More Top Picks Laser Measures
player ready...It has come to this in sports. We praise the NBA for agreeing to take our money.
By starting its season Friday night, from the United Center to Yokohama Arena to points in between, and promising to finish at a place to be named come June, the NBA has proven once again it is a league that works. And plays.
Meanwhile, baseball and hockey, self-destructing in pursuit of their hallowed salary caps, instead get dunce caps.
With the Bulls and Charlotte Hornets engaging in a real game to be recorded for posterity in actual standings, midst the conventional trappings such as the roar of the crowd and the shrill noise of the referees’ whistles, you could be excused for not remembering how to cheer or boo or buy a hot dog, with cash or credit. Just remember to forget 1994.
It does not seem like only yesterday since we were so blessed. On Aug. 10, before the usual 34,984 sunbathers at Wrigley Field, the Cubs succumbed to the Giants 5-2. With the exception of the Bears’ occasional efforts at renouncing their amateur status, Chicago had not witnessed a major-league event until Friday night. Back then, Larry King hadn’t even booked Michael Jordan’s statue as a guest.
The NBA’s decision to play through its own dilemma between management and labor was by no means based on altruism. There are millions of entertainment dollars out there, just waiting to be spent, and since its near-fatal siege of fiscal exhaustion during the late 1970s, the NBA has learned an audience is best held captive when regularly scheduled programming is not interrupted.
Guided by Commissioner David Stern, the best leader in professional sports by nine miles, the NBA has opted to perspire while negotiations proceed. This stance allows the NBA to observe war fronts elsewhere. If baseball’s owners bend or if hockey’s players break, that will affect leverage and mood in basketball.
Meanwhile, the NBA can post huge TV numbers and collect whatever stray funds exist after frantic advertisers spend record sums to spread their messages during Super Bowl XXIX. Also, the NBA enhances its relations with a public that is more skeptical than ever. If we have abandoned all hopes of paying the price to watch heroes and role models, a jump ball would be nice once in a while.
Even the NFL, which appears to be sitting pretty, endures union unrest. The athletes feel they were sold down the muddy river, and that was before they set foot on Soldier Field. Only the NBA possesses a spirit of co-existence. Flushed by its own success, and on the cusp of worldwide popularity, the NBA could be arrogant. Instead, the show goes on during prime time, and contract talks continue behind the curtain.
Brian Burke, official mouthpiece of the NHL, says, yeah, but let’s see where the NBA is a year from now. The question, Brian Burke, is where hockey will be a year from now. Probably back in the Stone Age, where it seems most comfortable. Skaters scatter to find the nearest patch of ice, and if that means cracks in the union, what purpose does this serve when a settlement is reached? Do owners want teams where half the players don’t talk to the other half?
Then there’s baseball. A couple members of the New York Mets, a franchise not known for its energy, threaten potential scabs with fists and beanballs. Ah, but there’s always William Usery, the mediator appointed by the White House. He rolls up his sleeves, says he plans to “hit a home run,” and then calls for another meeting in a week or so. At $120,000 a month, he can afford to space his photo opportunities.
The NBA isn’t perfect. Glenn Robinson sacrifices and settles for a mere $70 million. But if memory serves, Larry Bird was overpaid at $650,000 until he stepped on the court. Which is the point. Play or perish. For the biggest big league of them all, the NBA, it was a no-brainer.