For a moment forget about Dan Gilbert and the latest entry in his book on how to be a Myopic Millionaire Douchebag. Gilbert is as Gilbert does. I’m no more mad at him than I am the smell of a fresh pile of dog poo wafting into my nostrils on a hot summer afternoon. Stink is as stink does.

For a moment put aside this idiotic debate between small market and big market teams. Any true hoops fans knows the San Antonio Spurs have equal chance of winning titles just like the Los Angeles Lakers. Just as the New York Knicks have an equal chance of sucking like a crack whore needing a fix like the Los Angeles Clippers. Winners win. Losers make excuses.

Instead, I’m just going to focus in on Executioner Stern and all his decisions that have led us to this seminal point in professional basketball.

First, a brief reminder on how this game of basketball works.

Yes, you need a team from top to bottom to win championships when you’re talking about hoops on the highest level. Still, no team will ever win without exceptional talent. Even when you try to argue that teams like the ’04 Pistons did it without Hall of Famers I’d still argue that they had players (Chauncey Billups and Ben Wallace) that were among the NBA elite at their respective positions at that time.

That being said, when Commissioner Stern was trying to expand the NBA brand in the 80’s he knew the only way to get the casual fan involved was to market the great individuals. Thus Julius Erving, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson and the greatest NBA marketing machine of all-time, Michael Jordan, were elevated above the team and put on a pedestal. Naturally, none of those men won by themselves. They all played with some of the greatest teams of all-time. However Stern made them icons and in turn made them more important than the franchises they played for.

Flash forward more than two decades later and the young men that grew up in a star driven NBA world are now playing in the NBA.

LeBron James’ nationally televised train wreck known as ‘The Decision’ was a direct result of the Stern doctrine birthed in the 80’s. LeBron wants the status that MJ had. Carmelo Anthony’s desire to play in the Garden for a living was a direct result of Stern policy. Melo wants to feel some of that love from the hoops Mecca. And yes, Chris Paul’s desire to follow in the footsteps of Magic is also a notion given wings by the marketing madness of the NBA’s rise in the 80’s and 90’s

All roads lead directly back to Stern.
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