How Bernie Sanders Would Fix the NBA

It’s time for the NBA to Feel the Bern.

I think most people know who Bernie Sanders is, the democratic socialist who ran for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination. Lost to Hillary Clinton, though most of his supporters would say the election was “rigged.”

Anyway, to sum up his policies in a sentence: The system is rigged against the middle class and the rich should pay their fair share. Of all the professional sports, the NBA could use a healthy dose of socialism.

For the third-straight year, we have the same two teams in the NBA Finals — the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Golden State Warriors. By most people’s metrics, the two combine to roster seven of the Top 20 NBA players, with five of the Top 10. That’s pretty much insane.

Going back 36 years, only 11 teams have won the NBA championship and four of those teams — the 76ers, Mavericks, Warriors and Cavaliers — are one-time champions. That means 32 of the last 36 championships were won by just seven teams. (Though obviously either Golden State or Cleveland will add a second in the coming weeks.)

To quote Senator Sanders: “All of the wealth in this (league) is going towards the top 1 percent!”

It certainly seems like there are two classes in the NBA: The one or two teams that have a shot at prosperity and everyone else who simply acts as a punching bag for TV ratings. It’s time for a change that Senator Sanders would be proud of.

I give to you the Bernie Sanders platform for NBA commissioner.

“Break up the Big Banks”

In this case, the “Big Banks” are NBA super teams. Watching the Warriors and the Cavs stockpile superstars and go toe-to-toe is fun for about two and a half weeks in June, but it makes for a pretty lame seven-plus month road to get there.

There are 30 NBA teams and not enough true superstars to go around. Sure, there’s a lot of fools gold out there — two of them are up for MVP — but I’m talking about the legitimate superstars. The all-time greats. Liberally speaking, there are probably only 10, maybe 15 tops. And as I said before, most of them are concentrated onto two teams in any given season.

It’s time to eliminate super teams once and for all.

Every year each team can keep one player — just one — and pay that player a maximum salary. It can be anyone who finished the season on the active roster, but that’s the only guy who gets the top shelf dollar. Everyone else goes into the NBA Superdraft, a 10-round draft where everyone in the NBA is eligible (except rookies, more on them in a minute). If a team elects to keep one player from the year before, that player becomes that team’s first-round pick.

Teams that do not keep a player can draft anyone they want from the remaining pool and pay that player a maximum salary. The draft order is determined by playoff finish and then by record. The NBA champion gets first pick, followed by the runner up, best record among the conference runner ups and so on.

How fun would it be to watch entire league turn their rosters every year with only one holdover from the year before? This breaks up the concentration of talent and spreads out the legitimate No. 1s as much as possible.

“Our Economy is Rigged”

It’s time to level the playing field of the NBA’s rookie draft. Once the Superdraft is complete, the draft lottery is held. Only this time all 30 teams have an equal chance of winning the No. 1 overall selection. And instead of just the top three picks determined by ping-pong balls, the Top 10 would be determined by lottery with the remaining 20 teams slotted by inverse order of record.

Here’s the catch — rookies are not subject to the NBA Superdraft until they complete a five-year contract. Each team can house no more than five players on rookie contracts, once a rookie is waived, that rookie becomes NBA Superdraft eligible. (However rookies can be traded without losing rookie eligibility.)

So while the NBA Superdraft seeks to even the scales, teams that identify and develop rookies have an advantage because they get to keep that talent in their system.

“Re-Think Education”

The NBA needs to change the way it develops its raw talent. Sometimes kids come out too early and face the cold-hard reality of the NBA. Those players have few options as far as development goes. So to solve that problem, the NBA needs a fully subsidized Developmental League.

It’s getting close, but not quite there yet, not all teams have an exclusive affiliate. The NBA needs to mandate that all 30 teams establish a D-League subsidiary. This league would be available to players who are under the age of 20 drafted out of high school. Anyone who meets those qualifications would be allowed to develop in the D-League without counting against the parent team’s roster, but whose rights are still retained by the parent team.

Right now, the only D-Leaguers who are under contract by the parent team must count against the parent team’s active roster. Anyone else is essentially a free agent. Under this system, teams could stash kids in the D-League without worrying about losing their rights and, more importantly, without it counting against the NBA team’s roster.

If this system were in place, the NBA could adapt college baseball’s draft eligibility rules, which are pretty simple: Kids can enter the MLB Draft out of high school, and if they sign they join the farm system, but if they elect to attend college they cannot re-enter until after their junior season.

This provides a balance, the kids who are good enough to make it in the NBA can forgo college and chase their dreams, but those that don’t feel they’re ready to sign can return and develop in college for three seasons.

While there were plenty of high school busts prior to the NBA’s age rule, notable successes include — Kobe Bryant, Kevin Garnett, LeBron James and Dwight Howard. I’m also fairly confident that Derrick Rose, Andrew Wiggins, Karl Anthony-Towns, Anthony Davis, John Wall and Demarcus Cousins would still have had success in the NBA without that one-year of college ball.

And since this new world places such a premium on finding and developing rookies, teams that run successful D-League programs will reap major benefits.

“Fix Our Failing Infrastructure”

The regular season has become an absolute joke with more teams either taking for the draft or resting for the playoffs. The above changes should fix tanking, but if teams keep resting stars for significant chunks of the season fans will wise up and stop buying tickets when they can’t for certain know if the biggest stars will play.

The only way to fix this is to trim the fat, shorten the season to 58 games where everyone plays everyone twice, once home and once away. Stack opposite coast road trips to limit long flights as much as possible and eliminate back-to-backs completely.

While it may be a popular idea, owners won’t like losing gate revenue and television won’t like losing out on content. More contenders are adopting the Spurs “rest for the playoffs strategy,” and on the other end the bad teams tank for better lottery odds. Eventually fans will push back.

“Raise the Minimum Wage”

Psyche. These guys get paid enough as it is.

But why not eliminate the maximum salary? I mentioned before that teams get to pay their first NBA Superdraft pick a maximum salary. What if that salary was…anything? That one player, the supposed superstar of the team, can be paid however much the team sees fit so long as it is at least above a certain threshold (no loopholes in drafting a scrub to save cash).

It would be fun to see what an elite talent like LeBron James would make if he could command whatever paycheck he wants. It would certainly add drama to the offseason.

And it would make billionaire owners open their checkbooks a little bit more, which is something I’m sure Senator Sanders would enjoy.