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A Writer Who Wants To See The Season Cancelled
I just can't wait for Jan. 7
12/31/98 07:59:24 AM
By John Smallwood
----------------------------------------------------
Knight Ridder Newspapers
(KRT)
PHILADELPHIA -- Is there any way we can just
fast-forward to next Thursday?
That's Jan. 7 -- D-day for the NBA -- the day
commissioner David Stern is supposed to recommend
cancellation of the 1998-99 season to the league's
board of governors, because he can't get a new
collective bargaining contract with the National
Basketball Players Association.
What am I talking about? Less than a month ago, I told
you how much I loved the NBA and hoped there would be
a season, even an abbreviated one.
Now I'm saying I don't want to give these warring
factions every available millisecond to finally come
to their senses and pull out a game-winning bucket at
the buzzer? Guilty as charged.
As recently as a couple of days ago, I still
desperately wanted a resolution before the date of
revelation.
I don't want that anymore. I no longer want to see a
shot snap the net an instant before the final second
ticks away.
I want to see Armageddon, Ragnarok.
I don't want to leave any chance that there will be a
new contract before Jan. 7.
Why?
Well it's like that scene from the movie ``Dirty
Harry'' -- when Harry challenges a wounded crook who's
thinking about reaching for his gun to remember if
Harry had used up all his bullets.
The guy refused to call Harry's bluff. But after
surrendering to the fictional .357 Magnum-toting San
Francisco cop, the crook looked him the eye and said
-- ``I gots to know.''
Well, I gots to know.
After a half-year of watching these self-serving,
money-obsessed, golden-goose-slaying maniacs stroke
their egos at the expense of the game I love, I want
to see what will happen next.
Threats have been made. A gauntlet laid down.
At this point, my curiosity has been piqued too much.
Forget happy endings, I want to see which side truly
has the marbles to do what it says it will do and how
the carnage that follows will play out.
So next Thursday, I want to be sitting at my desk
anxiously waiting to see if 76ers assistant director
of public relations Rob Wilson will, as he has so many
times in the last six months, call to tell me the NBA
has scheduled a conference call with Stern and deputy
commissioner Russ Granik.
I want to see if ``the final'' proposal the league
sent to its 400 players and the media this week was
really ``final.''
I want to see if Stern will actually recommend
canceling the season.
I want to see if the board of governors will accept
that recommendation, toss a hand grenade at a
multibillion-dollar industry it took them 52 years to
build and see what, if anything, is left after the
dust settles.
I want to see how union executive director Billy
Hunter, who has steadfastly maintained the owners
won't blow up the season, will tell his shocked
constituency, ``Uh, guys, I may have made a slight
miscalculation.''
I want to see how union president Patrick Ewing, who's
banked close to $100 million over his career with the
New York Knicks, will explain to minimum-wage guys
such as Jason Lawson, Alvin Williams and Malik Rose,
who don't have nest eggs and might never play in the
NBA again, that biting the bullet really was in their
best interest.
I want to see how all those players who've steadfastly
refused to entertain the notion that season could be
canceled will deal with the reality the party is over.
I want to see what the 380 players who never got a
chance to vote on Stern's final offer will have to say
about Hunter and Ewing.
I want to see which players will lose their careers.
I want to see who will get a 9-to-5 job because they
can no longer pay their bills.
I want to see what Michael Jordan, who made an early
grandstand play and then quickly retreated from the
front lines once he realized the public relations hit
he would take, will say, once his retirement decision
is effectively made for him.
I want to see what Kevin Garnett, whose $126 million
contract started this mess, will say once the first
$18 million is gone forever.
I want to see what Scottie Pippen, Jayson Williams,
Theo Ratliff and other high-demand free agents will
say once their anticipated big paydays are blown away.
I want to see if Grant Hill, Kobe Bryant, Allen
Iverson, Keith Van Horn, Shaquille O'Neal, Stephon
Marbury, Tim Duncan and the other young superstars
who've been virtually invisible for the last six
months will regret never getting involved.
I want to see how super-agent David Falk will convince
Marbury, Iverson, Van Horn, Sixers rookie Larry Hughes
and the other keys to his future earnings not to be
disillusioned with him because he couldn't get the
most critical deal down.
I want to see if Falk will still rule the NBA world.
I want to see what those non-super-agents, who insist
the owners' offer is terrible, will do without their
cuts of the contracts they would've negotiated.
I want to see some of these unnamed billionaires
Hunter keeps hinting will be willing to commit
billions of dollars to start a rival league.
I want to see if 29 of them will be willing to leap
into a venture in which players will demand at least
57 percent of $2 billion.
I want to see where these new teams will play.
I want to see if pro-union guys such as Alonzo
Mourning, Dikembe Mutombo, Mitch Richmond and Jim
McIlvaine will surrender the millions of dollars they
have left on their NBA contracts to make less money in
a rival league because of principle.
I want to see what this new NBA Stern says will rise
from this season's ashes will look like.
I really want to see if the ticket prices will be
cheaper, as Stern said.
I want to see how the Los Angeles Clippers, Denver
Nuggets, Golden State Warriors, Dallas Mavericks and
Sacramento Kings will convince already apathetic fans
to return after a year off.
I want to see if the Clippers will finally hire a head
coach.
I want to see if an owner might have to sell his team.
I want to see if Kenny Anderson might have to sell
another car.
I want to see if it's really necessary to burn the
village to save it.
I want to see if the meek will inherit the earth.
I want to see if a rose can grow in a nuclear
wasteland.
I want to see all that and more.
I want Jan. 7 to hurry up and get here, because I want
to see these guys suffer the way that NBA fans have.
X X X
(John Smallwood is a columnist for the Philadelphia
Daily News.)
X X X
(c) 1998, Philadelphia Daily News.
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AP-NY-12-31-98 0853EST