Dallas, Indiana, & San Antonio: Putting the Team Back in Super-Team

 

These are the guys currently beating up on Lebron James and Blake Griffin. Seriously.

It was supposed to be a foregone conclusion. When Lebron James took his talents to south beach in July of 2010, it was supposed to usher in the era of the super team. According to the script, James teaming up with Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh in Miami was supposed to start an arms race among a handful of NBA teams to put together the best 3-man team possible.  The Knicks were frantically doing whatever they could to bring in Carmelo Anthony and Chris Paul to team up with Amare Stoudemire.  The Lakers were trying to see if they could upgrade Kobe Bryant’s sidekicks from Pau Gasol & Andrew Bynum to Dwight Howard & Chris Paul. The Bulls were rumored to be after every star player known to man to pair with Derek Rose.  The New Jersey Nets were furiously trying to come as close to a big 3 as they could for their move to Brooklyn.  The big market teams were supposed to get richer and the rest of the league was supposed to serve as a sort of minor league, developing the next generation of stars for the big markets to pluck in free agency or when the player inevitably demanded a trade to a “contender”.  “Competitive Balance” was to be thrown out the window.

Now, ask fans of these super teams how things are working out for them?

Junior Seau and the Head Trauma Tipping Point

On April 19 of this year, former Atlanta Falcons safety Ray Easterling committed suicide by gunshot. Easterling had suffered from dementia for years and had a host of physical problems. He was vocal about the danger of concussions and was one of the main plaintiff’s of one of the many current lawsuits pending against the NFL for covering up knowledge of the potential damage of repeated head trauma.  Easterling was 62 years old.

*****

There had been no details released except for the bare, tragic, minimum:

Former San Diego Charger’s Linebacker Junior Seau had committed suicide.