Did you watch the NBA draft last evening? We did all the while channel surfing. We suspect many others did while texting, or cooking, or talking, or surfing that internet that Al Gore invented. With America’s attention span far shorter than the wing span of many of these new draft pics we wonder how many of us have any clue who went to whom?
The confusion we create, to follow who went were, is on us. The confusion the NBA creates, on who went where, is on them.
What confusion you ask? It’s how NBA draft day trades work for teams involved, and how they don’t work for the casual viewer. Eight of the thirty first round picks were traded last evening, or just over 25 percent. Except the picks weren’t really traded. Got it? Confused?
It seems complicated actually. And, we researched it and can confirm, it’s complicated.
In short NBA teams trade the draft rights to a player that that NBA team has just selected. In other words when team A agrees to trade draft rights of pick X to team B for draft rights to picks Y and Z, team B does so only when team A agrees to select player Q for team B. A multiple choice quiz follows. Just kidding.
Why does the NBA do it this way rather than allowing team B to make it’s own selection with the pick? It’s all due to the collective bargaining agreement(CBA), the exclusive rights it gives the team for a year, the salary cap, the timing of the NBA year, it’s salary cap implications, and the two dates of July 6 and July 30. A multiple choice quiz follows. No, really, we are just kidding.
What does this do to the average fan? It confuses them. Eight times last evening a player walked onto the stage wearing a certain team’s hat having just been drafted by them. Eight times in eight in thirty days from now that player won’t be with that team. He’ll be with the team who has his rights.
So, ESPN interviews the player and cannot ask what it feels like to be headed eventually to the team that he will play for. Sometimes the kid drafted doesn’t even know that he is moving. So, ESPN interviews the player and doesn’t ask what it’s like to be drafted by the team whose hat sits right on top of his head. So, TV shows us one thing, and tries to explain that it didn’t happen how you see it. And, they attempt this all in five minutes. If you just jumped, hypothetically, from Fox News (which, as you know, is fair and balanced) and see “Joe Blow” in a Lakers hat, don’t believe what your eyes just saw. Thanks Kirk Gibson. No, no. Thank the NBA.
MLB draft presentations look and feel like dedications to libraries and the trusty Dewey Decimal System. NFL draft presentations look and feel like three day rock concerts. NBA draft presentations look and feel like something that is hard to look at, we feel.
Adam Silver is the most progressive commissioner when it comes to embracing gambling on games. He should roll the dice on a new CBA agreement (or timing thereof) that allows us to see who goes where when we tune in.
Otherwise, it’s too easy to tune out.