Get 'Cher Dead Weight Here!

All right, in light of the absolutely underwhelming response to my last NBA related post, I figure that the only reasonable decision is to post another one. So here we go!

There are a LOT of reasons that the NBA isn't what it used to be, but I've recently gained an extra-acute awareness of one of the more subtle but ultra-ridiculous ones. If you're making a trade or looking to sign a free agent, guess what one of the BEST things to have available is? Dead weight! "Expiring contracts"! When the Celtics traded for Ray Allen last week, every article mentioned that the absolute BEST part of the trade is what they kept -- Theo Ratliff's contract. In short, he's an completely un-productive 80 year-old guy making like 400 million a year . . . for one more year. Which means that everybody wants him! Why? Because that means that after one more year, that 400 million turns into salary cap space which they can then use to turn around and spend on . . . yep, you guessed it -- Frank Stallone! No, not Frank Stallone, but some other player who's going to be under a massive contract until he's also 80 years old and completely un-productive, at which time they'll be counting down the days until they're able to get out from under yet another "expiring contract."

Ok -- if you didn't get all of that, let me just hit you with the base-line fact: one of the "best assets" to an NBA team is an old, bad, ridiculously overpaid player -- the older, worse, and more overpaid the BETTER! Now, just wrap your head around THAT fact, and ask yourself if there's any wonder that the NBA isn't anywhere near as fan-tastic as it used to be.