Phil Mushnick: The Players Don't Get It

[Way Of The Ray <wayray@ix.netcom.com>]

                               [New York Post]
                                  SPORTS

                        UNION'S JAUNT TO VEGAS DESERVES TRAVELING CALL

                    By PHIL MUSHNICK
                    ------------------------------------------------------
                    THEY just don't get it. They really don't. The NBA
                    players and their union leadership literally had
                    hundreds of North American cities and towns from
                    which to display their solidarity and state their
                    case to the public.

                    And, Thursday, they chose to do it from Las Vegas.

                    The National Basketball Players Association chose Las
                    Vegas as its meeting place to announce that its
                    members will stick together. Yep, if the dealer shows
                    a six, they'll all stick with 12 or more.

                    Already widely perceived as fabulously wealthy,
                    spoiled and selfish, they chose to foster public
                    sentiment for the future of their careers, the good
                    and welfare of their families and the next generation
                    of NBA players by gathering at a hotel/casino in Las
                    Vegas! You can't make a greater contradictory,
                    laughable statement.

                    They chose to show just how sober and solemn they are
                    on the issue of their livelihoods by congregating in
                    a city that's synonymous with excessive lavishness,
                    self-indulgence and irresponsibility. They selected
                    to make a united front in a city built and sustained
                    on carefree and careless spending, a city that exists
                    as a kingdom of greed.

                    Any city on the continent except Vegas, and maybe
                    Atlantic City. And they chose Vegas!

                    And the union drew 240 NBA players to the meeting,
                    the organization's largest-ever turnout. Whatever
                    message the players might've sought to convey to the
                    public was obscured by the message they conveyed by
                    choosing to gather in Las Vegas: They needed to
                    indulge their pleasures in order to display their
                    solidarity.

                    Why did they choose Vegas? For the group rate? Were
                    they all comped for the lunch buffet? Siegfried &
                    Roy?

                    Michael Jordan held court Thursday in Vegas. One
                    might've thought that union head Billy Hunter
                    would've whispered to his union's most important
                    rank-and-filer that he's already perceived as having
                    a gambling problem, and that any other city with an
                    airport would better serve both Jordan and the union
                    as the site for Jordan to stand up and be counted.

                    But maybe Vegas was the carrot used to entice Jordan.
                    Heck, maybe Vegas was chosen at Jordan's insistence.
                    There's gambling and golf in Vegas. Maybe Vegas was
                    chosen because it stood the best chance of drawing
                    the most players. That would surprise none of us.

                    Regardless, there is no place in North America that
                    lines up less on the side of sincerity than Las
                    Vegas. And that's where the players' union chose to
                    make its most public, sincere stand.

                    Just a little bit of common public-relations sense -
                    human-relations sense - could've won the day and the
                    following month for the players. They
                    could've chosen to gather in an economically
                    depressed city - say, a Flint, Mich. They could've
                    infused a Flint with unexpected revenue, maybe even
                    held an open scrimmage for the community. Now that
                    would've made a statement!

                    Instead, 240 of the NBA's players, including the
                    sagacious social commentator Charles Barkley, chose
                    to show their collective faces and their
                    collective concerns at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.

                    The players announced that they're prepared to sit
                    out the entire NBA season. If that's the case, they'd
                    better not spend any more time waiting it out 
                    in Vegas. Vegas has a habit of making people
                    wish they'd never left work. <snip>