[Los Angeles Times] ]
Monday, November 23, 1998
THE NBA
Fans Love This Game but Don't Miss It
By MARK HEISLER
[W]hat if the NBA had a
lockout and no one cared?
Because few do, aside
from Spike Lee, Samuel L.
Jackson and Dyan Cannon, who
made those Nike ads pining for
the season.
Of course, Spike, Samuel
if they had nothing else to
live for. (They were acting,
weren't they?) For his part,
Nike boss Phil Knight is
deadly serious, what with his
stock stagnating and his new
product line going unpromoted.
When Nike says "Hurry back.
Please," it means "before we
have to write off next year
too."
Then there's ESPN's
Stuart Scott. In a recent
story about Packer injuries,
he mused, "Green Bay needs
running backs the way
SportsCenter needs NBA
highlights." This may explain
why it led one show with Karl
Malone's wild ramblings on
relocating, which the
inimitable Mailman soon
retracted.
Aside from the
principals, their entourages
and corporate partners, the
media and the core
audience--the 15,000 or so in
each NBA city rich enough to
afford season tickets--no one
seems too upset. Actually, not
many seem to have noticed.
Last Saturday, The Times
ran two letters to the editor
on the lockout and, as Jim
Healy used to say, "We don't
make 'em up, pally." We don't
run many because we don't get
many.
Nor is this just L.A.
being laid-back.
"I guest-hosted a talk
show for four hours last
week," says Atlanta-based
agent Steve Woods. "Nobody
wanted to talk about
basketball. Nobody!"
Says Donnie Walsh,
Indiana Pacer president: "I
don't know if we're fortunate
or not, but we haven't really
seen a reaction."
Says the Boston Globe's
Bob Ryan: "You talk to the
season-ticket holders, they're
happy to be saving the money.
They're being forcibly
prevented from going to games
they didn't want to see."
In late October,
Commissioner David Stern
joked, "I'm hoping for a
seven-game World Series." It
turned out, he needn't have
worried. The Yankees won in
four, baseball left the stage
but no one seemed to miss
Stern's league.
In the wake of such
apathy, even columnists with
20-inch holes to fill four
days a week could hardly work
themselves up to indignation,
however richly deserved. The
San Francisco Chronicle's Tim
Keown suggested there were
insufficient villains, noting
that in baseball's landmark
'94 strike, dufus commissioner
Bud Selig and whey-faced union
boss Don Fehr were on TV
nightly, saying infuriating
things. Next to them, Stern
and Billy Hunter are
b-o-r-i-n-g.
"Once again, we turn to
the baseball strike for
guidance," wrote Keown. " . .
. Remember how all of us,
every columnist, talk-show
host and fan said the same
thing at the same time? We all
said, 'A pox on both their
houses.' . . .
"The baseball strike--now
there was a work stoppage.
There was some passion. Poxes
flying everywhere, the
baseball strike got biblical.
Ah, those were the days."
With luck, and a
continuation of last week's
thaw, the NBA will get an
agreement, start playing
byChristmas and avoid
baseball's fate.
Of course, there'll be a
price to pay. The NBA can look
forward to soft attendance, at
least in the near term. In
places like the Sports Arena,
where attendance was already
soft, it could disappear
altogether.
The league that has long
suffered sneers at its
meaningless season, just asked
the nation to excuse it for a
month or so while it worked
out some internal
distribution-of-riches
problems. Fortunately, or
ominously, the nation passed
the test with flying colors.
<snip>
Jayson Williams says
Michael Jordan has been
recruiting him, which isn't a
good sign.
If this is the honeymoon,
hang on, it's going to be some
marriage.
Copyright 1998 Los Angeles
Times. All Rights Reserved