So I guess Koufax/Drysdale means nothing to David Stern?
Wade’s agent, Henry Thomas, said Thursday that while the 2006 NBA finals MVP could talk with LeBron James, Chris Bosh and others before the July 1 start to free agency, no formal sit-down sessions among the headliners of this summer’s class are scheduled.
In interviews Wednesday and Thursday with the Chicago Tribune and South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Wade reiterated he will do much homework this summer, and said he and other stars may get together for strategy sessions.
Honestly, I don’t understand how this is OK. Wade’s agent is essentially saying, hey, at some point, my client is going to sit down with other free agents and collude. Baseball has bylaws to protect the owners from this sort of thing (which actually backfired to hurt the owners when Andre Dawson was a free agent, but that’s another story), and I’m shocked that the NBA doesn’t. If I’m an owner, I’d absolutely call bullshit on these meetings. I mean, imagine the outrage if Mickey Arison and Mark Cuban got together to discuss who they wanted to sign in the offseason and how they wanted to know what the other was doing before making a decision.
This is clearly collusion, and I don’t really understand how the NBA owners are OK with this. Then again, the NBA stopped being real sports around 20 years ago, so who really cares. A ladder match in the playoffs honestly wouldn’t shock me.
