Where Has Parity Gone In Sports??

As the NBA opens the book on the 2009-2010 season one thing is certain: the great teams are going to absolutely dominant while the bad teams might have historic loss totals. This trend extends beyond the NBA and into the NFL and MLB as well.

The Lakers are the team to beat for now. They have the potential for a 60-win team with stars like Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol, Andrew Bynum, and Ron Artest.

The San Antonio Spurs have reloaded with the additions of Richard Jefferson and Antonio McDyess to go along with the big three.

Superstar Carmello Anthony and his Denver Nuggets will be a contender after last year’s Conference Finals appearance.

Maybe Chris Paul pulls a miracle with the New Orleans Hornets or this is the year Greg Oden and the Blazers put it all together.

The Eastern conference will be decided by the Celtics, Cavs, and Magic. All three will get 50-60 wins.

Shaq, Vince Carter, and Rasheed Wallace will all be counted on to play second or third fiddle (or fifth in Wallace’s case) to young guns and veteran all-stars. All three teams are head and shoulders above the rest of the conference.

The rest of the NBA seems to have a worse shot than Darko from deep.

The Memphis Grizzles, Minnesota Timberwolves, Golden State Warriors, Sacramento Kings, Charlotte Bobcats, Milwaukee Bucks, Indiana Pacers, New York Knicks, New Jersey Nets, and Oklahoma City Thunder all enter the new season with virtually no shot of winning anything more than a high draft pick (bad news Knicks fans considering you don’t have one).

Ok, maybe one of the above teams surprise and sneak into the play-offs. The reward will be a juggernaut one seed that wipes 82 games out of your memory in the span of one week. If you are counting at home, 10 teams go into the season with slim to none chances, a third of the entire league!

The same can be said about the NFL. The bottom feeders are historically bad. The Cleveland Browns, Kansas City Chiefs, Oakland Raiders, St. Louis Rams, Tennessee Titans, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Washington Redskins, Detroit Lions, and Carolina Panthers all stink. They stink like a soggy sock after you step in a puddle.

That’s nine of 30 teams that are incredibly awful. Vegas is currently in shambles because they can’t set a line high enough on these terrible teams. I used to be afraid of any line that was higher than two touchdowns. Now it is a lock every freaking week. And the good teams are covering with ease! Week 7 was considered by many Vegas experts as the worst in terms of lost money EVER.

Baseball is usually about the have’s and have not’s. Oh, the Yankees are in the World Series? Big surprise. With the exception of the Tampa Bay Rays last year, the MLB is as predictable as a FOX news anchor’s reaction to Obama’s new plan on marijuana. The list of small market teams with little to no chance is staggering.

So what happened? Why did we arrive at this point? Well like most other occurrences in 2009, blame the economy.

The sports landscape has shaded the country and its financial state. Teams like the Yankees, Lakers, and Patriots have enough money to weather the storm. They can still take risks without worrying about losing all their assets and fan support.

C.C. Sabathia, Mark Teixeira, and A.J Burnett for more than some entire team’s pay-rolls? Sure we have our own T.V. station.

But most teams don’t have this luxury. The Cincinnati Reds need a shortstop, left fielder, and a catcher. The GM Walt Jocketty was told that they might be cutting payroll for next season. They will be the guy at Wal-Mart sticking his head half way down the bargain bin looking for that hidden steal of a washed up cheap veteran.

The Yankees will buy that Ed Hardy $100 T-shirt because they saw a commercial that made the shirt look stylish.

Over half of professional sports teams can’t take any risks. They have to think conservative because a couple of wrong moves mean your team could land in L.A., Las Vegas, Canada or even England.

The Memphis Grizzles cut their entire scouting department this summer in order to save a few bucks. The Cleveland Indians within the past year and a half had both pitchers set to start Game One of the World Series (Sabathia and Cliff Lee). But due to financial constraints and free agency, they had to sell them for 60 cents on the dollar.

NFL teams are dealing with potential blackouts that prohibit the hometown fans from even viewing the product. The 5-2 Cincinnati Bengals need Chad OchoCinco and a grocery store to bail them out and buy a few thousand tickets at the 11^th hour for two separate home games. Not even winning is always the cure.

This years NBA season will be extremely predictable. The cream of the crop will dominate all season, and a team like the Kings will struggle to reach 10 wins in front of half empty arenas.

The NFL is facing a scenario where a few teams could end up either win-less or with a one in the victory column. This is coming after the Lions already had to suffer the all-time embarrassment of having to endure a win-less campaign last year.

MLB is featuring the defending champs versus the all-time franchise. Teams like the Kansas City Royals, San Diego Padres, Cincinnati Reds, Pittsburgh Pirates, Washington Nationals, Toronto Blue Jays, Baltimore Orioles, Florida Marlins, and Cleveland Indians enter each year knowing everything has to go right for them to have a chance at the postseason.

Something isn’t right. Let’s hope this is nothing but a phase, much like the economic downturn.

In 2009, the rich get richer and the poor go broke. The middle class has vanished. Fan emotions run off the feeling of hope with a “ya never know” mentality. It has become next to impossible to have any.

Without hope in sports—fans get apathetic—they mock the team that they have invested so much time and money into.

The Redskins were once a proud and historic franchise. Now they have billboards pleading the owner to step down. They aren't even allowed to bring signs to games anymore. This can be compared to the filthy rich CEO that blows his money on unnecessary material things that ultimately makes him look like a selfish jerk.

Here’s to hoping that the term “apathetic” doesn’t become a household word in the sports world. Until then, enjoy the Nets and T’Wolves barn-burner Wednesday night, or the Rams vs. Lions Sunday showdown.