An excerpt from my book:
From 1959 to 1966, the Boston Celtics basketball team won the championship of the National Basketball Association (NBA) a record eight straight times. During the thirteen-year period from 1957 to 1969, they won the championship eleven times. The Celtics dominated their league unlike any professional sports team in history. From 1957 to 1969, the Celtics were “anti-competitive.”
Based on antitrust theory, the Celtics should have been broken up, fined, and forced to share the secret of their success with other teams. According to antitrust theory, the government should have intervened to “level the playing field.” Would that have been just? Would fans have cared to watch, knowing that, if their team was successful, the players might be fined or thrown into jail? Would the players be motivated to perform their best? This sounds ridiculous, yet, this is precisely the threat that hangs over the heads of America’s most successful businessmen.