Steve Buckley: Let The NBA Snoozefest Begin

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

                  Let the NBA snooze-fest...er, games begin
                  by Steve Buckley

                  BOSTON HERALD - Thursday, January 7, 1999

                  Now that the owners and players have come together to
                  salvage the NBA season, several questions remain.

                  Can Shawn Kemp lose 130 pounds in three weeks?

                  Will Latrell Sprewell get so pent up by the rigors of a
                  shortened training camp that he attacks his coach?

                  When the first paychecks roll in, will Kenny Anderson be
                  able to put together enough scratch to buy back all his
                  Benzes?

                  Does John Calipari still coach the New Jersey Nets? Or,
                  true to form, did Coach Cal get the first bus out of East
                  Rutherford and line up a new job as soon as it appeared
                  the NBA season was in jeopardy?
                  As near as we can figure, the only thing we can count on,
                  once the strike-shortened NBA snoozefest starts, is that
                  the Celtics will still be . . . rebuilding.

                  But you may not notice the rebuilding Celtics. You may not
                  notice the hugely under-appreciated Karl Malone, or the
                  hugely out-of-shape Kemp, or the hugely
                  lucky-he's-not-breaking-rocks-for-a-living Sprewell.

                  You may not notice, because most of you won't even be
                  watching.

                  And if you do watch, the logical question is: Why?
                
                  You don't owe this league anything. You don't owe these
                  people your emotions, your interest and your support, and
                  you certainly do not owe them your hard-earned
                  entertainment dollars.

                  Over the last five or six months, as the owners and
                  players made their threats and their demands, not once did
                  anyone stand up and say, ``What about the fans?'' They
                  didn't, because you don't matter. They care only about
                  your wallets, not your hearts. And no agreement - and no
                  ``salvaged season'' - is going to change that.

                  Never in the history of professional sports has there been
                  a more appalling display of greed than was evidenced by
                  the negotiations following the NBA lockout. The owners
                  talked trash and the players talked trash - sitting around
                  a table, squawking and bickering about how to slice up a
                  billion-dollar pie.

                  It became, after a while, a laugh riot. When Patrick Ewing
                  pointed out that, sure, the players make a lot of money
                  but also spend a lot of money, federal authorities should
                  have stepped in that very day, padlocked all the arenas
                  and carted every owner and every player off to jail.

                  Fact: When Major League Baseball solved its last labor
                  dispute, most fans breathed a sigh of relief.

                  Fact: When the National Football League solved its last
                  labor dispute, most fans breathed a sigh of relief.

                  Fact: When the National Hockey League solved its last
                  labor dispute, most fans breathed a sigh of relief.

                  But why do I have this feeling that a lot of people were
                  privately hoping the entire NBA season would go belly up?

                  Now don't get me wrong: I'm not suggesting that a ``fan
                  boycott'' is in place. They never work, and the people who
                  start them tend to be get-a-lifers who shouldn't be
                  organizing anything more complicated than a sock drawer.

                  But privately, and without any plodding from
                  special-interest groups or political-action committees or
                  half-baked fan organizations, a lot of customers have come
                  to the conclusion that the NBA, in its current state, just
                  doesn't merit much of a commitment.

                  I can't wait for the strike-shortened snoozefest to begin.
                  There will be a lot of hoopla and press conferences and
                  statements from owners and players that they owe it to the
                  fans to get out there and give 'em some exciting
                  basketball, but one has to wonder if anyone will be
                  listening to these insincere messages.

                  When the season does begin, the owners and players will
                  see the empty seats, and they will hear the booing, and
                  they will read about the terrible TV ratings.

                  Maybe then they will get it. Maybe then they will realize
                  that this is 1999, and that people have other things on
                  their minds, other interests, other hobbies, other
                  diversions, other ways to spend their money.

                  Maybe then they will realize that the product isn't very
                  good, and that the whining and complaining is even worse.
                  And maybe then they will do what is needed to make the
                  National Basketball Association what it once was . . .
                  compelling entertainment.

                  Then again, maybe they will not get it, any of it. It's
                  not that they're dumb, and it's not that they're naive.
                  What they are is greedy, and greed blinds. And if they
                  can't see or hear what those outside the game are seeing
                  and hearing, then they won't bother trying to fix it.

                  Anyway, let the games begin. And pass the No-Doze.