The Sporting News
Who needs the
NBA? Keep 'em locked,
fellas
OCTOBER 6, 1998
Dave Kindred
Gotta know when to hold
'em and know when to
fold 'em. So far the
NBA players have failed
this simple test of
wisdom.
There is no public
sentiment on the
players' side in the
labor-management war
that now has caused
cancellation of the
NBA's entire schedule
of exhibitions.
No loss, those
exhibitions. But NBA
deputy commissioner
Russ Granik says the
league is "a week away
from losing
regular-season games."
Know what? No loss
there, either.
I'm fed up. In a league
where a Kevin Garnett
makes -- What? $20
million a year? -- I
have not the least
little bit of sympathy
for players whining
about the imposition of
a "hard cap" on
salaries.
By his repeated
defenses of the
indefensible Latrell
Sprewell, the NBA
players' union boss,
somebody named Bill
Hunter, already has
disgraced himself and
diminished whatever
iota of dignity he
might have once had. So
who wants to hear him
now when he says of the
players/fools paying
his salary:
"We're not going to
accept a bad deal, and
we're not going to be
intimidated into
accepting a bad deal."
A bad deal? The average
player salary is over
$20,000 a week. That's
a bad deal?
Have these people
completely lost their
minds?
At one point during the
long harangue leading
to the cancellation of
exhibitions, Billy
Hunter even said the
owners had the audacity
to express a desire to
make 10 percent on
their money.
Imagine that! A
capitalist wanting to
make money! And all the
way up to a lousy 10
percent! Newspapers
make 20 percent, TV
stations make 40
percent. Good heavens,
the first time Wal-Mart
made as much as 8
percent on its money,
chairman Sam Walton put
on a grass skirt and
danced a hula down the
corporate offices in
Bentonville, Ark.
Of course, the owners
want to make money. And
they are entitled to
make money. They are
the ones putting their
butts on the financial
line to make people
like Latrell Sprewell
rich beyond their
imaginations.
I hope owners don't
budge an inch. I hope
they show the players
they will lose less
money by shutting down
than they will lose by
playing the games.
So this is my message
to NBA players:
Go away.
Stay away.
I'll tape the World
Series and watch it all
winter.