On a night when LeBron James scored 51 points and J.R. Smith committed a gaffe for the ages and NBA referees overstepped their bounds, the potentially biggest development in the NBA Finals on Thursday was a simple statement by Adam Silver. The commissioner trotted out the possibility of a hard cap on payrolls.
A hard cap is a payroll limit per franchise, with no exceptions. The NFL has one. The NBA does not. The NFL has parity. The NBA does not.
And parity is at the forefront of NBA discussions these days, with the Warriors and Cavaliers playing in the NBA Finals for the fourth straight year.