for fans who care about a fair league like NFL
read completely b4 answering and correct me if im wrong on anything ( and remember it has nothing to do with how big the market is)
so im sure that david stern doesnt tell the officials to rig certain games. i think whenever a game is rigged like it was with the 2003 lakers-kings series, the refs themselves have a secret agreement to rig it and it has nothing to do with stern or the rest of the nba. its just that the refs in that series probably had some big money on the lakers winning, so thats why the refs rigged it and the refs got in trouble after the series(so it wasnt the nba’s plan just the refs’).
so with that being said, the nba does not rig it so the same 5 teams are always going to make the finals. so get that out of your head.
the reason its always the same 4 or 5 teams is because the big stars all go on one team and get guaranteed contracts there. its just that the nba never did anything about it and they let it happen. (and keep in mind they cant just change the league from soft cap to hard cap that would ruin everything).
for example, boston, lakers, chicago, heat, thunder, and now even the clippers are the places all the stars are going. an example- look at how dwight went to la to play with kobe for a ring. nash saw this, went to go play with those 2. so basically the nba let these 3 guys be together and it initially looked like it was going to be unfair to the rest of the west, but the nba didnt do anything.
those teams i mentioned above are the teams that are going to be in the finals for the next five years or so. obviously the lakers wont make it with current roster but kobe will attract these star players because kobe is a winner then when all these players get together on one team, it becomes unfair. thats why its a star league.
so ive concluded the league should have some kind of rule where u HAVE to stay where you’re drafted when your a UR free agent UNLESS you take less $ money on