The NBA had one of the more wild offseasons that the league has seen in a long time.
On Tuesday, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban appeared on “Kanell and Bell,” and admitted that the league is extremely “wide open” now after previously being dominated by the Golden State Warriors.
“I think this summer, it really benefitted the NBA,” Cuban said. “We went from the Warriors being a dynasty to being wide open. The best way to judge that is our ticket sales. Last year, there were two teams that never played to an empty seat: whatever team LeBron (James) was on or playing, and the Warriors don’t play to an empty seat anywhere in the league. Everybody else had to hustle to sell tickets. Now that’s different.”
A big part of that being different, according to Cuban, is the move towards teams having star duos. Now that the era of big threes is nearing an end, there is simply more star power to spread across more teams.
“You’re going to have two stars on a lot of different teams,” Cuban added. “Now the Lakers, Warriors, Clippers, Bucks and Rockets might be a draw. So you’re going to have more teams that are able to sell more tickets and that’s going to benefit the entire NBA.”
The Warriors had previously ruled the NBA during the years of their dynasty. Golden State was been in the NBA Finals in each of the past five seasons and won three titles in that stretch.
In addition, the Warriors won back-to-back titles in 2017 and 2018 after star forward Kevin Durant left the Oklahoma City Thunder to sign with Golden State.
However, after suffering a torn Achilles tendon in the 2019 NBA Finals against the Toronto Raptors, Durant left the Warriors to sign with the Brooklyn Nets, Now, Durant will team up with former Boston Celtics star guard Kyrie Irving once he is healthy.
The Los Angeles Clippers made arguably the biggest splash of the summer when they signed NBA Finals MVP Kawhi Leonard and traded for Paul George to create a lethal one-two punch in the Western Conference. Their Staples Center counterparts, the Los Angeles Lakers, also were very active during the summer as they acquired All-Star big man Anthony Davis from the New Orleans Pelicans.
Ultimately, there’s more parity in the NBA than there has been in a very long time. The Lakers dominated the 2000s with Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant while Bryant continued to win titles alongside Pau Gasol following O’Neal’s departure. LeBron James also won a pair of NBA titles with Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade in 2012 and 2013 before the Warriors ran the NBA over the past five seasons.
Now, there’s a handful of teams that could potentially win a title in the 2019-20 season. As Cuban alluded to, that translates to more money in the league’s pockets while also having a sensational product.
Courtesy: CBSSports
