. Where the hell are you getting the bolded part? I have read and listened to every singe prediction on the Heat before the start of the season, and with the exception of an IMPLICATION by Jeff Van Gundy (who said they would go 74-8, but didn't directly compare them to the Bulls), I haven't heard a SINGLE person make this remark, let alone "everyone". In fact, most people went out of their way to say this team would be worse than the 1995-1996 Bulls. I realize you're a Celtics fan, but let's not exaggerate about the Heat and their expectations here. LeBron has been one of the best clutch players in the NBA during the last few years, and he didn't need the total support of all 3 referees with a mandate from Stern like Wade did against the Mavs. Remember the 48 points he dropped to beat the Pistons in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals, 109-107 in 2 overtimes, while scoring 29 of their last 30 points? Remember the three point buzzer beating game winner against the Magic in game 2 of the 2009 Eastern Conference Finals? I have seen him beat teams time and again in the last few seconds of games; LeBron is indeed a "killer", and you have to be to reach the heights he has.
Just out of curiosity here, the Heat is 0-3 in the regular season versus the Bulls, what the hell have they proved to anyone that they can beat the Bulls in a 7 game series?? The fact that they cant beat the Bulls once during the season not playing back to back games versus them leads me to believe they will not make it past the 2nd round. They have 0 chemistry as a team as far as consistency is concerned. I have yet to see them look really good against any good teams that are well over .500 ball and I seem to remember reading somewhere that the Heat's record against .500 teams is very very poor and well below .500 for the Heat. Do I think the Heat will win a ring with those 3? Yes absolutely but this season, no way. They need more depth, a better defensive point guard, which is the main weakness of Bibby, and an attitude that is team winning first before personal achievements, something I think Lebron and Wade are struggling with more the Bosh. Lebron wants that ring so bad he almost does "too much" for the team and actually becomes detrimental at times when he tries so hard to carry them on his back. Same goes for Wade. I will bet that next year when they have had a full offseason to work out together and when the media is not so hyped over this Heat big 3 thing they will have less pressure to prove themselves and be a much better team. EDIT: For the record and as sad as I am to admit this, I am Rockets fan being that I was born and raised in Houston. I both hate and love the Heat and would love to finally see a Finals thats not LA vs Boston yet AGAIN.
They lost 99-96, 93-89 and 87-86. As far as I'm concerned, those are all basically coin flip games. Screw what people like Bill Simmons say, there's not such thing as a "closer" in basketball. Most of the time, it comes down to luck. As far as the regular season goes, it's impossible to exert that much energy night in/night out unless you have the greatest player ever (and one of the greatest assholes ever) on your ass every day. LeBron and Wade aren't those guys; I doubt they're punching people out at practice. I'm not going to be the one betting against LeBron to be win though. He's by far the best player alive, and when he turns it on, he really can't be stopped. Look what he did with those Cleveland supporting casts. I should point out that they're not head and shoulders above everybody else. The Bulls are a decent two guard away from having one of those deadly balanced teams that's impossible to plan for. The Celtics are probably the best defensive team in the East, and the Magic can beat anyone if they're shooting well. Hell, Carmelo and Amare went something like 24-30 from the field tonight. Then you have the Lakers, OKC, San Antonio, the eternally underrated Dallas...these playoffs could get real good, real fast. There are 8 teams that I wouldn't be surprised to see in the finals.
You lose one game to the NBA's top tier, that's bad luck. You lose two, three games? Bad luck. When you've lost 9 out of 10 to the other top teams, that isn't luck. The Heat have displayed a remarkable inability to beat their peers, talent-wise. When you're below 0.500 against playoff-bound teams, it's not luck. And when they won a whole bunch of games in November through January...did you see their schedule? Repeatedly beating Golden State, Washington, New Orleans, Milwaukee, etc. is hardly breathtaking. The Heat so far have been able to beat up on lesser teams, but can't take on anyone their own size, so to speak.
The Heat are 2-11 against San Antonio, Dallas, Orlando, Boston, and Chicago. Both of those wins were against Orlando. You're saying that all those losses are just flukes? It must just be a coincidence that they always seem to have an off day against the top teams. Or maybe it might have something to do with the fact that their best offense comes from turnovers and fast-breaks, and the top teams don't screw up as much as the Cavs and Wizards.