The Toronto Raptors are Proof NBA Teams Don't Need to Sell Their Souls for a Title

NBA Franchises seem to take one of two directions these days. One way is to completely tear down the roster and rebuild through the draft and young players. The other--find and sign highly paid "Marquee" superstar type players and put as many of them on your team as you can afford.

We now have a third way folks and it arguably is the most fan friendly and realistically the best way to build a team. Get good and add the right pieces while combining with the right coach and right culture to win.

The blueprint has now been etched by the new NBA Champion Toronto Raptors who downed the injury ravaged former champs--the Golden State Warriors 4 games to 2 in their NBA Finals Battle.

The Raptors win is a victory for everyone not in a "Major TV Market" and not named LeBron James or Anthony Davis or James Harden. It's a win for what basketball SHOULD be....an artistically played TEAM game.

Yeah, sure, you can easily argue Kawhi Leonard is one of the three best players active in the game. And I would agree with you. But as much as the talking heads would like you to believe Leonard won the series by himself or a "Superstar" is needed to get you over the finish line, that fallacy isn't totally true.

Leonard was amazing in the playoffs, rightfully the MVP of the Finals but the Raptors would not have won without the huge contributions from Kyle Lowry, Pascal Sikam, Fred VanVleet, Serge Ibaka and more. None of those guys are household names---all of them are really, really good basketball players.

But KD watched from a New York Hospital room as his teammates went down swinging.

Listen.....I love me some basketball. It's the game I chose to play as a kid, giving up baseball and football to concentrate on the game. I get what teams are trying to do and can diagnose plays as they happen very effectively.

And I'm no youngin' either. Which is why I want teams like Toronto to win titles. Which is why I don't want teams tanking for draft picks. It's an embarrassment to the sport and an insult to the fans who are supposed to be ridiculously high prices for tickets to see a bad team.

I also hate seeing teams load up with superstars. What LeBron James, his agent Rich Paul and Anthony Davis are trying to engineer is appalling and should be stopped. It makes me laugh that nobody outside these three have any interest in the Los Angeles Lakers.

I don't want the New York's and L.A's to be "The teams" in the NBA. If they win on occasion, fine. But as much as people slam the NFL for alleged "Parity", it makes the game more fun when everyone has a chance to win.

Let teams draft and maneuver to get the best players to fit their systems and win games. Let them develop talent and become competitive no matter the "TV Market" size. When everyone has a chance to win, we all win. It sucks the life out of a Professional Sports League to know like in Baseball that 15 of the teams have a 0% chance of winning a title. Same in the NBA.

Give everyone a shot, stop encouraging superstars to team up and take short term pay cuts and emphasize balance.

You might be surprised with the results.....