Thunder: Heady days for small markets

These NBA playoffs are some heady days for small markets. Which frankly, is a loaded term.

What is a small market? I’ve heard people refer to St. Louis as a small market. Anything not in New York, Chicago or LA could be considered a small market. But let’s be serious. Dallas, Boston, Houston, Atlanta, San Francisco and Philadelphia aren’t small markets.

Here’s a decent way to identify a small market. If it’s got one major league franchise, it’s a small market. Can we agree on that?

In the NBA, that means Orlando, San Antonio, Oklahoma City, Portland, Memphis, Salt Lake City and Sacramento.

In the NFL, that means Green Bay and Jacksonville.

In the NHL, that means Raleigh and Columbus (excluding the Canadian cities, which are a completely different subject).

And in the MLB, that means nobody. (An aside. I know baseball would be a tough go in a virgin market. But wouldn’t baseball have a fighting chance more in a place like, I don’t know, Louisville or Hartford or Birmingham or Norfolk or Albuquerque or even El Paso, than say, being second fiddle in Kansas City or third fiddle in Tampa? I know you would be stretched corporately, but this we know. There are places where it’s not working. Who knew the NBA would work in Salt Lake or OKC?)

Anyway, the NBA is the hallmark for small markets, with seven of the 30 franchises sharing its city with no other major-league team. And you know what? Those teams are mostly prospering on the court.

Oklahoma City is in the Western Conference semifinals, where the Thunder will meet another small market, either San Antone or Memphis. Portland, too, made the playoffs and was just ushered out of by Dallas in a competitive series. Orlando was knocked out of the playoffs Thursday night and has been a perennial Eastern contender.

That’s five of seven small markets in the playoffs, with at least one assured of being in the NBA’s final four. That’s not a bad resume’. The only small-market teams out of the playoffs in 2011 are the Utah Jazz, perhaps the NBA’s most consistent franchise, and the Sacramento Kings, who have been woeful for 30 years outside of an uprising in the early 2000s.

Small markets have all kinds of issues. Can Orlando hang onto Dwight Howard, the way OKC was able to hang onto Kevin Durant? Good question. Orlando knows the disaster that comes with losing a superstar. It lost Shaq 15 years ago to the Lakers.