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NBA Robber-Barons Use Race Card To Gain Fan's Sympathy
[New York Post]
SPORTS
IT'S A LOCKOUT, STUPID!
By WALLACE MATTHEWS
--------------------------------------------
SEASONS Greetings from the National
Basketball Association.
Thanks to Ebeneezer Stern, Grinch Granik,
and their 29 co-conspirators, who will
never be mistaken for Santa's Elves, the
NBA has canceled Christmas.
And if the players, led by union president
Patrick Ewing - also known as jolly 'ol St.
Knick - don't knuckle under at today's
meeting, New Year's will be next on their
hit list, followed by All-Star weekend, the
first day of spring and Memorial Day.
Make no mistake about just who is
responsible for there being no basketball
season this year, and perhaps next.
You can blame the players for plenty,
starting with greed, moving on to arrogance
and in some cases, heading right into
stupidity, but you cannot blame them for
the fact that the NBA has been shut down.
You know darn well that if it were up to
the players, the 1998-99 season would be a
month old and their bank accounts would be
two paychecks fatter.
The owners, led by Stern, their highly-paid
lackey, would like you to forget that the
reason there is no basketball is not
because the players refuse to come to work
but because they have locked the doors to
the factory.
It is a cynical game they are playing,
cynical and vicious, and not only because
this is supposed to be the season of
giving.
The cynicism comes from the owners knowing
that no matter who is to blame for the
NBA's current state of inaction, the fans
will instinctively direct their anger and
resentment to the easiest and most visible
targets - the players.
And the viciousness comes from the owners'
sophisticated playing of the race card to
their advantage, knowing that they have
sold a predominantly black sport to a
predominantly white audience for
prohibitively high prices.
NBA fans may love the players on game
night, but when it comes down to taking
sides over a matter of economics, who do
you think the white lawyer or CEO or
stockbroker in the $250 courtside seat is
going to identify with?
The nouveau-riche black millionaire who
goes to work in shorts and sneakers and
leaves the arena in Versace with a cell
phone attached to his ear, or the
old-money, aristocratic white owner in
Brooks Brothers?
The owners are well aware of this, and are
counting on it as just another of the
overwhelming advantages they enjoy in this
most unfair war.
Along with getting their $500 million in TV
money from two more of their
co-conspirators, NBC and TNT, and having,
in most cases, other means of income
besides toying with a basketball team, the
owners have stacked the deck so highly in
their favor not even Shaquille O'Neal could
see over it.
And don't forget, the owners negotiated in
bad faith three years ago, signing off on a
six-year deal they had no intention of
honoring.
And still, too many NBA fans point their
fingers at the players and cluck, "Greedy
bastards."
Yes, the players have taken advantage of a
climate in which they have been obscenely
overpaid for the highly dubious skills of
being able to dribble, pass and shoot a
basketball.
Who could blame them?
And yeah, they have been guilty of
horrendous arrogance by characterizing this
fight as one for "survival," and of
profound stupidity by choosing to map out
their survival strategy at a Las Vegas
casino.
But the truth of the matter is, even at $18
million per year, to ownership an NBA
player is still the hired help.
And don't you believe for a minute that any
one of the robber-barrons who own NBA teams
would pay out one dollar more than they
could afford or believed they could get
back, in multiples.
Without getting into the mind-numbing
financial issues designed primarily to
confuse everyone into disinterest and
ultimate exasperation with the negotiating
process, does anyone honestly believe that
half the teams in the NBA are losing money?
With all the revenue streams available to
an NBA franchise, the only ways one could
fail to make money with one are the same
ways one could fail to make money with a
casino.
Through corruption or ineptitude. Or both.
Or, in a few cases, because a city simply
is not in a position to afford an NBA team.
Face it, even in this sports-crazy society,
not every city that wants a team can have
one.
There are markets in this country that
simply cannot generate enough revenue to
make it possible for a team to be both
profitable and competitive.
Tough toenails.
It is the same as if I was seized by the
overwhelming urge to own a Porsche in order
to keep up with my neighbor, who has a
Ferrari.
Never mind that he is a neurosurgeon and I
work for the New York Post. I gotta have
that car to compete.
So I buy it. And then, when I can't make
the payments, I go to the Porsche people
and ask them to take less. And I go to my
neighbor and ask him to help me out,
because after all, it's not fair that he
has his and I can't have mine.
Sure, that would work.
Not in the real world, of course, but in
the fantasy world of professional sports,
the owners are trying their damndest to
make it work.
But where is it written that every city in
the U.S., in spite of its size or location
or demographics, should have the right not
only to host a professional sports
franchise, but assurances from the other
teams in the league and its players that it
turn a profit?
Find another industry in this country where
that kind of a deal exists and I will
change careers. Promise.
But the fact is, that kind of arrangement
only exists in professional sports, which
operate like independent, cutthroat
businesses on the field and partners in a
kibbutz off of it.
The owners want to win so badly, they
grossly overpay the players they think they
need.
Then, when they find they can't turn the
kind of profit they desire, they ask the
players to give back some money while
keeping up the same level of performance.
In short, they want the players to protect
them from their own fiscal
irresponsibility.
The players, rightly, say the owners are
big enough boys to take care of themselves.
And the fans, as usual, can only sit back
and try to figure out why a game they love
returns their affection like this.
Look at the bright side. You haven't wasted
a minute watching meaningless early-season
basketball games, and this week, the NBA
sent out refund checks, plus 6% interest,
to everyone who bought tickets to games
that were canceled.
If they don't get anywhere today, there
could be more on the way.
In the meantime, put your windfall to good
use.
Have a Merry Christmas, courtesy of the
NBA. Ebeneezer Stern, prop.