Club vs. Country - Basketball Edition

Marc Cuban, the eccentric billionaire owner/superfan of the Dallas Mavericks, runs an excellent blog over at blogmaverick.com that I check every week. Whether he's talking about basketball or technology, it's great to see what one of the guys on the inside thinks, especially one as knowledgeable and straight-shooting as Mr. Cuban.

This week, it was basketball - Mr. Cuban reposted an oldie-but-a-goodie from the last Olympiad, arguing why he doesn't support NBA players playing in the Olympics. It's of note, though, that if Cuban thinks a tournament every four years is a problem, he should be glad he doesn't own a soccer team. It's known as the "club vs. country" debate in Europe, and it's in the news nearly every other week, especially when tournaments like the current Euro 2008 take place. In one corner, you've got national teams who get big money from TV deals and advertisers; and in the other corner, you've got team owners who pay the players the rest of the year and want a cut (or at least don't want to see their players get hurt). The issue is even greater in the soccer community because of more frequent tournaments and more nationalities and national leagues sharing the main stage. FIBA Americas and the World Basketball championship are only just beginning to cause the kind of problems the EPL, La Liga, Serie A and the like have long faced with EURO, the African Cup of Nations, the CONCACAF Gold Cup (not to mention the much more frequent friendlies between national teams in the soccer world).

The scheduling and cash flow become infinitely more complex because soccer is truly the world's game. Basketball is not, although the NBA is working on it. You can still describe international basketball issues (as Mr. Cuban does) as America vs. the World, or the NBA vs. the World, or in cases like this, America vs. the NBA. Even though the EPL wishes it did, nobody has the same monopoly of soccer talent that the NBA has on basketball talent. The closest thing was the G-14, a coalition of the rishest soccer clubs in Europe, and that group disbanded in February as part of an uneasy truce over national teams compensating teams for injured stars.

And as far as "And1-ing" goes, Euro 2008 is another good place to look, where a half-dozen Brazilians are playing for Poland, Turkey, and even talent-rich Spain and Portugal. If there are legitimately two countries that you identify with, I can understand the crisis, but mercenaries choosing new citizenship based on roster openings do more to cheapen the international game than a thousand endorsements ever could. The more interesting issue is coaches crossing borders. How does the equation change when your national team commitment is your full-time job? How much is representing a country and how much is just paying the bills? It can certainly be a point of pride to have a homegrown coach, but if you're paying the man, business sense and what's best for the team on the field have to factor in alongside emotions. Case in point: Russia's manager Guus Hiddink, who's passion could arguably make his fellow Dutchmen proud during the 3-1 defeat his adopted team handed the Netherlands, but I think most people in Holland are more likely to call him traitor of the year.

Or, on the other hand, you could look at Sweden's finest, Sven-Göran Eriksson, getting ready to begin his tenure as Mexico's head coach. Seriously, just look at him. It looks like there's a decent chance he didn't understand most of what was said at that press conference.

Seattle SuperSonics Trial Underway

Sonics owner Clay Bennett is due on the stand today in Day 2 of the Sonics vs. the City of Seattle. Follow along at the Seattle Times' excellent blog coverage of the trial.

For those who haven't been following the case, Bennett and a couple of other Oklahoma City businessmen partnered up to purchase the Sonics from Howard "Starbucks" Schultz. Schultz was fed up with trying to get a stadium deal done in the city (the city has financed new stadiums for the Seahawks and Mariners and even extensively renovated the Sonics' own KeyArena, all in the last 15 years). Bennett and friends claimed to be acting in good faith to get a deal done to keep the team in the city, but as more and more evidence comes out, it seems that that was never the plan.

Now the city of Seattle is suing the Sonics to force them to play out the last two years of their lease in KeyArena. Honestly, I don't think it looks good for Seattle at this point; the Sonics owners really slammed the city in their opening court brief, and I can't see two more "lame duck" years in Seattle as good for anyone - the city doesn't want to support these owners anymore, and I can't say I blame them.

While the Donaghy allegations have been the crisis stealing the most headlines from this amazing NBA Finals (really? Dick Bavetta is officiating in the Finals this year after he was a person of interest in the Donaghy investigation? Seriously?), I honestly think the situation out in Seattle should be the year's biggest embarrassment for the league. Just look at the emails that went back and forth between Bennett and Stern. Stern was

1. not very professional, typing in lowercase and scattered punctuation (though I guess that REDACTED could be a "Sent from my Blackberry" notice), and
2. completely buttered up by Bennett's smooth talking. He had the wool pulled over his eyes, and now he's trying to defend himself and his owners.

Now speaking of Blackberrys, it's worth mentioning that I was really strongly opposed to the way Gary Bettman kept the Predators in Nashville (or at least America) and out of a better situation in Hamilton (that's a post I still need to write). But the difference between that situation and this one is this: I don't think that a team with 40 years of history, a team that has won a Championship, should be forced out of town because they won't pay for the owner's new toy. That's what's happening now, and I don't think there's anything the court can do (especially when the Sonics effectively closed their brief with "If you make us stay, we'll make you wish we left,"). As J.A. Adande put it, there were a number of reasons to keep the Sonics in Seattle, and a number of other ways to work with the OKC market; but in all likelihood, there's nothing that can be done now. Now we're just waiting on the courts.

But while we wait, I'll be watching the Celtics go for Green 17 tonight. And before that, it's time for France-Italy in this amazing Euro 2008.

Just wanted to throw out there, fun fact, I wrote about this subject for my Microeconomics in Policy Decisions class. I never thought I could cite Bill Simmons in a paper for my major and get an A.

Brian McBride Back to the MLS... but where?

Brian McBride has said goodbye to Fulham who, after cutting Carlos Bocanegra last week, may have to get on with only three Americans next year. Nothing is final yet (still) but reports keep coming out that McBride wants to come back to the MLS to close out his career. In the words of his brother/agent Matthew McBride (I wish my brother and I worked that well together), "He's a Chicago guy." He wants the Fire - and the Fire want him - but what does the league want?

For a refresher, the way the MLS is set up, player contracts for every team are handled by the league and have to fit under precise salary cap and allocation rules (except when, you know, they change the rules instead). Right now, Toronto FC is at the top of the allocation list, and they would have the first crack at McBride. TFC famously had trouble finding the back of the net last year... imagine McBride running alongside fan favorite Danny Dichio at the top? Imagine how loud the 20,000 at BMO Field would be if they actually had something to cheer about? And interest of course extends beyond Chicago and Toronto - notably, McBride's former team, the league-leading Columbus Crew, have also expressed interest in a reunion.

But as Soccernet's Steve Davis writes, Chicago is the obvious best fit for McBride, and a deal needs to happen to get him there. Davis even suggests that MLS could step in and make sure he lands there (and there is a precedent for such an intervention). Time will tell where he lands, but a Chicago Fire team with Blanco and McBride would be a highlight reel waiting to happen every time they take the field from here up to the MLS Cup, even if he's aged a little bit from his depiction as a 10 year old in Backyard Soccer: MLS Edition.