A good way to end tanking for good and promote NBA teams to strive for better efficiency on and off the court might be to copy the European system in which the bottom two or three teams are demoted to a secondary league, while the top two or three teams in that league are promoted.

Critics might argue that this would favor big market teams. However, last year the Blazers (owned by Paul Allen), Knicks (ca you say big market?), and Hawks/Bobs (don’t know how big those markets are exactly, but they’re both growing fast) were the worst three teams. This year it’ll be Memphis, Boston, and Milwaukee. Boston is pretty big and the Bucks once afforded to have three max-deal players on their team.

I’m not sure how the draft would work: I’d propose giving the new teams the most ping-pong balls and second division teams no picks. Or maybe second round picks.
Teams not currently in the NBA would start at a tremendous disadvantage, as expansion teams do now, but it would give entrepenuers a chance to start teams in markets like Las Vegas and Oklahoma City, second teams to compete in NBA cities, or teams in extremely small markets.

For those who say that these new teams will have no chance I’d counter with less talented international teams who play as a team and beat the U.S. team or cinderella teams in the NCAAs.

The end result would be a higher quality of basketball for fans and the extinction or sale of poorly run franchises due to having to compete in a more competitive market.

But, Joey Crawford is a bully, plain and simple. He acted a complete fool, and you just can’t have that. (Having said that, I’ll tell you right now. I’d pay money to see Crawford and Duncan go at in some oversized boxing gloves with the proceeds going to charity.)

In an odd way, I’ve gained a tremendous amount of respect for David Stern this season. I lost a lot for him after “the brawl.” I had no major problems with the player suspensions. But, he should have penalized the Pistons for their fans’ behavior by removing a home game or playing it in an empty arena. He got that fans need to be protected from the players crossing the line but completely missed that fans can also cross the line.

I feel like he’s learned this season that there’s more to managing the league than bringing the hammer down on players. He’s got to protect their interests too. He (eventually) listened to them about the leather ball. And, he disciplined an official who has a history of bullying players instead of officiating basketball games. Who says an old dog can’t learn new tricks?

Either way, even without challenging Duncan to a fight he would have been in trouble because he was warned about this before. I say good riddance.