Jerry West says the NBA should consider contraction.

It’s well known that many teams in the NBA are struggling financially. Ticket sales are down 1.2 percent compared to last year, according to SportsBusiness Journal, and only eight teams had full-season-ticket sales of at least 10,000, compared to 11 the year before.

Former Lakers and Grizzlies general manager Jerry West has one solution, which would also help increase the competition level around the league: contraction.

“The biggest difference (between the NBA today and when West played) ... was how competitive the league was,” West told ESPN.com. “Today you have so many players who are part of teams that probably could not have made a bunch of teams (then). I've always felt that contraction would be good for the NBA. I know commissioner (David) Stern probably doesn't like it, but some of these small market teams just can't compete financially.”

Rosen calls the Lakers soft and puts most of the blame on Bynum
Cavs overpower Lakers

All three of the major sports should contract by 2-4 teams. Too much mediocrity in all three of the leagues. But it's a shame - ownership holds these cities hostage for new stadiums/arenas and then they cannot fill the seats. The city gets stuck with the bill and nothing to show for it.

Even putting the economics aside, the leagues should contract because the talent is too watered down. There is no way I'll be convinced that the 32 best QBs are currently playing in the NFL. Most are to be sure, but when teams start trotting guys out like Charlie Frye, Derek Anderson, and Bruce Gradkowski, then there is a problem. The NBA should consider going back down to 12 man rosters if they do not want to contract the number of teams.

I agree. I like the idea of contraction both in terms of quality and money but until the NBA starts losing money en masse I don't think we'll see it. The union would likely fight to keep the larger rosters.

What a travesty that Iverson is an All-Star, even worse that he was voted a starter. A perfect example why the fans should not have all the voting power.

They should have some kind of performance limits on who can be voted in. Iverson is clearly a fan favorite but to say he's an allstar with his numbers is insane. And isn't T-Mac an allstar this year as well?

i wonder who is going to get the shaft since AI is starting...any word if gilber arenas could be voted in?

By the same token, Garnett's numbers don't warrant an All-Star start - 14.9 PPG, a little over 7 RPG. I know defensive presence is not a statistic, but really, there were other PFs in the East that could have started.

Congratulations to the NY Knicks for losing by 50 last night.

Column by Captain Obvious...


Maybe a trade can solve Pistons' problems

TED KULFAN

With every game -- this season it's been more than usual in every loss -- it's becoming increasingly apparent. This Pistons roster, as currently configured, just isn't going to get the job done.

The chemistry just isn't right. There are too many of the same kind of players (perimeter oriented) who don't seem to complement each other as was hoped at the start of the season.

For some reason, the effort doesn't always come out of this group collectively. Losses to Indiana and Portland the last two nights essentially put the exclamation mark on that belief.

With that mind, and I wasn't particularly keen on this belief early in the season, but it might be time to shop Tayshaun Prince and Rip Hamilton at the trade deadline.

Ben Wallace isn't going to get traded, nor should he. Wallace has a veteran presence this team needs.

But Hamilton and Prince, like Wallace last links to the championship run, would bring more of a return with a trade. They'd create salary-cap space and alleviate some of the logjam in the shooting guard/small forward positions.

Something has to be done. Plus, you wonder how their mental approach will be if the losing continues. Witness Prince's blow up with coach John Kuester in Friday's loss to the Pacers. That was frustration more than anything, and you get the sense there will be more frustration with this team.

Hamilton and Prince are two players who've experienced extraordinarily good times with the Pistons. For a long period of time, too. Going through a rebuilding process, as this one looks to be right now, might not be what these two veterans want at this point in their careers. Of the two, Prince is more likely to be moved.

With one year left on his contract after this season (Hamilton has four), Prince could be a fine fit for a team either at a championship level or close to it.

Austin Daye and Jonas Jerebko can hold down Prince's small forward spot. The chemistry could be better with a younger cast. Something has to be done, because it's just not working right now.

ted.kulfan@detnews.com
(313) 223-4606

If Darko had played....they would have lost by 70.

Even if the team were completely healthy I didn't think that the Pistons were going to make a run at anything this year. The players on the floor haven't stepped up to the challenge. It's true that a GM can't panic but I just don't like the team Joe put together (no point guard, no center). So I hope that this 'no trade' talk is just misdirection. Cause we need help.


Joe Dumars doesn't want a trade -- yet
Terry Foster / The Detroit News

Auburn Hills -- Joe Dumars holds two fingers in the air during a quiet workout at the Pistons practice facility. There's significance to that number. It's the number of games the Pistons have played with a healthy roster. And that's why Dumars, president of the Pistons, isn't in the trade market right now.

