[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
Boston Herald - Michael Gee - Lockout Ends When The Players Can't Play Golf
News Flash: Mike Fransesca of WFAN said he's hearing the NBA will be
back for Christmas... Now back to our original posting......
BOSTON HERALD
There's no hurry to
go to the hoop
by Michael Gee
10/15/98
Anyone who wants to
know when the NBA
lockout will end is
advised to check
the Weather Channel
each morning. As
soon as it gets way
too cold to play
golf in Chicago,
the players and
owners will settle.
If Michael Jordan
walks off the 18th
green and decides
he wants to
re-enlist with the
Bulls, the warring
parties will come
to an immediate
agreement. If
Jordan decides he'd
rather retire, move
to Florida and play
golf year-round,
they'll come to an
agreement even
faster.
Perhaps that's a
whimsical view of a
financial dispute
involving hundreds
of millions of
dollars and the
already postponed
start of a major
professional
season.
But it's no sillier
than my opening
premise, namely,
that there is
someone who cares
if and when the
lockout will end.
That outsiders,
such as fans, don't
care is a given. In
the last two months
there have been
more barroom
arguments about the
International
Monetary Fund than
about the NBA's
labor dispute.
What's truly
amazing is there's
no evidence anybody
inside pro
basketball is
worried about the
lockout, either. I
was idly
channel-surfing
last weekend. Saw
Rick Pitino's horse
win the Champagne
Stakes at Belmont.
The Celtic coach
was beside himself
with joy. If
Pitino's been
losing sleep about
the lockout, you
sure couldn't tell.
Flicked the clicker
over to E!.
Shaquille O'Neal
was being
interviewed about
his debut as a film
director.
Wonderful! Maybe
the Lakers will
hire Jean-Luc
Godard to teach
O'Neal how to shoot
free throws. O'Neal
looked and sounded
happy as a clam. If
he's perplexed at
missing training
camp, he didn't
mention it.
The basketball
business made
Pitino and O'Neal
internationally
famous
multi-millionaires.
If the lockout
isn't disturbing
them, why should we
care?
Of course, that's
exactly why the NBA
is shut down. The
owners and players
battling over
hundreds of
millions of dollars
already have that
much money, or at
least tens of
millions of
dollars. They have
no fiscal incentive
to settle. Their
losses from the
cancellation of the
first two weeks of
the season are only
paper losses.
Pitino and O'Neal
probably are
concerned about the
lockout, and wish
they could go back
to work. But it
doesn't really have
an impact on their
lives.
But there are
several hundred NBA
players for whom
missed paychecks
are a disaster, in
the same way the
stock market is
costing brokerage
workers their jobs.
But they don't
count. In a world
with millions of
good players,
non-stars have no
leverage.
The lockout is a
contest between the
owners and the 100
or so stars who are
the NBA's
fundamental
product. The
players' union
leaders aren't role
players. They're
Patrick Ewing and
Alonzo Mourning.
They can afford to
see a missed
paycheck as an
investment in
bigger paychecks to
come.
Since pro
basketball starts
at a particularly
busy part of the
sports calendar,
conventional wisdom
says the NBA's
dysfunctional rich
family will get its
comeuppance when
apathetic fans turn
away from the game.
Unfortunately, the
lockout will likely
have little lasting
impact, unless it
washes out the
whole season. A
month or two of
missed games
doesn't disrupt a
season, it only
delays it. The
baseball strike of
1994 devastated
customers because
it came in
mid-August, at the
beginning of the
climax of the
season's story
line. The hockey
lockout of the same
year took place at
the beginning of
the season. Nobody
but Harry Sinden
remembers it.
Eventually, the
players will
compromise. Why
not? No labor
agreement in sports
in the past 30
years has kept
salaries from
spiraling upward.
The law of supply
and demand cannot
be repealed.
But tomorrow's
forecast for
Chicago is sunny
and mild with
temperatures in the
70s. It may take a
long time to reach
the light at the
end of the NBA's
tunnel, assuming
your idea of light
is the Sacramento
Kings.