One of the biggest gripes about baseball is that everyone seems so sure that only a few teams have any chance of winning the title in a given year. The logic indicates that teams in smaller markets don’t have the financial firepower to compete for talent with a team like, say, the Yankees, who can spend the equivalent of Liberia’s annual GDP to corral any free agent they please. Never mind that the supposedly lowly Tampa Bay Rays won the AL pennant last season, or that the Florida Marlins won it all six years ago (and that was after liquidating nearly all of the roster from their 1997 title run). But I digress.

The NBA maintains wage controls, in the form of a specific but exception-laden salary cap, to prevent that sort of talent hoarding from happening. Kinda like that “whore fund” that your buddies took to Vegas that one time. And I guess it works, since the New York Knicks have become a perennial laughingstock in the NBA’s biggest market, and free agency seems like the least likely answer to get them on track.

Because of the N.B.A.’s salary-cap rules, the Knicks cannot outspend any other team to land a superstar. In fact, [LeBron] James and [Dwyane] Wade can make millions more by staying put. [Knicks coach Mark] D’Antoni is tremendously popular among N.B.A. stars, but his charm and his wide-open offense will get the Knicks only so far on the recruiting trail. Ditto for the mystique of Madison Square Garden and the lure of Madison Avenue. –NY Times.

So the Knicks can’t “buy” themselves into the playoffs like the Yankees supposedly have done, but honestly, while everyone waits for the Summer of LeBron to play out, how can anyone be excited about that team this season? And forget about the NBA for a minute; the competition for a New Yorker’s entertainment dollar is so damn high, especially in These Trying Economic Times. Those whore funds can only stretch so far, people.