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FWD: Washington Post Article - Lockout Positivism
Here's a Tip-Off: NBA Will Start on Time
By Michael Wilbon
Friday, August 7, 1998; Page C01
Here's the good news from yesterday's talks between the
NBA owners and the players they've locked out: Both
sides are talking about testing and punishing for
marijuana use.
Here's the bad news: everything else.
David Stern is not a pessimist. During previous labor
skirmishes the NBA commissioner would give you that
knowing smile, which amounted to assurance that there
would be no work stoppage in his league. No matter how
badly negotiations were going at the time, Stern seemed
convinced the league would get its business affairs
straight long before time to tip off the season. And it
always has.
That the league and its owners broke off negotiations
yesterday because the owners didn't like the union's
latest proposal is hardly a big deal. That Stern would
later say, "I'm less optimistic today than I was
yesterday" that the season will start on time in
November is worth paying attention to, even after you
factor in the spin.
What started out as (to use deputy commissioner Russ
Granik's words) a "freewheeling discussion" that Stern
said went well and beyond posturing ended in a huff. In
a conference call with reporters late yesterday
afternoon, Stern and Granik suggested repeatedly that
their conversation with a dozen or so players in the
morning in no way reflected an afternoon proposal from
union officials that the owners found "quite insulting,"
Stern said.
In that same conversation, his most pessimistic words
were also his most measured. "I'm saddened by this," he
said, adding that the two sides are going to have to
negotiate a deal "whether it's now, December, or
whenever. . . . The only question is how much damage is
going to be done to this sport in the interim."
I thought Stern was going to laugh off a question about
a "drop dead" date for the 1998-99 season to be
canceled. Instead, Stern agreed that the NHL's Jan. 20
start to the 1994 lockout-shortened season was about as
late a date as the NBA could start, too.
Okay, no doubt Stern has to take this impasse as
seriously as any labor dispute since the early 1980s.
Because talking about a "hard" salary cap and doing away
with the "Larry Bird Exception" are rather radical
notions given the league's success under those very
guidelines in the 1980s and early 1990s. And the muted
tone of Stern's voice during a prearranged chat with
reporters shouldn't be kissed off as a ploy.
But. . . .
I don't believe for a minute, not yet anyway, that the
NBA will miss one regular season game.
It's not about who's right or wrong; I'm not about to
waste a minute of time assigning "right" or "wrong" to
two parties squabbling over billions of dollars.
What I'm betting on is the majority of NBA players
aren't committed to missing a season. Or a portion of a
season.
A great number of the NBA's high-profile players are
committed to one thing and one thing only: getting paid.
To do that, you've got to play.
Let's face it, the notion of "sacrifice" has never been
high on the agendas of the average '90s player. Becoming
a great player in college wasn't a priority. Hell, going
to college wasn't a priority. You think Kobe "Pass the
ball? Me?" Bryant is about the good of the union? You
think a guy like Penny Hardaway, who declares himself
out for the season in March, has the stuff to tough it
out for a couple of months without those $30,000
paychecks? Maybe it's just me, but I don't think the
J.R. Riders and Derrick Colemans and Shawn Kemps have
any concept of standing together for the good of the
union or the next generation of ballplayers.
They're in it to get paid. They're in it to be famous,
to have commercial endorsements, to live large. Players
such as Buck Williams, Charles Barkley, Charles Oakley
and Michael Jordan are just about extinct. And I don't
see any Curt Floods coming up behind them. Solidarity
through thick and thin? I'll believe it when I see it.
You see, all those $80,000 cars being driven by the
stars, their boyz, mammas, cousins, flunkies, groupies,
etc., have to be paid for. So do all the pagers, cell
phones, road trips, custom-tailored suits, houses and
apartments. And, I'm sorry to be so indelicate, child
support payments. Can you say "lifestyle?" I don't want
to suggest that guys making an average of $2.6 million a
year are living from hand to mouth, but there are a
whole lot of guys making three times that much who'll
tell you very quietly after a drink or two that they
have shockingly little to show for what they make.
You think Stern and the owners don't know this?
The owners, who by the way have various other business
interests from which to earn an income, will hunker down
with a year's worth of money from NBC and Turner Network
if there is a long work stoppage. Sure, probably 100
guys couldn't care less about missing a few paydays, but
what about that increasing number of men making the
league minimum ($272,000)? Think they're gonna be rarin'
to miss two months of pay so Scottie Pippen can be
assured of getting $20 million next year from the
Chicago Bulls?
Personally, I find it kind of funny that management
negotiated itself into this corner in the last
agreement, to the extent that the players have this kind
of lopsided advantage.
But I don't want to hear this absurd notion being
advanced by some of the players that they are now akin
to "highly paid slaves." If you make a billion in
salaries, as the NBA players do now, and you can't buy
the damn plantation or start your own, you ought to be a
slave.
Anyway, the best thing about the NBA starting on time --
besides the resumption of my favorite season -- would be
that we don't have to hear any more rhetoric or
pessimism coming from either side.
© Copyright 1998 The Washington Post Company
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