So you can forget rumors of bringing in Carlos Boozer (Jazz), Chris Kaman (Clippers) or Amare Stoudemire (Suns).

Dumars says the rumors aren't true. He's more interested in evaluating his team than adding to it.

The problem is, he can't study his product until it's whole again.

"It's hard to say what you have when you've had your team for just two games," Dumars said. "You don't know about your team. It's not like we've had our full complement of players and we have the record (15-28) we have.

"You don't know if you are a playoff team or not. So you don't talk about making trades."

The last time the Pistons played the Grizzlies, tonight's opponent, they were healthy and won 96-74. Since then, the Pistons have resembled a M*A*S*H* unit.

• Ben Gordon has missed 18 games -- he's expected to miss No. 19 tonight -- after missing only 12 games his first five seasons with the Bulls. His 17.2 scoring average is the second lowest of his career, and he's shooting a career-low .321 from 3-point range.

• Richard Hamilton missed 29 games his first five seasons with the Pistons, but has missed 27 this year. Although Hamilton is averaging 19.2 points, he has career lows in shooting percentage (.395) and 3-point shooting (.240).

• Tayshaun Prince has played 11 games this season, and his scoring average (8.5) and rebounds (3.9) are the lowest since his rookie year. Before this season, Prince had not missed a game in six years. He also has career lows in free-throw shooting (.619) and shooting percentage (.398).

"You have to play with each other for a full stretch before you can get a feel for exactly how your team plays," Dumars said. "That's what I am trying to say. I think it would be premature to do something right now."

NYDAILYNEWS

The NBA has suspended Wizards star Gilbert Arenas for the remainder of this season for breaking its gun rules and pleading guilty to a felony gun charge in Washington, D.C.

Arenas met with NBA commissioner David Stern for one hour in Manhattan Wednesday, after which the league announced that Arenas would serve what would amount to a 50-game ban.

The other Wizard involved in the Dec. 21 incident, Javaris Crittenton, also was suspended for the rest of the season. Crittenton has been out for most of the season with a foot injury.

Arenas and Crittenton each had guns in the Wizards locker room during a heated confrontation that was a result of a gambling dispute.

"There is no justification for their conduct," Stern said.

Arenas last played a game on Jan. 5 and reportedly recommended to Stern that he be banished for the rest of the season. Arenas appealed to the Players Association not to appeal the penalty and the NBAPA has honored his wishes.

According to sources, Stern did not consider imposing a lifetime ban on Arenas, a three-time All-Star and the face of the Wizards' troubled franchise.

The suspension may be the least of Arenas' troubles. He faces up to six months in jail after pleading guilty to carrying a pistol in Washington, D.C., without a license. Sentencing is March 26.

The Wizards could try to void Arenas' contract if he goes to jail. He was making $16 million this season and has four seasons left at $80 million.

Crittenton was sentenced to one year of unsupervised probation and community service after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor gun charge.

Miami Heat 92, Detroit Pistons 65: Pistons just miss record embarrassment
Terry Foster / The Detroit News

Auburn Hills -- A comedy act headlined The Palace Friday night, starring Tayshaun Prince, Richard Hamilton and the rest of the Pistons.

The Pistons were so bad during a 92-65 loss to the Heat that fans didn't have the heart to boo the poor Pistons. They laughed at them instead.

Bronx cheers at a basketball game? You bet.

It happened twice when Prince finally made a bucket in the fourth quarter and it happened again when Kwame Brown made a free throw after bricking his first four.

Some wise guy screamed: "Bring back (former coach) Michael Curry."

The only thing missed was a laugh track. And the only saving grace is the Pistons somehow avoided setting another franchise low for points scored when Charlie Villanueva hit a free throw with 25 seconds remaining in the game.

Most of the body parts were back when Ben Gordon played after missing the last nine games with a groin strain. He finished with 10 points, but that wasn't nearly enough to help the Pistons avoid a four-game losing streak.

They still can't shoot or score and the chemistry seems out of kilter. The Pistons did not compete beyond the first quarter. The Heat ran past and through the Pistons and led by as many as 29 points.

"You get hit in the mouth, you get right back up and get hit again," Pistons coach John Kuester said. "That is what you do, keep working hard and good things will happen."

The Pistons did not work hard and hardly anything good happened to them. They got clubbed on the boards, 52-25, by the Heat and shot just 39.4 percent from the floor.

