The Bulls dominated because they were pretty arguably the best team of all time in 98 led by the best player ever. Not because small market teams were relegated to farm systems and decimated by their best players leaving. Imagine if Reggie Miller or David Robinson left for Utah or Chicago or Seattle. Instead of making their small market teams interesting and competitive. At any point during their dominance, Orlando had Shaq, Houston had Hakeem, NY had Ewing, Seattle had Sonic Boom, Philly/Phoenix had Barkley.
There is such a thing as too much of a good thing. People got interested in the Heat because they were freakishly talented and people were hoping someone would knock them off. It's different when more and more teams like that start popping up and there's about 18-20 teams that just don't matter at all. You water down the product when these guys are pretty much encouraged to do this and leave teams like Cleveland, New Orleans, Denver, and Toronto to wallow in obscurity. It's good for the ratings of the finals and the big match-ups, but what about for the attendance of about 15 markets when the Heat aren't in town. Think anybody wants to go see a T-Wolves/Cavs game or a Rockets/Raptors game or a Nuggets/Bobcats game or a 76ers/Hornets game when Paul inevitably leaves or a Magic/Pistons game when Howard leaves? You say the NBA is driven by star power, but when your're adding stars to teams that are already contenders and have stars, you're condensing the # of teams that can really make money moreso than it was before the lockout when owners were saying they weren't making much of a profit.
