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You will also never convince me that when the Shaq/Kobe Lakers played the Kings and Blazers in the Western Conference Finals that those series weren't rigged as well. The Kings series especially.

Stern once voided a Chris Paul trade. If the investigation finds tampering, I’d rule that Davis is forbidden to be traded to the Lakers. I doubt the league could get away with forbidding him to sign with the Lakers but maybe there is power given to the commissioner in that regard, if they find tampering. The sad thing is I don’t think the league minds, and may actually want, the Lakers to get Davis. They’ve won ten titles since 1980 and having them do well has been good for business. But, in the NFL, every small market has a chance to win, and no one thinks otherwise. We will see about the NBA which seems to like the big market teams collecting stars. The league’s calculation is that’s better even if it means letting small markets feel like it’s stacked against them (which takes the fun out of it for small market fans). If somehow the value of a small market team went down because the interest level is down, that would motivate change but it’s highly unlikely that would even change. The NBA’s trend is up big time, whereas the NFL has long term structural issues. It won’t happen overnight, but the NFL may see it’s peak in the next generation. Real Sports did a story on how statistics show that football is becoming a gladiator sport (poor and uneducated kids play, rich and educated kids watch). Malcolm Gladwell argued that it won’t be socially accepted to be a football fan a generation from now. All of this is good for the NBA over the long term.

Yep, the problem with the super-max contract that was designed to help keep stars in small markets is that players have realized they can sign the contract, lock in the guaranteed money, and then just force their way out later.

All the NBA cares about is the big markets and the star players. You will never convince me that the 85 draft lottery was not rigged for the Knicks to get Ewing.

NBA needs a hard cap and needs to up their game when tampering becomes involved. I think a few games suspended for being found guilty on tampering from players would work and a loss of draft picks if owners or GM's are caught tampering(aka Magic Johnson).

Lebron did an Instagram post yesterday and did an @ to Kyrie. It was a song in the video and it was clearly Lebron making it clear he was good to get back to playing with Kyrie. As someone posted above I feel like the next CBA the NBA needs to figure out a way to stop this. Not sure exactly what they do and It’s going to be hard but these small market teams and fans deserve better than to be treated like this.

AD fined $50K for his agent's public trade demand. http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/25879816/anthony-davis-new-orleans-pelicans-fined-50000-public-trade-demand-agent He probably just pulled out his wallet and paid it...

I also don't think it was coincidence that the Cavs had the #1 pick when Labron was in the draft and well as the Bulls getting the #1 pick when Derrick Rose was in the draft.

As is, imo, you hold par with the big 3 and let those 2 develop more while Vic is healing up and go all in on 2020-21. Will Holiday be good enough to be the lead point by then? Bojan is about to turn 28, he's versatile, tough, can shoot. Probably need another guy that can do Reddick things from outside and hope Turner and Sabonis are the best front court tandem in the league.

So with the current roster without Vic, my guess is we end up the fifth seed entering the playoffs. All other four teams ahead of us we are not better than, yes we have a chance to win a first round matchup but will be very very difficult. Only way to get a potential all star to this team sooner rather than later(drafting and that player becomes an all star maybe in 3 or 4 years) is via trade. However what would we have to give up to get one? I love Sabonis to death but in all honesty he is our best prospect outside of Myles and Vic and he's only making like $3 million per year or close to it. So assuming Vic returns next season and back to an all star level during the season at some point, would Victor, Myles and a potential all star(SF or PF) be enough to make a run in the east? I do not know that answer. To get an all star(I would prefer a SF or PF in return) I think we would have to offer something along the lines of Sabonis/1st rd pick/expiring contract. Would this be enough? Who knows.

I think it’s interesting that since the Fall Kyrie has said he’s resigning with the Celtics. Even during the season he’s made comments about the Celtics future as a team (in the sense it’s with him included). Then all of the sudden Anthony Davis announces he wants a trade, basically giving the Lakers 9 days to get him without the Celtics involved, and within 24 hours there’s all these reports of Kyrie might not come back. Even tonight the report is he wants to play with LeBron again. I’m going conspiracy theory here, but seems to me LeBron, through Rich Paul, is pulling all the strings here.

I am glad he was fined. It undermines the Pelicans. I have a tendency to sympathize with the smaller market teams when their stars do this stuff, especially publicly. There is no reason this needs to be out in the public. They could have spoken with the Pelican management. I hope he doesn't get into LeBron's grips. Great player but he starts his self-serving manipulation of patsy younger players who are blinded by his legend. And of course Rich Paul has been trying to make a career out of being one of LeBron's flunkies.

Plus I don't think Boston would do it. If you're Boston, you're looking to add AD to Kyrie, not swap them out. You're goal would be to pack only 1 of Brown/Tatum, filler and picks. Going forward you'd have something like: AD/Baynes Horford/Morris Brown/Morris/Hayward Smart/Hayward Kyrie/Rozier

Saw an article today...DNA testing. If the guy is indeed the one that did that monstrous act, I got rope and a very strong Oak tree. We shall see how it unfolds. Regardless, I would hang him anyway for what he has already done.