TrueHoop

Here's my personal theory of owners, which doesn't apply to every single one of them, but many: they are socially odd people who would like to use dollars to purchase cool. Mark Cuban was a software guy who was NOT on track to host a primetime TV show. The Mavericks owner, though ... has cache.

So if you think about that mentality, though, it's thirsty for approval. PLEASE think I'm cool.

Hence ... one owner after another short-circuiting long-term plans for short-term splashy ones. Josh Harris bailed on the Hinkie era when it was about to get good! James Dolan has redirected the Knicks to the next "savior" every ten minutes or so of my adult life.

Also, this same urge to look cool makes them totally chicken in governing the league, updating the rules, or really changing anything.

I don't know what happened. But I mean geez, I have spent most of my adult life in and around the NBA and wouldn't it be normal and good if I said "I know those people at the NBA and they'd never do anything like that." Sadly, I don't feel like that. Even just their weak sauce refutation of ESPN's recent story on Tim Donaghy fixing games. There seems to be an impulse to tidy up the narrative that makes me ... open to anything, and not taking the NBA's word for it.

Short answer: no.

But I have had conversations with powerbrokers who were doing exploratory things. Funny story: John Hollinger and I were both once invited to a lunch with Robert Pera, who owns the Grizzlies. I didn't believe it to be a job interview, and talked the usual crap I talk.

Later they asked John to like, run the team, which he's still doing. Maybe I should have worn a nicer shirt?

In all seriousness, though, I have no interest. People at NBA teams strike me as alarmingly unhappy, for reasons that are hard to explain at the speed I'm trying to type right now.

Yes, maybe they gave up on good players. Or maybe they haven't yet created an environment where players are likely to be their best.

But I am totally open to the idea that if they had drafted Draymond Green they would have cut him. When the Cavs were the worst team in the league they cut Danny Green who has been a key player on all these great championship teams. Environment is huge.

Mental health issues, including addiction. HIPAA laws keep teams from discussing it, but it's real, as Adam Silver recently discussed on the stage at Sloan.