Stars pick partnership over parity

The modern NBA superstar is now the most powerful genre of athlete in American professional team sports history. Those elite players have it all: the riches, the platform, the influence, the savvy about the league’s business and the audacity to use everything for their own good, no matter the consequences.

The latter two things — the know-how and the nerve — frighten and intrigue at once. It’s an uneasy feeling because it’s unfamiliar. You’re used to athletes competing, getting their money, enjoying their fame, trying to win their championships and leaving everything else to function mostly without their input. Historically, the lanes have been defined, and the roles have been honored. As long as the collective bargaining agreement guaranteed them fair compensation, the players played, the owners owned and the general managers managed.

But now, 29 years since Tom Chambers pioneered NBA unrestricted free agency, the NBA superstar has figured out how to run the show. The league sways on the whims of its greatest players, who currently believe in partnership over parity.

It’s easy to declare the NBA has a parity problem. The symptom causes everyone to point and stare. But it’s important to understand the condition that created it first. Marquee players understand their power now. Since the summer of 2010, when the greatest free agent class in league history featured with LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh joining forces in Miami, the biggest stars have learned to leverage their talent and popularity to shift control of how organizations are built in their favor. Yes, organizations still win championships, but not without superstars serving as unofficial members of the front office.

You want parity? Well, the first question has to be: What do the stars want? Right now, stars want to combine their powers. It has been 25 years since the Dream Team graced the Olympics, and the fact that the NBA’s best regularly play together on Team USA has thawed the competitive ice that once made the league so interesting. It’s a different era. This generation has its own mentality. Stars understand each other bet-

ter because they’re not always adversaries. But the pressure to win multiple championships — if you really want to be considered an all-time great — remains. So they’ve figured out a team-building cheat code, and they’re doing business their way.

You want parity? Well, here’s the second question: How do you structure the league so that stars have incentive not to make like Kevin Durant and create a super team? Remember, this is a collectively bargained sport that is in good overall condition and making serious money currently. Dramatic change doesn’t happen when everyone’s pockets are bulging. So if you want to tweak the system, it’s not going to happen until 2024, when the new CBA is set to expire.

But it’s never a bad time to float ideas for long-term consideration. For all the solutions I’ve heard, including instituting a hard salary cap, the most realistic remedy for parity is actually a continuation of what the league is already doing.

In the new CBA, under which the league will operate starting this season, the NBA has continued its efforts to help teams retain their stars.