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Peter Vecsey On The Lies Of Hunter & Ewing
[New York Post]
SPORTS
PRESSURE'S ON UNION TO GET OUT THE VOTE
By PETER VECSEY
------------------------------------------------------------------------
AS the Players Association manipulates today's mock (open?) vote to support the
recommendation of its negotiating committee to reject the owners' final (?) offer, I
thought it might be somewhat timely to present the top lies being told by Billy Hunter
and Patrick Ewing; and gobbled up as fact by those who don't know better and don't want
to know.
*No other set of employees in any other profession has ever given cost certainty to their
employer. Wrong! Every union that signs a contract with management agrees to salary
stipulations for its membership for the length of the deal. And every business has a
budget. Exceed it and somebody is bound to pay a penalty.
*The recent conference-call vote by the players' negotiating committee not to accept the
owners' final offer was unanimous. Wrong! Sources say it was either 10-4 or 9-5.
*The union has been the only one to make significant concessions. Wrong! The league
wanted a hard cap but backed off. Wanted to invalidate the Larry Bird Exception but
abandoned it. Wanted timing issues but gave up. Wanted unlimited escrow but dropped it;
the union got a cutoff at 10 percent. Substantially raised the minimum for 10-year
veterans from 272G to $1 million and created a middle-class exception for capped teams to
use every season. By the sixth year of a new contract, a capped team could conceivably
have spent $15M. Multiply that number by 29 teams.
*The league never had any of those things to begin with, so it really didn't give up
anything. Wrong! The union has never accepted that the old deal is dead. Everything is up
for negotiation in a new agreement, which means nothing from the past is a given.
Players should come to New York today if they want to cast a vote, Hunter instructed his
membership on Larry King Live (as if anyone was clued to their TV sets) Monday night.
Say, what? Numerous players said yesterday they were unable to get a call back from the
union (nothing new there) to find out what location to report to, or at what time. When
they call the union's hotline number (at least it's toll-free) for an update, they hear a
recording logged Dec. 1, two holy days of obligation ago.
*Meanwhile, the whopper of the Lying Game that's being circulated over the last 24 hours
is that the Stern would be insane to attempt a mutated league next season should the
owners cancel this one. After all, (here comes the falsification) today's 435 players are
the best in the world. The league can't exist without them and the fans wouldn't accept
replacements. Clearly, Hunter and Patrick Ewing have never learned the truth from Lenny
Bruce.
So let me break it to them gently: Other than Michael Jordan, several legitimate
franchise players (Shaquille O'Neal, Grant Hill, Tim Duncan) and maybe Allen Iverson and
Kobe Bryant (because they're so entertaining), there's isn't anybody who fans will
actually pay to see perform.
That goes double for such obscenely overpriced players as Ewing, Alonzo Mourning, Dikembe
Mutombo and Juwan Howard. These guys aren't the draw. And neither are the players (Tim
Hardaway being the possible exception) they brought with them on Dec. 19 to Atlantic
City.
For the most part, they ultimately don't attract the fans. Appeal to sponsors. Capture
the TV and advertising dollar. It's the game of basketball and the way the NBA has
marketed it worldwide that sells. Hunter's union could start a new league next season and
while they'd have more than enough talent to stage some great competition, they'd lack
the essential ingredients that make the NBA a success:
History. Tradition. Teams like the Knicks and Celtics that fans have followed for 52
years. Bitter and cherished rivalries that can't be duplicated overnight or over the next
decade or two. Put new players in those old uniforms and let them play in arenas like
Madison Square Garden or the United Center, or the Palace, and watch how fast they catch
on. Watch how quickly fans will forget their old heroes and start to emulate their new
ones.
After all, given the chance and exposure, there's always somebody a season or a publicity
campaign behind ready to take somebody's roster spot, minutes, shots and salary. If the
greatest players of them all were replaceable by somebody greater, they'll be no trouble
finding reinforcements during the league's transitional period minus Jordan while the
owners straighten out their flawed system.
This is their time. Whether they blow it or now remains to be seen. I, for one, have been
convinced all along the two sides will reach an agreement. Imagine thinking about
forfeiting millions upon millions that you lucked into simply by riding Jordan's tux
tails and being under the auspices of Stern's genius.
It's almost as if the players feel compelled to experience the nightmarish pain of loss
in order to awake to the dream world they've been living in.
"What our players must understand is that no one gets everything he wants," Terry
Cummings said yesterday from his home in San Antonio. "If we get some of the things we
want, we've won.
"Players get caught up in the trap; they believe the hype about themselves. But this is
about the game. We make money because of the game. If we don't play the game, we lose our
earning power. Money was always secondary, love of the game first. If we're not careful,
I'm very worried we might damage it beyond repair.
"We can't put a bandage on what both sides have done," continued the Knick forward who
believes the players are a tweak or two away from a fair deal. "We must sew it up in the
40 or so games remaining and let the fans fall back in love with the game. Let us fall
back in love with it. Next season we'll fall back in love with each other.
"If this is about power and greed and money, it's not going to work. We might as well
call off the season. Although that'll solve nothing. It'll only get worse. We're not
stupid or ignorant. This is simple business. We have a responsibility for making best
deal for ourselves without it affecting economics. It'll be tough to recoup. We must show
resolve within the union, then get on with the basketball.
"The truth is, this is the easiest money we'll ever make. That anyone can ever make."
Pass the harmonica, Alvin.
<snip>