Bob Molinaro: NBA Owners Should Shut Down The Season

[Way Of The Ray <wayray@ix.netcom.com>]

                               Dec. 14, 1998
            Bob Molinaro on Sports

       If NBA owners mean business,
       they should close down season

       The Virginian-Pilot
       Copyright 1998, Landmark Communications Inc.

       The highlight of the NBA's season of discontent came the
       other day when the owners canceled the All-Star Game.

       It was rejection as spectacular as a Shaquille O'Neal
       blocked shot. Did the public care? Outside of Philadelphia,
       the site of the game, life went on without so much as a
       shrug.

       But pulling the plug on the All-Star Game was the owners'
       way of saying to their employees, ``In your face.'' It was
       the stuff of highlight reels.

       Now the owners may need to take the next step and cancel the
       season. Close it down. Lock up the store until next fall.

       That's the best, long-term solution to the NBA's labor
       logjam. Sacrifice this season and start anew.

       That would get everybody's attention, the players'
       especially. And it would show that the NBA owners mean
       business. That they will not give in, not even to destitute
       players scraping by on $700,000 per year.

       The owners have come too far now to go away with anything
       less than a clear victory.

       Will the NBA's image be damaged when the sport returns? Of
       course. But the league is due for a fall-off in popularity
       and TV ratings as soon as Michael Jordan steps into
       retirement this year or next.

       Better for the owners to deal with the league's decline on
       their own terms. The alternative is to be held hostage by
       clueless young players who demand Jordan-like money but
       exhibit none of Michael's class and integrity.

       You say the owners would never kill the season? Well, very
       few people thought they would hold out this long. For good
       reason. If we've learned anything from labor unrest in
       baseball and football, it is that ownership eventually gives
       in.

       In time, the media and fans demand their games. Usually,
       owners feel the brunt of the anger. They weaken. They
       settle. The players win, and nothing much is different than
       before.

       NBA brass, then, is showing great composure. The players'
       union thought the owners would buckle by now. The media
       assumed ownership would feel the pressure and agree to
       tip-off the season by Christmas, when NBC's television
       package started up. Let's face it, we all did.

       But, then, nobody could have guessed how helpful the players
       would be to the owners' cause. What was it Patrick Ewing
       said the other day, that, sure, the players make a lot of
       money, but they spend a lot, too? They don't write lines
       like that anymore.

       Feeling the sting of media and public backlash, the players
       decided it wasn't such a bright idea after all to use
       proceeds from their Atlantic City exhibition to help
       ``needy'' NBA brethren.

       But by then the damage had been done. Comments by Ewing and
       others made the players' position look even more distorted
       than before.

       As a result, the owners gained more credibility. They are in
       a position now to do what baseball did not in its labor
       wars: play real hardball.

       Baseball ownership went so far as to cancel the 1994 World
       Series. What does it have to show for this public relations
       blunder? Nothing. Player salaries are more insane than ever.

       Never mind the embarrassing riches being thrown at Kevin
       Brown, Randy Johnson, Mo Vaughn and Mike Piazza.
       Light-hitting infielders are signing for $6 million per
       year. Journeymen pitchers are making $4 million.

       NBA owners see what's happening to baseball. They must have
       learned something. Maybe they understand that anything short
       of total commitment to their position favors the players and
       their agents.

       Saturday, labor talks lasted all of 30 minutes. No new
       bargaining sessions are planned. It's getting fairly late in
       the game. The drop-dead date may be right around the corner.

       The owners may very well turn out the lights on this season.
       Don't think it can't happen. For the long-term health of the
       sport, it should happen.