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[Katz] Josh Hart was asked if he ever thought when he was playing in small markets that the NBA was trying to “hold us down.” “That’s so stupid, bro, he said. “We say that the big market always wins? The Knicks ain’t won the chip in 51 years…



[Katz] Josh Hart was asked if he ever thought when he was playing in small markets that the NBA was trying to “hold us down.” “That’s so stupid, bro, he said. “We say that the big market always wins? The Knicks ain’t won the chip in 51 years…

by urasha

29 Comments

  1. TerribleChef47

    I just want us to get 1 before Clyde goes. That man deserves everything.

  2. bluehill55

    Agree, the Spurs will never won the Finals as their market is so small.

  3. grudgepacker

    Honestly, Hart’s right – one thing I’ll always appreciate about Bud is he never went complaining to the media when the calls didn’t go our way. Carlisle seems like he’s constantly butthurt whining about everything and you just can’t do that without expecting some degree of reciprocity

  4. CoyotesSideEyes

    And they are sitting on 3 playoff series wins in the last 24 seasons…two of which have come in the last 13 months.

    Boston’s won one title in almost 40 years.

    The Bulls have won 4 series in the last 26 seasons.

    The Clippers have won 7 series in 40 seasons in LA.

    The Nets have won two series in the 12 years they’ve been in Brooklyn.

    The Rockets haven’t made an NBA Finals in 30 years.

    Toronto’s made it out of round 2 twice in 30 years.

    Philly has made it out of round 2 *once* in 40 years.

    The Hawks have been in Atlanta for, what, 55 years? Zero Finals appearances.

    The Warriors had a 40 year stretch between Finals appearances.

    Suns have been in Phoenix for 55 years. No titles.

    Washington hasn’t made it out of round 2 since the 70s.

    **THESE ARE THE BIG MARKETS.**

    The Lakers have been successful. Other big markets? Not really.

  5. WhatShouldTheHeartDo

    Manifesting that Wolves Knicks finals

  6. Fritos_and_Caramel

    This says more about Dolan as Chairman and CEO than it does about the NBA

  7. sobanoodle-1

    Everyone saying the nba wants us to win, okay? FINALLY
    (the nba hates our soul)

  8. Thiswasamistake19

    Shockingly low number of Pacers fans in the comment section right now

  9. matthitsthetrails

    Carlisle kind of made an ass of himself complaining then having Halliburton come out right after saying the calls didn’t mean shit and that they didn’t play well

  10. bnasdfjlkwe

    you can win with a small market. its harder to do so, but you still can.

    You can lose with a big market. its harder to do so, but you still can

  11. machphantom

    Honestly, I would have loved some of this supposed big market home cooking where we have gotten ZERO overall #1 picks in 38 fucking years despite being absolute ass for the majority of it.

  12. SlimZorro

    Denver and Milwaukee aren’t particularly big markets.  Toronto also won and it actually is a big market but looked at like it’s a small one for some reason.  

  13. AnyHowMeow

    I appreciate what the players said, which was “we don’t agree with what coach said, it wasn’t the refs fault we lost the game.” I think multiple pacers said something like that post game 2. The players are taking responsibility for the bad play down the stretch of the two games.

  14. The maple leafs haven’t won the Stanley cup since 1967, and they one of the biggest teams in the sport. So, go figure.

  15. petarisawesomeo

    I don’t think it is as simple as “refs want big market teams to win” because the game-to-game and end of season outcomes don’t support it at all. However, I think the vast majority of observers (fans, media, players, etc.) would agree that there is a huge issue with the consistency of how games are officiated that needs to be addressed. Watching the MN-DEN, DAL-OKC, and IND-NY series has been wild from the standpoint of how differently the officiating has been. MN-DEN a lot of physicality has been allowed and almost nothing is a foul. DAL-OKC feels a lot more like the regular season where slight contact on the gather is getting called. IND-NY has had a ton of issues with fouls being called against IND that are not being called against NY. It is especially glaring during the playoffs when there are fewer officials that have more experience, so theoretically we should not have this much variability. I don’t know and don’t care to speculate what the cause is, but it definitely is not a big market conspiracy. Hopefully the NBA digs into this during the offseason and at least makes an attempt to make the officiating more consistent. There have been some phenomenal games this post season, but the conversation has focused way too much on the officiating because of these issues.

  16. WaterIsNotWet19

    The league can only do so much to help an incompetent franchise

  17. Saucy_Totchie

    The narrative that the NBA makes moves in favor of big market teams has always been BS. The NBA doesn’t care about big market teams performing because they’ll bring a crowd regardless of the team’s situation. Meanwhile small market teams are far more reliant on performance so their owners bitch and moan to make it “more fair.” There’s been multiple instances where a situation could’ve benefited a small or big market team in recent memory but the small market was favored.

    – Chris Paul being traded to the Lakers was vetoed “for basketball reasons.”

    – After they did end up trading Chris Paul the coincidentally get the #1 pick who ended up turning into Anthony Davis.

    – After trading AD away NO again coincidentally get the #1 pick to get Zion. That’s the same draft where the Knicks ended up with the worst record in the league and also when they introduced the new draft odds where the worst 3 teams share the same chance for the #1 pick. Knicks fell to #3.

    In the last few years we’ve had Denver, Miami, Phoenix, Milwaukee, and Cleveland, all we can probably agree are small market teams make the finals. Yes we had Boston in 2022 and the new money Warriors but overall it’d lately been a mix with a slight leaning towards small markets.

    This is just some salty excuses by Carlisle.

  18. Both of our games against Denver were officiated in favor of them especially game 1. It’s true that the smaller market teams get a rawer deal but it’s not impossible to beat.

  19. The Lakers and the Celtics during those 51 years on the other hand…

  20. LyonsKing12

    They influence the game. They can’t guarantee results.

  21. Due_Raise3799

    Its a silly quip because we don’t say big markets always win

    We say they get more help. They get more eyeballs on their teams so sponsorships for players on big market teams are going to skew larger. Sponsors pump money into blowing these players up so the league in turn is incentivized to try to find ways to profit off of their most trending players. Qol is better in these cities too so players are often more drawn to them in FA.

    Obviously the organization can still fuck this up a la Lakers circa 2021 or James Dolan’s whole life, but that doesn’t mean everyone is starting with the same deck.

  22. DeleAlliForever

    The world is a much different place as well. In the 20th century, so many places in the country just weren’t good places for non white people to live, so many players would wanna go to different markets. I feel like this same thinking is still in place from the older generations

  23. chalbersma

    The Knicks not winning is more of a problem because of bad luck and bad ownership.

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