Brett Friedlander: Only Players Can Make These Demands

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

Thursday, Oct. 29, 1998

NBA

Only players can make these demands

By Brett Friedlander
Staff writer
I like working for the Fayetteville Observer-Times.

But recently, it has come to my attention that the owners of this newspaper
are making a lot more money than I am. And that’s not fair.

So, as the resident rabble rouser in the newsroom, I have decided to take
up the cause for labor equity in our workplace.

Here are my demands:

*Sharing the wealth: Since the newspaper’s success is driven by the
performance of its employees, writers and editors should be entitled to,
say, 57 percent of the company’s annual revenue.

*Working conditions: We should be expected to work only eight months out
of the year (nine, if the team we cover makes it to the playoffs) with only
first-class airfare when we go on the road. And forget the Super 8 Motel.
We’re talking the Hilton, here. Room service and honor bar, included.

*Personal freedom: Who cares if smoking marijuana is illegal? It’s a
violation of our rights to force us to live within the letter of the law.

There are other things, like being able to leave as a free agent if Sports
Illustrated or some other publication comes calling with a better offer.

But I don’t want to seem too greedy.

I can’t wait to see what our publisher says when he hears about my demands.

Probably something like: Don’t bother cleaning out your desk. Just get out
of here before I call security and never come back!

That, in so many words, is what the National Basketball Association’s
owners said to their players when they decided to lock them out -- putting
the 1998-99 season in jeopardy.

Who’s money is it?

The core of the NBA’s labor dispute centers around the owners’ desire to
reduce their salary costs from 57 percent to 48 percent of their total
revenues.

There are other, less volatile issues, such the players’ attempts to keep
marijuana off the league’s list of banned substances.

But those are only bargaining chips.

This battle, like the ones that have already been fought in baseball,
football and hockey, is about money, greed and power.

OK, so the owners are making more money than anyone this side of the
Franklin Mint.

That’s their right.

Where is it written that employees are entitled to make as much as their
bosses?

When player’s union spokesman Patrick Ewing starts investing his own money
into the New York Knicks -- thus, assuming a share of the risk if the team
finishes in the red -- then he’ll have the right to ask for an equal slice
of the pie.

No sympathy

It’s hard to have any sympathy at all for a bunch of guys wearing Armani
suits crying poor because they only make a couple mil a year.

You want to talk about fair, guys?

Try living paycheck-to-paycheck just like the rest of us.

Come to think of it, some of them might actually get to experience that
delightful sensation in a few weeks, now that the NBA has canceled all
regular season games scheduled before Dec. 1.

The players can show their solidarity all they want by meeting in Las
Vegas, of all places, in October.

But let’s see how solid they remain into the winter, when those Lexus
payments come due and the endorsement dollars have run dry.

The players will eventually cave in faster than a sand castle at high tide.

Why?

Because they’re the only ones who actually need the NBA season to be
played.

The owners have the insurance of millions of dollars in television money.
As for the fans, we have the insurance of the college game.

You know, that form of basketball in which the players actually get called
for traveling, get suspended if they try to assault their own coach and
play as though their lives depend on it without making any unreasonable
demands.


    Local material copyright (c) 1998 Fayetteville (N.C.) Observer-Times