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Sam Smith On The Jerry Reinsdorf And The Lockout
REINSDORF STEERS CLEAR OF
TROUBLE
October 29, 1998
Don't blame Jerry Reinsdor
for this one.
There's a work stoppage in a
professional sport in which
Jerry Reinsdorf is a team
owner. The general assumption
is Reinsdorf is behind it.
Rich owner, bottom-line man,
tough, hard negotiator who
supposedly cares nothing for
the fans.
This comes up a lot and it
sounds plausible. But it's
not the case.
Sort of like the discussion
Wednesday in New York when
almost 100 players met with
NBA owners in what was
described as more of a
question-and-answer session
than a negotiation.
It was a rare chance for
players--most of whom rarely
meet their owners because
contract negotiations are
done by agents--to question
owners about the economics of
running the NBA.
To no one's surprise, the
players were highly
skeptical, especially when
senior NBA owner Abe Pollin
of the Washington Wizards
asked the players to trust
the owners.
After years of being told to
do otherwise, it's hard to
change. In effect, that's
what the players said.
Likewise, after years of
being told Reinsdorf is the
wizard manipulating the
sporting land of Oz, it's
hard for people to believe
Reinsdorf is merely a
spectator.
Yet when the NBA held a Board
of Governors meeting before
the Wednesday session with
the players, Reinsdorf was
one of the few owners not
attending.
"Basically, I'm not
participating," he said.
"David Stern makes the deals.
And why not? He's done a
great job of it for so long,
so there's no need for me to
fly out to New York to find
out what's doing. Somebody
will tell me."
In fact, when asked recently
about a deal with the
players, Reinsdorf said, "We
know what's going to happen."
Then he paused and, with a
smile, added, "David just
hasn't told us yet."
No, Jerry Reinsdorf is not a
power in the NBA, except
perhaps for being the owner
of the team that has
dominated the league for the
past decade.
Remember, Reindorf sued his
partners a few years back
because the NBA wanted all
the Bulls' games off WGN and
free TV.
Reinsdorf won and the fans
won. The NBA lost. The NBA
was not happy.
Also, Reinsdorf happened to
be one of five owners who in
1995 voted against Stern's
six-year labor deal that was
reopened this summer after
three years, causing this
cancellation of play.
Perhaps the NBA should listen
to Reinsdorf more.
Which brings us back to last
week, as the eminent Dr.
Hunter S. Thompson would have
seen it: Fehr and Loathing in
Las Vegas.
Anyone for some advice on how
to burn down your house?
It was none other than
baseball union chief Don Fehr
counseling NBA players and
union officials on how to
deal with their labor strife
and their management
adversaries.
Which was a little like the
three little pigs calling the
wolf for his recipe on pork
and beans.
Don't be misled by the
exploits of Mark McGwire and
Sammy Sosa.
Their home run race was
spectacular. But it hardly
has saved baseball from
Fehr's ruination. If you live
in Kansas City or Minneapolis
or Pittsburgh or Montreal or
maybe a half-dozen other
cities, you already know your
team is out of next season's
pennant race.
Baseball's failure to adopt
some form of salary cap to
control big-spending teams
has essentially
disenfranchised the fans in
maybe half the cities and
turned the game into a race
to see who spends the most
money.
That's the correlation with
success.
No team in baseball that
spent less than $44 million
last season played better
than .500 ball for the
season. Sure, players like
Mike Piazza are getting
richer, but baseball
continues to shrink.
The NBA doesn't need the same
fate.
Reinsdorf was supposed to be
the villian in that baseball
fight, but perhaps the worst
thing he did was talk too
much. Indeed, lacking a
commissioner, Fehr was able
to use Reinsdorf's words to
demonize him. But the truth
is--and baseball owners will
tell you this--Reinsdorf had
little impact in the fight.
In fact, perhaps the key vote
in the baseball war came
after the cancellation of the
1994 World Series, when
Reinsdorf urged owners to
declare an impasse and impose
rules on the players.
Reinsdorf was voted down
18-1, and in the end voted
against the deal and upstaged
fellow owners by signing
Albert Belle for the
then-extraordinary salary of
$11 million a year.
Now Belle seems to believe
that's not enough. We can all
only hope he finds happiness
elsewhere.
Basketball still has a chance
to save itself.
Already, Stern is talking
vaguely of "recapturing"
games, suggesting nearly the
full season be played.
The players seem open to some
sort of compromise, coming
off a week in which Latrell
Sprewell sued his agent for
not anticipating Sprewell
might strangle his coach and
Kenny Anderson detailed for
the New York Times such
expenditures as eight cars,
$250,000 for his buddies'
"marketing" firm and a few
hundred thousand dollars of
walking around money.
Tuesday, players association
chief Billy Hunter said, "I'm
optimistic we're going to get
a deal."
Which suggests they didn't
listen much to Fehr.
We may have an agreement
before long after all.