Steve Bulpett: Game Will Go Even Minus Michael

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

                  Boston Herald

                  Even minus Michael, the game will go on
                  by Steve Bulpett

                  Wednesday, January 13, 1999

                  The NBA will take a standing eight count today when a man
                  who has won six championships retires for the second time.
                  But while Michael Jordan grew bigger than the league over
                  the last decade and a half, he did not eclipse basketball.

                  The NBA will not go down because, while the Air Guy is
                  gone, it still has the game. It will stagger back to its
                  corner and fight defensively in this shortened season, but
                  it will be here to alternately entertain and haunt you
                  well beyond the millennium.

                  At this point, it may be a good idea to reveal that I am
                  by no means an NBA apologist. Having watched the game from
                  childhood in the late 1960s and in the 14th season as a
                  beat writer covering it, I am fully aware that it is a
                  league populated by players who have little or no
                  appreciation for the history of the game or the fans who
                  have facilitated the lining of their pockets.

                  I know that team owners are pricing a generation of fans
                  out of their buildings, creating arenas that cater to
                  those in luxury suites and premium seats.

                  I can see that the league's marketing of stars has eroded
                  the team versus team competitiveness that jump-started the
                  NBA in the '80s. I have taken full note of the circus -
                  the loud music and fireworks and video distractions - that
                  wage a fistfight for attention with basketball at every
                  venue.

                  (You know, it actually felt pretty good to get that out.)

                  But one would have to be blind to think that any of the
                  above has tipped over the cash cow that is the NBA of
                  today and not to realize what the latest collective
                  bargaining agreement will mean to both owner and fan
                  alike.
 
                  To the former point, all it takes is a quick scan of the
                  crowd at an NBA game. The fact is, the NBA has augmented
                  its well-heeled following by becoming an adolescent and
                  pre-teen paradise. There are NBA-sponsored magazines and
                  Saturday morning television shows that target youth, and
                  the result has been a huge payoff at the credit card
                  machine.

                  One sees Bruin jerseys at a Bruins game. At a Celtic
                  affair, one is more likely to see an opponent's shirt
                  (Penny Hardaway, Shaquille O'Neal, Grant Hill - not just
                  Jordan) than Antoine Walker's. The kids at NBA games are
                  NBA fans as much if not more than Celtic fans, and they
                  are very much in step with the scene.

                  And just because I don't like the extracurricular madness
                  at an NBA game doesn't mean I can pretend it doesn't
                  exist, or that today's youth - educated by MTV, Nintendo
                  and the Kenneth Starr report - isn't eating it up.

                  The lockout was rank stupidity, but only the shortsighted
                  would fail to realize that the positive effect of the
                  settlement will far outweigh the backlash from the games
                  missed and, in the longer run, even the absence of Jordan.
                  The children who have grown up with TV clickers in hand
                  will have no problem tuning back in, and the adults, well,
                  they've been generally too busy with the Patriots' moving
                  (literally) soap opera and the weekly NFL pool at work to
                  notice the lack of dribbling. They will complain, but they
                  will eventually watch. The ones who stay away were never
                  there to begin.

                  And in the lasting analysis, the new NBA deal will provide
                  a relative financial sanity that will look increasingly
                  attractive to fans. People will get used to the top
                  contract numbers because they have been established and
                  will become common.

                  Unlike baseball, there is no longer a spiral in the NBA,
                  and as rosters become more consistent, the resultant
                  identity of player and team will be more fan-friendly than
                  a free exhibition game.

                  Baseball players are utterly mercenary, and Paul Coffey
                  changed NHL teams more often than Liz Taylor changed
                  husbands. So have basketball types always had a well-honed
                  greed (L. Bird never took a hometown discount). But if
                  they can keep their sneakers out of their mouths for a
                  while, the new laws will save them in the eyes of a fed-up
                  sporting public.

                  The conclusions here are born of no great faith in NBA
                  players or owners. There are enough fools in this crew to
                  make April 1 last a week. But no one should join their
                  ranks by failing to recognize where the league and its
                  fans were before the lockout and Jordan's retirement or
                  where the new agreement will land the NBA after an
                  appropriate period of contrition.