Things got so easy for the Heat that Dwyane Wade played only 24 minutes and finished with 22 points. Miami shot better from 3-point range (66.7 percent) than the Pistons from the free throw line (63.2 percent).

Those are not funny numbers and they tend to lead to a team that is lacking chemistry and cohesion.

"Everybody thinks it is easy and guys are just going to fit in," Pistons center Ben Wallace said. "It is tough to build chemistry with the number of injuries that we've had. They are going out and playing hard but we've got to get them up to speed and get them on the right page. That takes being out on the floor. When you are off the floor, it is tough to come back and do what you've been doing."

The Heat broke open the game with a 12-0 second-quarter run to go up 47-31. The jokes from the crowd began during a 20-6 third-quarter spurt.

That is when much of the crowd left.

Hamilton did not shoot well, missing 10 of 14 shots and finishing with eight points. Charlie Villanueva led the Pistons with 15 points and Prince chipped in 10.

"I don't think there is a lack of confidence," Hamilton said. "But I just think guys are still learning."

Lebron has a snit

David Stern's bottom line

Clippers/Portland Trade

one thing i hate about being a bulls fan right now is the trade rumors, and then nothing gets done...

You're out Tom. You're not a wartime CEO and things could get rough with the move Mrs. Davidson is trying to make.
Tom Wilson resigns

Terry Foster / The Detroit News

Early in the first quarter Monday, Pistons forward Tayshaun Prince lay in the middle of the floor in pain after smashing his back into Jason Maxiell's knee. At that point the Pistons should have boarded Roundball One and began the trip back to Detroit.

Actually, you can't convince me they didn't. Their 119-93 loss to the Celtics at Boston Garden was one of the most embarrassing ever.

The Pistons showed no heart, no pride and no desire in allowing the Celtics to pound them into submission. You know things are bad when a half-court team like the Celtics ran the Pistons off the floor with crowd-pleasing fast breaks and dunks.

The Celtics have four of the oldest players in the league, so what they did to the Pistons was like Jed Clampett beating one of the Jonas Brothers in a track meet. ESPN announcers were begging for the Pistons to show life.

Sadly, they didn't.

The lasting memory of this game was Nate Robinson hanging from the rim during a dunk with less than a minute remaining. The Celtics were criticized for showboating.

I criticize the Pistons for allowing it to happen.

The network couldn't switch to the Lakers-Warriors game fast enough.

I didn't want to watch, but part of my job is to let you know how pathetic this team has become. The Pistons essentially played without Ben Wallace, Rodney Stuckey and Prince. What was left resembled a D-League team overdosed on sleeping pills.

The Celtics shot 62 percent from the floor, passed out 34 assists and placed seven players in double figures.

Will Bynum led the Pistons with 16.

If the Pistons play that way tonight, LeBron James might as well stay in Cleveland. The Cavaliers won't need him.

New York-based Citigroup has been retained to assess the value of the Pistons, the Free Press has learned.

A source with personal knowledge of the situation said this morning that the financial firm is going over the books; the next step could be the Pistons being placed for sale.

The source, who requested anonymity because the league office requests that team officials not speak publicly about the process, stressed that the team is not yet for sale.

Karen Davidson, the Pistons’ owner for a little over a year, said earlier this year that she was thinking about selling the franchise that won three NBA championships for her late husband.

“You always want a real engaged, enthusiastic owner,” she said at halftime of the Pistons-Celtics game at the Palace on Jan. 20. “I think that’s just the primary concern. We’re looking into the possibility of inquiring about selling it, but there’s nothing definite.

i really hate the refs, and i really hope there is a strike for the 2011-2012 season because thats the only way david stern will be out as commissioner.

Pretty much. Stern will be there until he passes.

Expert predicts Pistons will draft North Carolina center

DETROIT NEWS STAFF

In his mock draft, ESPN.com's Chad Ford predicts that the Pistons will use the No. 7 pick to select North Carolina center Ed Davis.

The 6-10 Davis declared for the draft after his sophomore season.

Ford wrote: "The Pistons are high on Al-Farouq Aminu (a small forward from Wake Forest), but the last thing they need is another tweener after adding Austin Daye and Charlie Villanueva last summer. Davis didn't dominate as a sophomore, but he's an athletic big man who's active on the boards. The Pistons desperately need a player like that."

The Pistons currently have the No. 7 pick, but could move up or down depending on the May 18 draft lottery.

