Kawhi has saved the NBA – it’s just a shame he had to

For a week, the NBA’s most enigmatic star kept fans waiting with baited breath.  Free agency opened, but Kawhi Leonard made us wait.  The first dominoes began to fall, Kevin Durant opted to head to Brooklyn, condemning Knicks fans to another year of mismanagement and frustration, but Kawhi Leonard made us wait.  Jimmy Butler traded Philadelphia for Miami and finally became ‘the guy’ on a team bereft of other stars to challenge his ego, but Kawhi Leonard made us wait.  With the future of three franchises – the Raptors, Lakers and Clippers – in the palm of his hand Kawhi was determined to maintain his silence and take his time.  Until last night.

But the thing is, in the era of the ‘superteam’, Kawhi’s power extended even beyond those three teams – his choice would determine the fate of the entire league.

In recent years, the NBA has been dominated by the Golden State Warriors and their embarrassment of riches.  To be fair to them, this success was not initially bought, but eventually success breeds success.  The Warriors have drafted phenomenally.  Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green provided a homegrown core that underpinned some of the greatest teams in NBA history.  But then came Kevin Durant, perhaps the best player in the world, arriving in free agency to pursue a virtually guaranteed championship.  Last offseason’s addition of DeMarcus Cousins, though he ultimately contributed very little, is further evidence of the fact that players will sacrifice financial gains for a shot at glory.  The Warriors provided that shot by destroying the league’s sense of parity.  Until Kawhi Leonard ended the old world order. Twice.

First, Leonard carried the Toronto Raptors to an unlikely Finals victory over the Warriors, albeit only with the help of injuries to Durant and Thompson.  With Durant’s contract up, the Warrior’s dynasty was effectively over.  They would still be competitive, but surely no longer unbeatable.

Then, crucially, he refused to countenance the passing of the torch of perennial winners from the Bay Area to the purple and gold side of LA.  Having acquired LeBron James last offseason, the Lakers had begun this offseason by adding the NBA’s best big man Anthony Davis via a blockbuster trade with New Orleans.  Thanks to the Pelicans cooperation, the Lakers were able to engineer this trade in such a way that it delivered them enough cap space for one more max contract.  Kawhi was the perfect fit.  Leonard, Davis and James would form a trio that perhaps even surpassed Curry, Durant and Thompson for sheer star power.  The league would once again have a presumptive victor, a team that would dominate for years to come.

Instead, Kawhi chose the Clippers and fans everywhere breathed a huge sigh of relief.  Suddenly, the NBA is anyone’s game.  In the West, in addition to the two LA heavyweights and what remains of Golden State, Utah have made significant gains, Denver, Portland and Houston will remain competitive, and then there’s the rising potential of the Zion-era Pelicans.  In the East, the 76ers should have a more balanced roster sans Butler, the Bucks will once more be led by the transcendent talent of the Greek Freak, Indiana have retooled and Boston figure to still be up there.  All bets are off.

But this shouldn’t mask the simple fact that the NBA has a problem.  The salary cap and the draft exist to preserve parity, to preserve the entertainment value the league provides.  Yet ultimately, they did nothing to prevent one man from deciding the fate of the league.  Thank goodness he made the right choice.

Basketball is a unique sport in that one or two transcendent players can totally carry a team.  With Kawhi, LeBron and AD it wouldn’t have mattered what bare bones free agents the Lakers filled their roster with – those three are enough.  This is simply not the case in, for example, the NFL where teams have to carry 53 man rosters of highly specialised players.  Just look at the limited success the Green Bay Packers have had despite possessing maybe the greatest quarterback of all time in Aaron Rodgers.  Because of this it is far easier for players in the NBA to make pacts to form ‘superteams’, just as we have seen this offseason with Brooklyn’s Durant/Irving pairing, the Lakers’ James/Davis duo and the Clippers’ Leonard/George combo.  The simple fact is, players want to win.  You don’t make it to such a high level without that competitive drive.  So can we really blame them when they put that desire to win over their own financial wellbeing, let alone the state of the league as a whole?

I really think it’s time for the Commissioner to step in with regulations to prevent this sort of situation arising again.  The cap can’t solve it.  As long as players value winning as well as money, the effectiveness of the cap is inherently limited.  Instead, we need to start limiting the options of the league’s best teams.

I believe there’s a very simple rule that could be introduced to greatly enhance parity in the NBA.  Any team already in possession of two players who have made an all-star game in, say, the last three years, should be disallowed from acquiring another all-star via free agency or trade.  You drafted 3 all-stars, a la the mid-2010s Warriors?  Good for you, that’s team-building in the right way.  But adding Kevin Durant to the mix?  That’s a no-no.

This rule would have had virtually no impact whatsoever on this offseason.  But that’s because this offseason, thanks to Kawhi Leonard, we’ve been left with a league that basketball fans everywhere can get genuinely excited about.  That simply should not be in the hands of one man.  So thank you Kawhi for saving basketball.  Commissioner, it’s time to take that power off his shoulders.