L.C. Johnson: Shortened NBA Season May Be Compelling

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

Madness may follow sadness

By L.C. Johnson
The Orlando Sentinel

Tuesday, December 29, 1998

Not enough games to make it a viable season.

Players will be more susceptible to injuries.

It will make a mockery of the championship.

These are just a few of the arguments against the NBA
attempting a shortened season.

Of course, there might not be a season at all unless
the two sides can make up some serious ground in the
negotiating sessions between now and the Jan. 7
deadline imposed by NBA Commissioner David Stern.

At this point, the league would be lucky to squeeze in
a 50-game schedule. But as one highly placed NBA
executive said recently: "None of those possible
downsides is worth losing the season over."

Fact is, whatever amount of games the NBA eventually
settles on, it still can set the stage for an exciting
finish.

Besides, fans and players often have complained about
the tediousness of an 82-game regular season coming on
the heels of an eight-game exhibition season.

So why can't a 40-game season work? Or even 30 for that
matter?

It works just fine for the college game. Why can't the
NBA adopt a few NCAA rules to get them through this
tumultuous season?

About the only real drawback is that teams might be
restricted to playing games solely within their
conference, similar to what baseball had done in years
past.

Other than the Super Bowl, there is nothing that
captures the fancy of American sports fans quite like
the annual March Madness jaunt through college
basketball.

The 64-team tournament field always seems to produce a
Cinderella team looking for the glass slipper. But it's
the trip to the big dance that makes it fun -- and for
some of you office pool sharks, profitable.

So imagine for a minute what it would be like if the
NBA adopted a similar playoff format and held a wild
free-for-all tournament.

NBA deep-thinkers have kicked around the idea of making
all 29 teams eligible for the playoffs. Teams would be
seeded according to their records. A best-of-three
first-round series would be held at arenas of the
higher-seeded teams only to cut down on travel costs.

Once the first round is over, in which the Toronto
Raptors get crushed by the Chicago Bulls, for example,
the playoffs would resume with the more traditional
best-of-five series, leading up to best-of-seven
conference finals and the NBA Finals.

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A handful of NBA players, including Orlando Magic free
agents Derek Strong, Darrell Armstrong and Jason Lawson
have expressed interest in playing overseas provided
the lockout is not resolved. Now that Stern has
set a Jan. 7 deadline to reach a settlement, however,
it actually might wipe out any chances the players have
of playing abroad.

The European rosters are full of former NBA players
such as Sasha Danilovic, longtime Boston Celtic Dino
Radja, one-time Los Angeles Laker David Rivers -- plus
some new faces who could show up there soon.

A number of clubs are searching to beef up their teams
for the European playoffs. But the official
cancellation of the NBA season could come too late.

The deadline set by FIBA, basketball's international
governing body, to sign a player who can suit up for
the Euro League, the continent's premier competition,
is Jan. 4 -- three days before Stern has said he will
cancel the
whole season if the lockout isn't resolved.

Italy's Kinder Bologna, the Euro League winner last
season, is one of the clubs scrambling to find a top
foreign player as a running mate to Danilovic, the
former Miami Heat player.

"We want those [NBA] players, but we can't wait. They
would have to come now," said Roberto Brunamonti, club
vice president.

Former Portland Trail Blazers center Arvydas Sabonis,
long a dominant player in Europe before departing for
the NBA, already has agreed to terms with Zalgiris of
Kaunas in his homeland of Lithuania.

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Maybe the lockout is getting to Los Angeles Lakers
center Shaquille O'Neal, too.

Word has it that Shaq is putting his Isleworth mansion
up for sale.

Remember when the former Magic center left Orlando for
the L.A. Lakers and referred to the city of Orlando as
a "dried up little pond"?

Even though he has continued to diss the city, he has
kept his Isleworth digs as his permanent residence.

In fact, after his Lakers were swept in Game 4 of the
Western Conference Finals by the Utah Jazz, Shaq and
his family were on a red-eye back to Orlando that
night.

Since that time, Shaq, who also owns a mansion in Bel
Air, Calif., has purchased another home in the Houston
area. He apparently will make that his new home away
from Hollywood.

He recently donated some of the items from his massive
Isleworth game room to a couple of neighborhood kids.

One of the reasons that Shaq and a number of
professional athletes reside in the Orlando area is
because of the tax shelter it affords them. Houston
offers similar tax breaks and thus has become a
favorite off-season home to several players --
including Nick Van Exel, Avery Johnson, Sam Cassell and
nearly the entire Houston Rockets basketball team.

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