The New Era of the NBA

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In this year's NBA Finals when the Miami Heat faced the Oklahoma City Thunder fans across the world were hammered to death with comparisons of the team's core trios. Miami's Big 3, Dwayne Wade, Lebron  James, and Chris Bosh, were formed when James and Bosh chose to join Wade in South Beach to form a tandem similar to what they saw bring success in Boston a few years earlier. Oklahoma City's Big 3 is every bit as potent, but was formed under different circumstances, the Thunder built their team from the ground up, picking the top talent from the NBA draft lottery. Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, and James Harden have grown tremendously in a very short amount of time, add that with the fact they're all under the age of 24  the Thunder have positioned themselves to be favorites in the Western Conference for many years to come. With the Heat and Thunder poised to contend for the NBA crown for the next few years it's no surprise teams are now starting to form Big 3's of their own. 


Have we truly entered the "superteam" era of the NBA? For those who dread the thought the Heat and Thunder have made the idea tangible. Dwight Howard has shown serious interest in joining the Brooklyn Nets to form a Big 3 with Derron Williams and Joe Johnson, Steve Nash recently signed with the LA Lakers  joining Kobe Bryant and Andrew Bynum, and there are rumors that Kevin Love is unhappy in Minnesota. Could he make another team a Big 3? At this rate it won't be long until too much of the league's elite talent will be mustered into only a few teams. It's easy to assume that will be the case, that teams will have to take on an "adapt or die" attitude in order to stay alive in the race for a championship, and that could be a problem. 

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Big 3's/Superteams are no new trend in the NBA, teams have had stacked talent for decades. The Celtics in the 60's/80's, to the "Showtime" Lakers of the 80's, the Bulls in the 90's, and the Lakers of the early 2000's were all teams that featured multiple all stars and therefore dominated the NBA in their respective time periods. Though teams have stacked talent for years, it is only recently players are planning their formations and taking less money to make these collaborations possible. In the new age of AAU and camps elite players are becoming friends early and staying close throughout their high school and college careers, this is a major factor because many free agents now base their decisions off of relationships with other players. In addition, many of these elite talents become free agents at the same time making it easier to join forces with one another. Because of Big 3 formations NBA free agents are now adjusting their mindset when they hit the open market. Many veterans are now willing to take less money in order to join these teams in hopes of winning a championship toward the end of their careers (ex. Shane Battier, Derek Fisher, and now Ray Allen).

Small markets teams are in an uproar because of the changing tide of the league. They fear that this new era in the league will eliminate their competitiveness, something the new CBA was supposed to protect. Their voices are starting to be heard too, in 2011 Dan Gilbert, the owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers, was able to persuade NBA commissioner David Stern to veto a trade that would have sent all-star guard Chris Paul to the LA Lakers (Paul was later traded to the Clippers). Though that was a small victory for small market owners across the league there seems to be no stop or end in sight to this new trend of professional basketball, and trend they may have always been inevitable.