Issues between large and small market teams are constant in the NBA game. The face of the NBA, Lebron James, is in one right now. Leave Cleveland and possibly go to New York, or Miami.
Small market teams have had a lot of success in the NBA. The San Antonio Spurs, one of the teams of the 2000’s, have had enormous success financially and on the court, winning four NBA championships in the last nine years.
But perhaps the biggest problem for small market teams is international players not wanting to play for them. In the 2007 NBA Draft, chinese forward Yi Jianlian was thought to go to Milwaukee. His camp said he did not want to go to Milwaukee because it was not nationally praised and it was a small city.
A lot of international players never turn out to be any good. For every Tony Parker and Dirk Nowitzki there are 20 players like Darko Milicic and Nikoloz Tskitishvili. You never see college kids demand to play to play for a desired team.
Milwaukee then sent Yi to New Jersey in a trade and so far his career has been awful.
Now, Spanish phenom Ricky Rubio is threatening not to play for the Minnesota Timberwolves, who drafted him fifth in the 2009 NBA Draft. He is instead threatening to go back to Spain and try to come back to the United States for a different team.
There is now a rumor that the Knicks might trade for Rubio, thus satisfying his request.
This is a disgrace to the league. An 18 year old kid has no right to say he does not want to play for a small market team.
The NBA needs to fix this rule. I understand the NBA looks good when big market teams are thriving. But the league cannot allow players to threaten their way out of the small market teams. How are small market teams supposed to be successful when players refuse to play for them.
I would like to propose a rule, where when a team drafts a player, he has to sign with that team, or not play in the league for five years. When signed, players must play or lose portions of their salary. If both the team and player just cannot co-exist together then a trade can suffice.
But international players bullying smaller market teams into trading them to big market teams is bad for the league and sets a wrong example to kids in that if you whine and pout enough you will get what you want.