Good Job NBA ..what a masterpiece final..

[Ogaju]

Honorable mention to coward Kevin Durant. MVP that joined a 73 win team, and kept them dominant by subverting the salary cap.

Good Job NBA. I hope you have to give back money to your TV partners for selling them a worthless product. You either enforce your salary cap or scrap it. I hope LeBron signs with Golden State for a dollar a year to show you your salary cap is a joke.

[knuckleballer]

I don't know what the NBA could have done to prevent that.  I blame Durant.  That was such an uncompetitive, cowardly move.  He just won his second championship.  Who cares.

[Phantom255x]

Yeah that was pathetic.

Game 1 was super close I agree, but the others were just super boring. Golden State dictated the terms on all those games... never felt like CLE could win any of them even when it was close or they had a small lead (Games 2-4).

[Ogaju]

I don't know what the NBA could have done to prevent that.  I blame Durant.  That was such an uncompetitive, cowardly move.  He just won his second championship.  Who cares.

Exactly ..it rings hollow..the NBA could institute a rule where the free agent new team must take a cap hit in the amount of the highest bid the free agency got during free agency. That way Durant gets to go to GSW but they do not get to keep Iggy and Livingstone without going way over the cap. Problem fixed. Durant going to GSW wasn’t the real problem, the compounding problem was his taking less money to game the system.

[Tr1boy]

NBA messed up. They should have had their "fixers" ref officiate game 7 and give the game to the Celts

this finals was an embarrassment of embarrassments

Whats his name was right. The real finals was Rockets vs GSW

[Rakulp]

Does anybody doubt that the Celtics, our rag tag group missing two superstars and relying on kids young enough to barely buy beer, would have given Golden State a better series?

But...wait until next year!  I'm looking at you Steph...Kevin...paraphrasing Arnold...

WE'LL BE BACK!

[Snakehead]

Honorable mention to coward Kevin Durant. MVP that joined a 73 win team, and kept them dominant by subverting the salary cap.

Good Job NBA. I hope you have to give back money to your TV partners for selling them a worthless product. You either enforce your salary cap or scrap it. I hope LeBron signs with Golden State for a dollar a year to show you your salary cap is a joke.

I agree with you.  Saw this coming all year but seeing it actually play out again is pathetic.

The Durant decision was beyond weak and it's made for a real boring league for a couple years come end of the year.

[Snakehead]

I don't know what the NBA could have done to prevent that.  I blame Durant.  That was such an uncompetitive, cowardly move.  He just won his second championship.  Who cares.

The NBA pulled out Basketball Reasons to veto the Chris Paul to Lakers trade and this was way worse for the league.  Just do it.  Everyone with any common sense knew how much of a dogpile it was to go to the Warriors.

[knuckleballer]

I don't know what the NBA could have done to prevent that.  I blame Durant.  That was such an uncompetitive, cowardly move.  He just won his second championship.  Who cares.

The NBA pulled out Basketball Reasons to veto the Chris Paul to Lakers trade and this was way worse for the league.  Just do it.

The NBA owned the Pelicans at the time.  Vetoing that would have been an ugly precedent.

[droopdog7]

I don't know what the NBA could have done to prevent that.  I blame Durant.  That was such an uncompetitive, cowardly move.  He just won his second championship.  Who cares.

The NBA pulled out Basketball Reasons to veto the Chris Paul to Lakers trade and this was way worse for the league.  Just do it.  Everyone with any common sense knew how much of a dogpile it was to go to the Warriors.

The NBA vetoed the trade as owners of the pelicans.  And the reasons on record are legit.  They didn’t want to saddle new ownership with veterans (who were not going to win anything) and salary.  Made much more sense to go for youth and picks.

[KGs Knee]

I don't know what the NBA could have done to prevent that.  I blame Durant.  That was such an uncompetitive, cowardly move.  He just won his second championship.  Who cares.

The NBA pulled out Basketball Reasons to veto the Chris Paul to Lakers trade and this was way worse for the league.  Just do it.  Everyone with any common sense knew how much of a dogpile it was to go to the Warriors.

The NBA vetoed the trade as owners of the pelicans.  And the reasons on record are legit.  They didn’t want to saddle new ownership with veterans (who were not going to win anything) and salary.  Made much more sense to go for youth and picks.

Technically that failed CP3 to Lakers trade wasn't even vetoed.  It was just never submitted to the league office.

But yes, it wasn't squashed because it was what was best for the league, it was squashed David Stern, as acting 'owner' of the Pelicans (Hornets at the time), felt it was a bad trade for the team.

[CelticsElite]

I don't know what the NBA could have done to prevent that.  I blame Durant.  That was such an uncompetitive, cowardly move.  He just won his second championship.  Who cares.

The NBA pulled out Basketball Reasons to veto the Chris Paul to Lakers trade and this was way worse for the league.  Just do it.  Everyone with any common sense knew how much of a dogpile it was to go to the Warriors.

The NBA vetoed the trade as owners of the pelicans.  And the reasons on record are legit.  They didn’t want to saddle new ownership with veterans (who were not going to win anything) and salary.  Made much more sense to go for youth and picks.

Technically that failed CP3 to Lakers trade wasn't even vetoed.  It was just never submitted to the league office.

But yes, it wasn't squashed because it was what was best for the league, it was squashed David Stern, as acting 'owner' of the Pelicans (Hornets at the time), felt it was a bad trade for the team.

actually it was squashed because it was bad for the league .... So that trade shows that Adam silver doesn't have a spine like stern did. Also he did veto it

Stern did what was best for other owners, see below bolded:
https://mobile.nytimes.com/2011/12/09/sports/basketball/paul-set-to-join-lakers-as-part-of-3-team-deal.html
Stern called the Hornets and vetoed the deal, according to a person involved in the deal.

