This is not simply about bigger markets vs. smaller markets, and this is not simply business as usual.
What we are seeing as the final stages in development of free agency. Yes, free agency has been around for a few decades, and yes there are still rules in place that make it more complicated, but free agency has never been utilized by the players to its full potential.
Look at it this way. Take the entire decade of the 90s, and look at how many stars in their prime left their teams due to free agency. Shaq? Juwan Howard tried, but that didn't work out. Allan Houston? Free agency used to not happen, simply because things would've been worked out otherwise before it came down to that. Barkley wanted to leave Philly, and he had two years left on his contract. He asked for a trade, and it happened. Kareem asked for a trade in the late 70s, as did many other great players. They weren't happy, they wanted to play elsewhere, so they asked for a trade.
What made last summer different is that LeBron and Bosh had planned to bolt for a couple of years, but they never told anyone. As a matter of fact, they gave reassuring statements to the contrary. This is why their exits were so devastating to the two teams. If Cleveland had traded LeBron two years ago, I assure you they wouldn't have lost 26 straight this year. By this point, they might have managed to put a decent team together.
My fear, and the fear of many people connected with basketball, is that the players will try to collude with one another, completely bypassing regular way the league works. Oh sure, if you're an agsty 15-year old working at McDonald's, you might be aroused by the idea of your favourite basketball players sticking it to the Man like that, but it's bad for the future of the league. How can teams do business with this kind of duplicity around? What the hell are we supposed to do with Deron right now? He hasn't signed an extension, but he hasn't said he wants to leave. Basically, he's asking everyone to trust him. If he stays, perhaps it will have been worth it. If he bolts, though, won't we all regret not trading him right now? But how can you know though, when he's not being up front about it?
If more players pull this sort of stuff, or even demand trades simply because they figure that at 26, someone owes them a championship, it's bad news for most of the league. Of course, people will say that in the 80s, a few teams dominated the league. Between 1980 and 1989 only 5 teams even made it to the finals, and the Lakers and the Celtics were far ahead of the other 3, as well. 2 teams basically owned that whole decade. Sure that's bad, but paradoxically, it's not as bad as 4-5 teams dominating an entire decade.
For all the dominance of those two teams in the 80s, there was no possible way for them to accumulate all the league's stars. Smaller markets and less-succesful teams were able to keep their stars. We had Dantley, and we had Stock and Malone later in the decade. Nuggets fans had Alex English and Fat Lever(both terribly underrated). You had Gervin, Bernard King, Sidney Moncrief, Clyde, Dominique, Tom Chambers, etc. You had All-NBA first and second team players playing on teams that did not play in the finals, on teams located in small markets, on losing teams...
We are looking at the possibility of a league right now were the 15 players on All-NBA teams are all playing for 4-5 teams. That's scary. That's scary for the other 25 teams and the other 25 owners. I don't care how many jerseys LeBron and Wade sell or how many people tune into Heat games on ESPN, the majority of the NBA team's budget does not come for TV rights and revenue sharing. It comes from selling 19,000 tickets to every home game, not just the ones when Superfriends come to town. And in all honesty, if the Jazz had the team we had in 03/04 for a decade, how many people would still come to games?
