The NBA’s Problematic Lack of Parity

The contenders reloaded this summer, leaving everyone else in the dust (basketball-wise, and financially): “Stratification of the classes has long been a problem in Major League Baseball, but it’s a relatively new concern for the N.B.A., whose entire system is set up to promote parity … Team executives said they could not recall a summer quite like this, as every elite team added elite talent. ‘I don’t think it’s good,’ an Eastern Conference executive said. ‘The league has to look at it, because there’s not parity.’ The executive asked for anonymity because the N.B.A. and its players were engaged in labor negotiations. Teams are subject to heavy fines for speaking publicly on anything that affects the process.”