NBA Players Don't Understand Public's Reaction

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

          October 28, 1998

          SPORTS OF THE N.Y. TIMES

          Hardly the Boys Next Door

          By WILLIAM C. RHODEN

              Pro basketball players seem puzzled over the
              public's failure to embrace their "struggle"
          against National Basketball Association owners. They
          seem to ask, "Where's the outpouring of sympathy for
          fellow workers?"

          They might try to give the public a different look. A
          few weeks ago, LaPhonso Ellis spoke about the economic
          confrontation, one in which the two sides argue over
          how escalating league profits will be apportioned in
          coming seasons. Ellis spoke with ease and grace about
          the hazards of being locked out, but what you noticed
          was that he seemed to be speaking from poolside at some
          resort.

          Last week, the players gathered in Las Vegas, Nev., of
          all places, to plan a strategy session. Amid slot
          machines they voted not to accept a hard salary cap.
          Earlier this week, an article in The New York Times
          quoted Kenny Anderson, the Boston Celtics point guard
          and former New York City high school legend, about the
          impact this lockout was having on his cash flow. He
          spoke of possibly having to sell one of his eight
          luxury cars; he spoke of how paying child support for
          two children he fathered with two different women
          "really burns a hole in your pocket."

          Sympathy?

          The two sides met in New York on Monday, and the union
          couldn't seem to decide whether there was progress or
          regress. Danny Schayes, a member of the union's
          executive committee, saw some progress. Jim McIlvaine
          of Seattle growled: "Danny Schayes didn't stay for the
          entire meeting." Billy Hunter, executive director of
          the union, said: "I guess Danny has a different
          interpretation. Maybe I was looking for a lot more than
          Danny did."

          Some players have expressed concern that the league's
          high concentration of African-American athletes will
          cause a more severe reaction to the lockout than either
          baseball or hockey experienced. A sports talk show in
          Philadelphia recently gave voice to a similar idea. A
          poignant moment in the show occurred when the station's
          general manager called in and said the racial angle,
          with this particular group of African-Americans, was
          not relevant, because, he felt, the issue was purely
          economic. The general manger was African-American.

          My reaction to the concern about racial backlash was:
          They must be joking. All of a sudden they've discovered
          a collective awareness of being black? They sold that
          to NBA Properties a long time ago.

          The current players aren't sympathetic figures simply
          because they never wanted to be and never worked to be.
          The owners aren't sympathetic figures, either, because
          they were silly enough to create the monster -- and
          keep feeding it -- in the first place.

          In 1987, striking football players picketed, tossed
          eggs at strike-breakers and wore their hearts on their
          sleeves. Basketball players, it seems, sip mint juleps
          under honeysuckle trees and sing "Nobody Knows the
          Trouble I've Seen." They are stylish in their
          incongruity.

          I hate phrases like "the American People," and I don't
          know who the average United States citizen is, but my
          sense is that the mass of workers are feeling more
          alienated from professional athletes with each
          successive season. Most see sports labor as a
          contradiction in terms. Clearly this lockout is not a
          life-or-death, knockdown, drag-out war. We're not
          talking about closing down factories, laying off
          workers, shipping jobs to overseas plants. This is a
          skirmish between the rich fighting the wealthy for a
          greater portion of huge profits.

          As for some kind of sustained backlash directed at the
          league: It'll never happen. Watch what happens when the
          doors reopen: people will come briskly walking in
          because basketball, like it or not, is in our blood.

          People rejoiced that baseball came back this year; for
          a while the nation was thrown into a fit of longing for
          the "good ol' days," when the grass was real. There
          have been all sorts of rumblings that people don't care
          about the NBA anymore. These are the delirious
          ramblings of patients recovering from a severe bout of
          baseball fever. The patient will get over it.

          Knick City Dancers, Laker Girls, Keith Van Horn and --
          who knows? -- Michael Jordan, will draw them back.
          Baseball is a classic drama; basketball is steamy,
          fast-paced soap opera. Money? The beautiful people
          sitting courtside know about money. They can relate at
          some level to Kenny Anderson's situation. After all,
          everything is relative.

          At any rate, if some players end up going to the
          poorhouse, there's comfort in knowing they'll have
          plenty of cars to take them.

          Don't you love this game?

                Copyright 1998 The New York Times Company