So just a few weeks after the NFL lockout was ended, the Arizona Cardinals have paid Larry Fitzgerald and insane deal of 8 year, 120 million dollar contract. I really hope that the other owners heard about this and realized that they are their own worst enemy. And I hope that NBA owners, who seem hell bent on canceling the season, also take a lesson from this. The bottom line is that the main reason that contracts get out of hand in sports is because owners offer this kind of money.

The NBA has it better than the NFL as they have max contracts but, like their pigskin cohorts, they can't seem to figure out how not to give max deals to undeserving players. They also don't seem to understand that, unless you're talking about an elite player, it's better to spread money out amongst a number of guys rather than mortgage your whole future on one single athlete. The Arizona Cardinals are not a good football team and have a question mark at QB but they just gave a wide receiver ridiculous money. Larry Fitz could break every record known to man but it still isn't going to help the Cardinals overcome their weaknesses and actually win games.

The Denver Nuggets showed what teams should do when their superstar wants to break the bank. You trade him and get a ton of young prospects who are more easily re-signed, are easier to root for, and make your team just as good as it was before. Also, there needs to be a way so players are stuck on terrible organizations. Larry Fitz took the money and stayed but I can't be mad at someone at LeBron who looks at this franchise and the flexibility it has (or doesn't have) and decides to go elsewhere. The Cavs had 8 years to build around LeBron and kept giving him also-rans as teammates (like Antawn Jamison, Mo Williams, Larry Hughes, etc. )
On a related note, it's absolutely stunning to see how LeBron has been overtaken by Kevin Durant, in terms of promotion. The Nike store in NY almost has no pictures of LeBron up, sports stores have seemed to swap out their LBJ photos for Durant as well. It would be interesting to know if this was a concerted effort by Nike to dial down LeBron's exposure or if they really just wanted to pump up Durant's brand.

Anyway, I just hope that the NBA looks at the Larry Fitzgerald deal and remembers that the main reason that most of their teams are in such dire straits is a) their own inability to manage their funds and b) the NBA's need to overexpand. Profit sharing isn't as fruitful when you have four teams too many eating away at the pie.