Re: POLL

[Joe Hironaka <j.hironaka@unesco.org>]

Dorine wrote:

>  (clipped)  Free agency has been good for the players in some cases,
> but for the fan it's taken some of the joy away.  When you have a team
> where
> the players are so different year to year it's hard to feel the same
> way
> about them as we used to.

Dorine:

I agree 100%.  I say owners should negotiate to lengthen the rookie
contracts as far as the union millionaires will allow (to fix the
serious and genuine Garnett/Antoine problem) BUT to eventually back down
on phasing out the Bird Exemption. As I've said before, I think fans
appreciate the continuity of seeing their version of
DiMaggio/Montana/Bird stay with one team over an entire career. No other
American pro sport better safeguards this "right of fans" than the NBA.
At the same time, the Bird Exemption also allows GM's and coaches to
receive due credit for drafting and molding their young players into
championship athletes. Nothing wrong with that IMO.

As a fan, I am personally less disgusted with Kevin Garnett's yearly
income (or the even less-polished Antoine Walker's next contract) than I
am with the annual breakup of championship-calibre teams (Florida
Marlins, Pittsburgh Steelers etc.) in other major American sports. In
particular, the NFL's arbitrary hard salary cap seems to me to have
actually encouraged the movement of All Pro calibre players from team to
team.

In trying to fix obscene NBA superstar salaries, I think both owners and
players risk doing more long-term harm than good to the sport, without
necessarily improving either side's bottom line. I say lengthen the
rookie contracts, set a veteran minimum wage scale, retain some form of
the Bird Exemption, and freaking GO BACK TO WORK like the rest of us.

The union would probably go along with these concessions (what does
Patrick Ewing care?). I think the owners are being (typically)
short-sighted in still insisting on no Bird Exemption. That's why I'm
stubbornly pro-union in this case - even with the knowledge that the
Virgin Mary may have been a registered Republican (married and not
homeless), as Shawn Roth insists.