ESPN NBA

Imagine if the NBA had some kind of territorial system, whereby your team was made up entirely of players who grew up at least somewhat near your arena.

Let's hear it for regionalism!

In such a system, which teams would be good? 

Alex K. a reader of the Philadelphia-based blog Depressed Fan, spent ages looking up players' hometowns, and plugging them into google maps to find their closest NBA city. (He did not include overseas players -- which is noticeable mainly because these rosters all seem kind of weak, with a big bunch of players missing.) Then he compiled teams of local players for every NBA city.

Right off the bat, you'd think big cities would have the big advantage here. All those people! 

And New York City's team is pretty good:

PG Ben Gordon (Mount Vernon, NY)
SG Ron Artest (Queens, NY)
SF Lamar Odom (South Jamaica, NY)
PF Elton Brand (Peekskill, NY)/Ryan Gomes (Waterbury, CT)
C Charlie Villanueva (Queens, NY) 

Portland's team has good, if undersized, talent, one reason only: The Sonics left Seattle. Otherwise, none of these players would be Blazers:

PG Jason Terry (Seattle, WA)/Rodney Stuckey (Kent, WA)
SG Brandon Roy (Seattle, WA)
SF Jamal Crawford (Seattle, WA)
PF Marvin Williams (Bremerton, WA)
C Carlos Boozer (Juneau, AK)

But wow, none of that really holds a candle to the mighty Charlotte team:

PG Chris Paul (Clemmons, NC)
SG Ray Allen (Dalzell, SC)
SF Josh Howard (Winston-Salem, NC)
PF Antawn Jamison (Charlotte, NC)/David West (Garner, NC)
C Kevin Garnett (Mauldin, SC) 

If the NBA were like this, it would really suck for players -- who would have no recourse if their local GM just didn't think they good enough to play. The free market is generally good for quality of play everywhere. 

And I was about to write that such a league would violate all kinds of employment laws. But on the other hand, professional sports leagues live in their own insane set of employment laws (trading an employee of one organization for an employee of another, without their specific consent?) so who I am to say what is or is not possible?

But wow, you can't argue the fan effect. People would be so unbelievably passionate in supporting their local teams. This would bring out that kind beyond-sports tribalism that exists among European soccer fans (and people of Northeast Ohio who support LeBron James and the Cavaliers).

Here's one idea: How about letting each player, on draft day, designate one NBA city as their home city. Let's say they'd have to have lived near there for at least four years of their lives, or something. Then, for the rest of their careers, the team from that city would always be able to pay maybe 1% more to their local players without violating the salary cap rules. It wouldn't change much, but over a few decades, it would bring more players closer to home.

And how would this be handled for foreign players? Perhaps they should all be assigned to Utah, a team that is so thin under this system that it's slated to start a current retiree -- Keith Van Horn.

UPDATE: J.C. from New Orleans makes a case:

Chris Duhon, D.J. Augustin, Chris Quinn, and Danny Granger are from New Orleans.

Tyrus Thomas and Big Baby Davis are from Baton Rouge, which is only and hour or two (depending on traffic) away from N.O.

Rashard Lewis is from Pineville, LA.

Paul Millsap is from Monroe, LA--which is actually closer by car to Dallas, but I figure that players should stay in-state. Similar situation for Von Wafer. And Antawn Jamison was born in Shreveport.

Thaddeus Young was actually born in N.O., but moved to Memphis as a youth, so that is a tough one ...

Also, Monta Ellis and Eric Dampier are from Jackson, MS, which is about 30 miles closer to N.O. than to Memphis. Antonio McDyess and Al Jefferson are both from parts of MS south of Jackson.

All this gives us a pretty strong team. One could put a pretty good starting lineup together just out of the N.O. and Baton Rouge guys (even leaving out Thaddeus Young), with Duhon, Augustin, Granger, Thomas, and Davis.

Add in the rest of the Louisiana guys (even minus Jamison, who I think moved to North Carolina at a young age), and you get even stronger. Then add the MS guys from Jackson through southern MS, and you get a deep, monster front court, an excellent point guard rotation, two all-star small forwards, plus Monta at the 2 backed up by Von Wafer. That is a really strong team ...