The NBA’s Empire Mentality

We're now into the third full season since Memphis Grizzlies GM Chris Wallace traded Pau Gasol to the Los Angeles Lakers, and the general consensus coming in was that things aren't so bad. The lopsided deal back in February of 2008 seems to have found equilibrium, with both sides claiming benefits. But then the Lakers ran off eight straight wins to open this season when a championship hangover was in order, while the Grizzlies are still searching for an identity at 4-7. The wounds have been re-opened, and this trade now needs to be re-examined for the sham it was.

Everyone remembers the panic wave that washed over the NBA when Memphis sent its franchise player to Hollywood. Former Grizzlies coach Mike Fratello wasted no time in criticizing the trade, and San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich opened the floodgates when he called Wallace's actions "beyond comprehension." Wallace himself would later acknowledge it as "the gift that never goes away."

But last winter, it started to. Prevailing thought was that the Grizzlies had actually gotten some value of their own out of the deal. Even Popovich admitted it "has served them well in the future, which is now." Pundits had taken a valium on the matter, and it was stamped a "win-win."

Yet, almost three years later, the jury is still deliberating that whole Grizzlies improvement thing. The initial body snatch sent Kwame Brown, Javaris Crittenton, and the retired Aaron McKie to Memphis for Gasol. Brown, the player Steven A. Smith called a "bona fide scrub," was the centerpiece in this payroll dumping scheme. The only game Kwame ever had was an expiring overpriced contract. His most endearing attribute was that he wouldn't be in Memphis the following year.

Nor, as it happens, would the others. For Crittenton, these were the days before the undiscovered star landed his role opposite Gilbert Arenas in the 2010 adaption of How the West Was Won. Players who carry large guns into the locker room are usually compensating for other inadequacies, and in Crittendon's case it was a head for high-stakes poker. McKie was living out his retirement in a volunteer job when Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak, who never renounced rights to the ex-Laker, put him back on the payroll only to throw him in as a book-balancing measure. He was back off the payroll three months later.

Lakers apologists point to the second infusion of bodies this trade brought the Grizzlies, starting with Pau's younger brother, Marc. Dumpy, unproven, and not even in the country at the time, he was a generic equivalent that happened to share the name brand. He has since proven some worth as a double-double threat, but baby brothers can't always bring it like the original. Just ask Lynyrd Skynyrd.

Memphis soon dealt Crittenton to Washington to reacquire their own 2010 first-round pick. This landed them Xavier Henry, but only after a lengthy holdout by the former Kansas guard. The Grizzlies also picked up the Lakers' first round picks in 2008 and 2010. The former turned out to be the weed-toking Darrell Arthur; the latter was only a slight up tick over the Grizzlies' own second-rounder, which they gave up in the trade.

The biggest Grizzlies plus seems to have come from salary cap parole. The spare cash lying around after Brown came off the books gave Wallace the ability to take on swingman Zach Randolf's contract after his acquisition from the Clippers. But that's not all. In the broadest distribution of wealth since Jesus' five fish and twelve loaves, nine of Memphis' 15 current roster spots have been attributed to money freed up by Brown. There's even enough left over to finish the Interstate 22 connector into Memphis. Looks like that Wallace gift that never goes away has become one that keeps on giving.

Except, of course, on the court.

At best, this deal made a bad team mediocre, and the NBA is full of mediocre teams. The Grizzlies have gone 77-134 since trading Gasol, and caught only a faint whiff of the postseason last year. This was never about them getting better. It was always about returning the Lakers to glory.

That is, after all, what Commissioner David Stern and the NBA wants. It's good for the league when Boston and Los Angeles are winning, even more so when they're facing each other in the Finals. These two franchises have combined for more than half — 33 of 64 — of all championships since the NBA came into existence. None of the other three major sports comes close to that concentration of dominance. But by 2007, both were orbiting aimlessly like a cigarette butt about to be flushed down the toilet.

The Celtics finished the 2006-07 season at 24-58, missing the playoffs for the second straight year. The Lakers went 42-40 and were one-and-done for the second straight year. Worse, both Paul Pierce and Kobe Bryant seemed ready for a change of venues by season's end. That's when Boston miraculously came by Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett, with Timberwolves' GM Kevin McHale being the key tool. Part of the equation was in place; the Celtics were a league-dominant 36-8 on February 1, 2008 when the Lakers got their guy.

Gasol balanced the equation immediately: the Lakers closed on a 29-9 run and got to the Finals against the C's. They've gone on to win the last two championships, and their stranglehold on the Larry O'Brien doesn't look to weaken any season too soon. "Pau Gasol changed the landscape of basketball in the NBA," Popovich said last December in a statement of the obvious.

Again, more than the other three major sports, NBA talent invariably migrates to major markets. Stars just don't stay in Toronto and Cleveland long enough to win titles. There are no Peyton Mannings or Sidney Crosbys or Tim Lincecums in pro basketball, and the league turns a paler shade of vanilla with each passing season. The days of San Antonio or their ilk winning it all are long gone. It's funny how we so readily accept the "win-win" label when it applies to Boston and Los Angeles loading up, but damn those Miami Heat for trying their own creative twist to combat these empires.

As custodians of non-coastal superstars, McHale and Wallace owed a fiduciary responsibility to their respective markets, to the league, and to the fans. Both let us down. Each should look at himself in the mirror for his part in proliferating this empire mentality that exists in pro basketball, but as fans we too should look at ourselves for embracing it.