“The league has killed it,” said the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid jeopardizing his role in the talks. “I know that’s 100 percent true.”

Asked who had made the decision, the person said, “It definitely was David.”

The league did not immediately explain the decision, other than to issue a terse statement through a spokesman, saying, “League office declined to make the trade for basketball reasons.”

Stern was said to be acting on behalf of some of the other owners, who were upset to see the Hornets send Paul — a premier point guard — to the Lakers, who have won five championships since 2000. Competitive reasons aside, some team executives speculated that the league was concerned that the Hornets’ resale value would plummet without Paul on the roster.

[KGs Knee]

I don't know what the NBA could have done to prevent that.  I blame Durant.  That was such an uncompetitive, cowardly move.  He just won his second championship.  Who cares.

The NBA pulled out Basketball Reasons to veto the Chris Paul to Lakers trade and this was way worse for the league.  Just do it.  Everyone with any common sense knew how much of a dogpile it was to go to the Warriors.

The NBA vetoed the trade as owners of the pelicans.  And the reasons on record are legit.  They didn’t want to saddle new ownership with veterans (who were not going to win anything) and salary.  Made much more sense to go for youth and picks.

Technically that failed CP3 to Lakers trade wasn't even vetoed.  It was just never submitted to the league office.

But yes, it wasn't squashed because it was what was best for the league, it was squashed David Stern, as acting 'owner' of the Pelicans (Hornets at the time), felt it was a bad trade for the team.

actually it was squashed because it was bad for the league .... So that trade shows that Adam silver doesn't have a spine like stern did. Also he did veto it

Stern did what was best for other owners, see below bolded:
https://mobile.nytimes.com/2011/12/09/sports/basketball/paul-set-to-join-lakers-as-part-of-3-team-deal.html
Stern called the Hornets and vetoed the deal, according to a person involved in the deal.

“The league has killed it,” said the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid jeopardizing his role in the talks. “I know that’s 100 percent true.”

Asked who had made the decision, the person said, “It definitely was David.”

The league did not immediately explain the decision, other than to issue a terse statement through a spokesman, saying, “League office declined to make the trade for basketball reasons.”

Stern was said to be acting on behalf of some of the other owners, who were upset to see the Hornets send Paul — a premier point guard — to the Lakers, who have won five championships since 2000. Competitive reasons aside, some team executives speculated that the league was concerned that the Hornets’ resale value would plummet without Paul on the roster.

This is all just wild speculation, rumor, and conspiracy theory nonsense.

The bottom line is the league owned the team, thus had the authority to make all final decisions regarding transactions.  It was a move that was made for the simple reason it was a bad trade for the franchise.  It was a unique situation that has really never existed before or since.  There is no precedent that has been set regarding trades or transactions that do not involve teams owned by the league.

In other words, had the league not owned the New Orleans franchise the trade would not have been "vetoed" because there would have existed no such authority to.  There were no rules broken, by letter of the CBA nor NBA bylaws, nor in spirit.

[SparzWizard]

The Celtics would have at least put on a show in the Finals.

Instead we got this crap, a Part IV featuring JR Smith being an idiot and the rest of the Cavs being garbage.

Glad that's the end of it and the end of the Cavs' relevancy for years to come.

[CelticsElite]

I don't know what the NBA could have done to prevent that.  I blame Durant.  That was such an uncompetitive, cowardly move.  He just won his second championship.  Who cares.

The NBA pulled out Basketball Reasons to veto the Chris Paul to Lakers trade and this was way worse for the league.  Just do it.  Everyone with any common sense knew how much of a dogpile it was to go to the Warriors.

The NBA vetoed the trade as owners of the pelicans.  And the reasons on record are legit.  They didn’t want to saddle new ownership with veterans (who were not going to win anything) and salary.  Made much more sense to go for youth and picks.

Technically that failed CP3 to Lakers trade wasn't even vetoed.  It was just never submitted to the league office.

But yes, it wasn't squashed because it was what was best for the league, it was squashed David Stern, as acting 'owner' of the Pelicans (Hornets at the time), felt it was a bad trade for the team.

actually it was squashed because it was bad for the league .... So that trade shows that Adam silver doesn't have a spine like stern did. Also he did veto it

Stern did what was best for other owners, see below bolded:
https://mobile.nytimes.com/2011/12/09/sports/basketball/paul-set-to-join-lakers-as-part-of-3-team-deal.html
Stern called the Hornets and vetoed the deal, according to a person involved in the deal.

“The league has killed it,” said the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid jeopardizing his role in the talks. “I know that’s 100 percent true.”

Asked who had made the decision, the person said, “It definitely was David.”

The league did not immediately explain the decision, other than to issue a terse statement through a spokesman, saying, “League office declined to make the trade for basketball reasons.”

Stern was said to be acting on behalf of some of the other owners, who were upset to see the Hornets send Paul — a premier point guard — to the Lakers, who have won five championships since 2000. Competitive reasons aside, some team executives speculated that the league was concerned that the Hornets’ resale value would plummet without Paul on the roster.

This is all just wild speculation, rumor, and conspiracy theory nonsense.

The bottom line is the league owned the team, thus had the authority to make all final decisions regarding transactions.  It was a move that was made for the simple reason it was a bad trade for the franchise.  It was a unique situation that has really never existed before or since.  There is no precedent that has been set regarding trades or transactions that do not involve teams owned by the league.

In other words, had the league not owned the New Orleans franchise the trade would not have been "vetoed" because there would have existed no such authority to.  There were no rules broken, by letter of the CBA nor NBA bylaws, nor in spirit.

im doubting the new york times used a conspiracy theorist for their source