Wednesday, August 1, 2007

Hating the Game, Not the Player

By Michael Haas

It's too bad that Minnesota had to lose a great personality and player such as Kevin Garnett. Before the trade rumors happened, many Minnesotans agreed that it was time to let go of KG, move the team in a new direction. It's hard to remember exactly how it came to that point. How did we become so open to the idea of trading one of the best professional athletes in Minnesota history? Poor decisions by ownership and GM's, had a hand in the situation; but for some reason, I feel like the NBA is to blame here. The NBA does not allow us to be successful AND have a big money player.

I know nothing of NBA finances, but I have heard that they have something called a "salary cap." It sounds similar to the 200 million dollar payroll - luxury-tax - threshold they have in Major League Baseball. But I think the difference is that only two or three teams in baseball CAN afford to get to that sky high payroll, let alone pay the luxury tax. (Twins payroll is like 85 mil)

When a team has a player like KG, it eats a huge chunk of your capped salary. It leaves (relatively) little money for other players.

The bottom line is this: You have to be a genius to be able to juggle a huge contract and build a decent team around it. Kevin McHale is not a genius. No one should be ripped to shreds for not being a genius. The NBA needs to change.

Somehow.



1 comment:

TwinsWin83 said...

I think it was hard for the simple reason that I have been watching KG as THE Timberwolf since I was 11 years old. When he first came out of high school he was the shit and he turned around an organization that had never even had a 30 win season in its history. "The Kid" was the reason I became a Wolves fan for the next decade.