Ford believes the Nets will pick Kentucky guard John Wall with the first pick. His other top picks: Ohio State's Evan Turner (Minnesota), Georgia Tech's Derrick Favors (Sacramento), Kentucky's DeMarcus Cousins (Golden State), Syracuse's Wesley Johnson (Washington) and Kansas' Cole Aldrich (Philadelphia).

GREAT article on Lebron James' piss poor attitude towards the playoffs.

LeBron’s moment of truth awaits

By Adrian Wojnarowski, Yahoo! Sports
May 12, 4:05 am EDT

CLEVELAND – This isn’t important enough to LeBron James(notes). That’s the uncompromising, unconquerable truth. Everything has come too easy to him, and he still doesn’t believe that winning championships takes a consuming, obsessive desire that borders on the maniacal. He is chasing high school and college kids on recruiting trips for his fledgling marketing company, medicating his insecurities with unending and unfolding free-agent dramas.

James is chasing Warren Buffett and Jay-Z the way he should be chasing Russell and Jordan and Bryant. He wants CEOs to bow before him, engage him as though he is a contemporary on the frontlines of industry. Only, the truth of the matter is, he’s a singular talent who’s going to watch his playoff failures start to chip away at the thing that seems to matter most to him: his marketability and magnetism.

Most of all, James is forever selling something of himself – an ideal, an image, a possibility. Something nebulous, something promised. He’s chasing a global platform, the bright, blinking billion-dollar fortune, and he’s largely gotten the natural order of things backward.

Stop strutting, stop preening, stop stomping away as an ungracious winner, a sore loser, and win something, LeBron.

Win something now.

No more excuses. Not now, not after this biblical bottoming out that pushes the Cleveland Cavaliers to the brink of an unthinkable collapse. And yet, after Tuesday’s ferocious failure of his professional career, the encompassing embarrassment of a 120-88 Game 5 loss to the Boston Celtics, James dismissed his unthinkably poor performance with this colossal cop-out: “I spoil a lot of people with my play. When you have three bad games in seven years, it’s easy to point them out.”

Who is he to be indignant after he gave a playoff game away? What’s he ever won to be so smug to the masses? That’s what drives the Celtics crazy about James. Eventually, he will understand his greatness isn’t measured on the hit-and-runs through NBA cities across a long season. It’s measured now, in the teeth of the battle, when a tiny guard, Rajon Rondo(notes), has stolen his stage and nearly a series.

Somewhere, the whispers of the game’s greatest talents became a murmur louder and louder: James still doesn’t understand part of the price of greatness is inviting the burden on yourself and sparing those around you. He missed 11 of 14 shots. James didn’t score a basket until the third quarter. He was terrible, just terrible, and yet James couldn’t bring himself to say the worst home playoff loss in franchise history began and ended with him.

For all of James’ unselfishness on the floor, he can still be so selfish off it. They could’ve lined up the greatest players in the game’s history Tuesday night in the primes of their championship lives, and there isn’t one of them who would’ve deflected and deferred like the self-proclaimed King James. They would’ve been livid and they would’ve put it on themselves. Magic Johnson and Larry Bird. Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant(notes). Tim Duncan(notes) and, yes, Shaquille O’Neal(notes).

They had titles, and they would’ve mutilated themselves for public consumption. James is too cool, too stubborn and maybe too self-unaware. This is on me, they would’ve told you, and, I’ll get us out of this. They would’ve made sure teammates and opponents, fans and enemies understood. They would’ve made sure the whole world understood: This isn’t how an MVP plays in the playoffs. This isn’t how he lets a legacy linger in limbo. What you heard out of James was self-righteous: “I put a lot of pressure on myself to go out and be great and the best player on the court. When I don’t, I feel bad for myself.”

This wasn’t the night to feel bad for himself. There’s been enough pity for him in this series. As much as anything these past two years, the Cavaliers have taken on James’ persona: Entitled, arrogant and expectant that the sheer divine right of his greatness will win them a ring. Only, the Celtics are proud, old champions arisen out of the rubble and on the brink of closing out the Cavaliers on Thursday night at the Boston Garden. No one saw this coming on Tuesday night, the surgical removal of the Cavaliers’ hearts surrounded with a stunned silence that devolved into the debris of boos.

James lorded over one of the most agonizing, humiliating losses a championship contender ever endured. So much comes with this collapse, bookended with decades of a city’s championship sports futility set against the free agency for the son it spawned in neighboring Akron.

This collapse will cost people jobs. This will change the course of the franchise. Where’s James going? And as job security goes, the CEO of British Petroleum has more going for him than Mike Brown right now. Forty feet away Tuesday night, Kentucky’s John Calipari was sitting under the basket with Leon Rose, the agent Cal shares with his buddy, LeBron.

