NYT Article: Teens take on the lockout

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N.B.A. Rift Taints Game for Hoop Dreamers


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          By NICHOLE M. CHRISTIAN

               EW YORK -- On a nippy November afternoon, when he would 
ordinarily be leaping toward
               the net of a basketball rim trying to imitate the 
aerodynamic glide of his hero, Michael Jordan,
          11-year-old Jonathan Figueroa grimaced at the mention of 
basketball. 

          Instead, the once aspiring point guard was transforming the 
Goat Courts at 99th Street and
          Amsterdam Avenue -- one of New York City's most hallowed hoops 
grounds -- into an asphalt
          baseball field. And with repeated swings of his wooden bat, he 
tried to forget ever having loved
          Jordan or professional basketball, which he says is so "messed 
up"in a labor dispute that fans like
          him have been pushed to the sidelines. 

          "Basketball is dead," Jonathan declared, continuing to swipe 
the air with his bat. "The players only
          really care about getting a lot of money. I don't care if it 
ever comes back. It's all about baseball
          now." 

          By the calendar at least, basketball loyalists like Jonathan 
should be tethered to their televisions,
          trying to glimpse the latest moves, newest phenoms and hottest 
highlights of the National Basketball
          Association. But this season, a high-stakes labor battle 
between the NBA's more than 400 players
          and 29 team owners has already canceled 194 games in November 
and is threatening to call off the
          entire schedule. The two sides are at odds over how best to 
split up basketball's billion-dollar
          revenue base. The players want 60 percent; the owners are 
offering 50. 

          On the basketball courts and public playgrounds of New York 
City, which have launched legions of
          basketball dreamers -- and more than a few NBA stars -- 
hard-core fans of all ages are directing
          sharp words at both the players and the owners. While almost 
no one is well-versed or even
          particularly interested in the details of the day-to-day 
negotiations, many fans say they have heard
          enough to know this much: Basketball is disintegrating into a 
game of greed. 

          As in many urban areas across the country, basketball has long 
been more than just a sport in New
          York. It has also been a way for young people in poor, 
isolated neighborhoods to grasp at
          America's modern pastime: success, and the wealth that comes 
along with it. But as with other such
          pursuits, it has a heartbreaking trail of disappointments -- 
none better known in New York than that
          of Earl (the Goat) Manigault, for whom the Amsterdam court is 
named. Manigault became a local
          legend for his ability to defy gravity on the court, but a 
heroin addiction spoiled his chances of
          pursuing a professional career. 

          So perhaps the NBA impasse has a particularly sharp resonance 
on the city's concrete playgrounds,
          where those who sweat and dream of an NBA career and its 
comforts feel betrayed by the few who
          have made it. 

          Players at the famed West Fourth Street Courts in Manhattan 
recently joked about the predicament
          of Kenny Anderson, a former point guard for the New Jersey 
Nets. Anderson said recently that he
          may have to sell one of his eight luxury cars now that he is 
unable to collect his $5.8 million salary
          from his new team, the Boston Celtics. 

          Anderson, who also has homes in New York and Los Angeles and a 
fledgling entertainment
          company, told The New York Times that he spends $75,000 a year 
on the upkeep of his cars and is
          currently losing $76,000 for every game that he does not play. 

          "Its insulting," said Stephen Breslin, 15, a West Fourth 
Street regular. "They can go out and buy a
          whole bunch of cars and apartments and we're supposed to feel 
bad. Get real. Even the ones who
          make only a couple hundred thousand still have it better than 
most people out here. I don't have no
          sympathy for either side." 

          Some basketball devotees have so distanced themselves from the 
NBA's troubles that they had to
          be reminded that the official start of the season came and 
went this week. 

          Last year, Eddo Smalls, 16, spent his time and money 
collecting memorabilia related to his role
          models, Penny Hardaway of the Orlando Magic and Shaquille 
O'Neal of the Los Angeles Lakers.
          But the two have now been dethroned by the likes of "Big Sexy 
Kevin Nash" and "Stone Cold Steve
          Austin," starts from the world of professional wrestling. 

          "Wrestling is the last pure sport," Eddo said. They don't have 
big NBA egos, everything they do is
          for the fans." 

          Officials at the NBA say they are painfully aware of the 
damage the lockout is doing to the public
          perception of the game. "We know the lockout is not doing 
anything to endear us to fans," said Brian
          McIntyre, a spokesman for the league. "But we have an economic 
system that is not working and if
          left unaddressed would only get worse." 

          McIntrye said some teams lost so much money during last year's 
regular season because of player
          salaries and benefits that this year's lockout is actually 
saving money. Officials for the National
          Basketball Players Association union did not return telephone 
calls to their office. 

          But like the baseball strike of 1994-95 -- when fans vowed to 
turn their back on the game but
          returned en masse by this year -- the grousing over the 
basketball impasse is most likely to be
          fleeting. 

          Gregory Rose, a 27-year-old NBA fan and amateur player, said 
he is mourning the loss of
          basketball. "I'm hurting," he said. "Right now, I'm supposed 
to be in front of my TV rooting for the
          Bulls." 

          And others like Derek Pilgrim, 31, a friend of Rose's, said 
the team owners were at fault. "Blaming
          the players is crazy. Basketball is a business now. Players 
know their careers probably won't last 10,
          20 years like they used to, so they have to look out for 
themselves just like the owners are doing." 

          At the Brownsville Recreation Center in Brooklyn, all the talk 
about salaries and sticking points was
          lost on the nearly three dozen children who gather each season 
in front of a 52"colored television to
          watch NBA games. So far this year, the children have had to 
settle for sitting in the gym and
          watching amateurs mimic the moves of their favorite NBA 
players. 

          "I don't think it's fair," 12-year-old Rykeem Robinson said as 
he lay sprawled out over the gym's
          bleachers, only half watching a loud, sweaty game between six 
men. "On TV its better than this. If
          the players weren't selfish, we could be watching a real 
game." 


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