Again, why is that wrong rather than just different? It's a lot harder to build through the draft nowadays without outright tanking (another thing people complain about, so which is it?). The Celtics and Lakers of the 80s built their teams through the draft by taking advantage of stupid owners who gave up draft picks like candy. The league actually had to step in and create a rule to prevent these owners from themselves. For crying out loud, the Lakers WON THE FUCKING title and then proceeded to get the number 1 pick in the following draft. Imagine how high the cries of "rigged!" and "the league is fucked!" we'd be hearing if the Warriors or Cavs were able to draft Ben Simmons?
The stuff about rivalries is also pretty overblown. Yeah Lakers/Celtics was the dominating rivalry of the 80s, but the West back then was almost as bad as the east now, and the East in the 80s was pretty much Celtics/Sixers and, towards the end of the decade, Pistons, much like you have Warriors/OKC/Spurs now.
It's a response to the way the league has changed, with regards to free agency (which is earned, not FORCED), and the culture of the players, who are feeling more empowered thanks to guys like LeBron. They don't have to wait for their owner or their GM to build a team around them, often sitting idly by as their prime years are wasted, they have the power to do it themselves. Why is that wrong? It's just like in baseball and football, when people are like "I miss the days when guys would play their entire careers with one team!" when, in reality, most of the time that was not by choice.