James invites these storylines into the gymnasium, this drama, and leaves everyone else to live with the consequences. Owner Dan Gilbert has fostered a culture of permissiveness with James that hasn’t served him or the franchise.

The Cavs live in fear of him, his moods, his whims, and it’s the reason no one ever tells him the truth: Hey ’Bron, you looked childish for refusing to shake the Orlando Magic’s hands last season. You sounded small grumbling about criticism for your wildly up-and-down play in this series. James walked out of the Q on Tuesday night and there’s no guarantee he’ll ever return as a Cavalier here.


Yet make no mistake: James has enough around him. This team isn’t perfect, isn’t assured of beating the Los Angeles Lakers, but it has no business losing in the conference semifinals – never mind failing to even compete. And, yes, as much as ever, this is on James.

He invited all this drama about walking out on his hometown team this summer, and now free agency hung over the Q like an anvil. Here’s a city that’s waited 46 years for a championship, a town that reacts viciously to the sheer suggestion that James could leave for New York this summer. These fans have been much better to James than he’s been to them. It hasn’t been the media that’s built his role in the summer of 2010 to a crescendo, but James himself. He constantly manipulated it with suggestions and hints and wink-winks to New York.

James proclaimed July 1, 2010, as the biggest day in the history of basketball, ramping up suspense of his ultimate decision: Do I stay or do I go? What it has done is throw more palpable pressure in the air, more desperation, and it’s come back to haunt him now.

James says the Cavaliers know all about what it takes, but he knows about winning in the regular season. This is a different time, a different game. Three bad games in seven years? He’s kidding himself. Now, he has a championship cast around him. Now, he’ll be judged. No one gives a damn what he did in the regular season.

Perhaps sooner than later, he’s going to get his coach fired for losing this series. Or the next to Orlando. He’s mocked Brown for acting too angry with the Game 2 thrashing, but the coach understood what James refused to acknowledge until Tuesday night: The Cavs have been wildly inconsistent in these playoffs and they’re nowhere near playing championship ball.

Across the regular season, James can play hard, let his talent take over and embark on all the side gigs that gobble his time.

This isn’t a part-time thing. Winning everything takes a single-minded, obsessive devotion. Michael Jordan had it. Kobe Bryant does, too. They didn’t want to win championships, they had to win them. They needed them for validation and identity and, later, they became moguls. LeBron James is running around recruiting college kids to his marketing company. He picks up the phone, tells them, “This is the King,” and makes his pitch to be represented in his stable. Think Kobe would ever bother with this? Or Michael? Not a chance when they were on the climb, not when they still had a fist free of rings.

LeBron James is on the clock now, and Game 6 in Boston could be for his legacy in Cleveland. He has been prancing around the edges for too long now, angling for a transcendent existence he believed his brand could bring him. Only, it’s all a mirage. It’s all vapor until he does the heavy lifting that comes now, that comes in the shadows of Magic and Larry, Michael and Kobe. This isn’t about selling an image to Madison Avenue, about pushing product through all those dazzling plays across the winter months. This is an MVP’s time, his calling, and there was LeBron James standing in the middle of the Cavaliers’ locker room at 11:25 p.m., staring in a long mirror, fixing his shirt before the long walk down the corridor to the interview room.

James stood there for five seconds and 10 and maybe now 20, just staring into the mirror, just taking a long, long look at himself. For the first time in his career, the first time when it’s all truly on him, maybe the sport stood and stared with him. All hell breaking loose, all on the line now. Forget everything in his life, all the make-believe nonsense, Game 6 and maybe Game 7 will promise to serve as the most honest hours of his basketball life.

We will see tonight if Lebron's pride has been sufficiently attacked to cause him to have a monster game. Garnett said he thought Lebron will come out blazing because he would have watched the game tape.

Let the 2010 Summer of Free Agency begin. My guess is that LeBron stays in Cleveland. Chicago appears to be the leading non-Cleveland destination, but frankly, I believe LeBron cares about his legacy and wants to be known as the greatest ever to play the game. That will not happen in Chicago, because he might not even end up as the greatest ever for the team because of all the comparisons to MJ.

Best case non-LeBron scenario for the Bulls - Wade and Bosh. I'll take that.

lebron to chicago, and i would love to take wade as well...but, i am to worried about who the bulls will hire as there head coach.

Rumor was that Calipari is angling to be Lebron's next coach.