Re: Offseason thoughts

[Kim Malo <kimmalo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 01:28 PM 7/20/02 -0700, bird wrote:
> Even I would love to see Baker in green if that were the case.  And I 
> think you're right about the guaranteed contracts.  The players' union, 
> though -- and the players themselves -- probably see the guarantee as a 
> sort of job security issue.  You know, if a guy gets injured, that sort of 
> thing.  Plus, I think there's an idea that once you get your contract in 
> the NBA, you've "made it".  And it's hard to disagree on some level.  I 
> mean, guys dream from the time they're kids to play hoop, it's sort of 
> human nature to use some arbitrary point as the indicator of having "made 
> it".  And, since they've already been given this privilege, they are 
> unlikely to give it back.
Well I don't disagree with their wanting it, but that doesn't mean I think 
they should get it. Set it up with a few restrictions on when you release 
someone to prevent it's being done for the wrong reasons, of course. 
However, as you say, they're unlikely to give it back.


> But it's not good for the game.  I think basketball's real mistake is this:
>  they try to run their league as a capitalist venture, a sort of Adam 
> Smith-model NBA.  They probably need more regulation of salaries because 
> of the very nature of the league itself: not entirely free market to 
> begin with.
Yeah, but the thing is that regulating the salaries further has got to be 
linked with regulating revenues because I'll be damned if I want to limit 
players salaries just to have the owners gleefully continue to raise prices 
as much as possible etc to increase their own profits at both player and 
fan expense. No problem with an owner making a profit if he can, but it 
should be based upon product quality  rather than on the fact that everyone 
but him has limits. And, um, with competent accounting rather than Arthur 
Anderson overseeing the results. Owners have their ways, such as 
transferring profits to the stadium/arena so that they can *cough* 
truthfully say that they're losing money.


>   The way it is now, men's professional basketball is as much about the 
> money and business side of it as the basketball itself.  Maybe more so.
Marketing. Mixture of MJ and Stern, when they decided to sell the league 
through loyalty to stars rather than to a team or the game itself, with MJ 
giving them the perfect person to launch that focus around. And the game 
itself has deteriorated in so many ways from it's fundamentals that it's 
tough to see how they could turn the clock back, even if they wanted to.


>   And that's just not OK, I don't think.  Look, you're always going to 
> have some amount of that but it probably needs to be limited.  Players 
> will probably see a move to regulate or even mandate salaries as limiting 
> their American right to make a killing, and they're probably right -- but 
> they are taking eggs away from the Golden Goose at an alarming rate (same 
> goes for the owners) and something will need to be done to fix it.
Yup. I've never objected to a player accepting offered money even though 
the world knows he's not worth it. It's not his fault someone else is being 
stupid. I have other issues about things they do to make a killing, but 
can't blame them for that. While the owners figured they can pay whatever 
because they can get it back from the fans one way or another.

Which means that fiscal sanity, such as Gaston has been preaching isn't bad 
in itself, it's just a problem when that becomes an end in itself rather 
than a way of trying to manage success, leading to shortsighted tunnel 
visioned decisions.


> > And yeah, I think I'd pay to watch some free agents get snapped up. They 
> > could make a TV game show of it and include the resulting revenue in the 
> > cap figures as a sweetener (maybe have the audience vote for the hardest 
> > to catch FA/best chase, resulting in a bonus that the team doesn't have 
> > to pay and equivalent extra cap space for the team, which would 
> > *encourage* them to improve their team by going for FA). Gaston is 
> > supposed to be a big motocross racer and fan. Maybe they could have him 
> > do a rodeo act with the bike, herding them up...
> Now you're getting it.  I like the audience participation angle -- 
> apparently a requisite nowadays for these sorts of things.
Evil thoughts dancing in my head of adding in a wired slalom to the chase 
course where fans can use their computer/webTV to activate/deactivate the 
charge as a GM or player approaches, with what actually happens based upon 
simple majority punching yes vs no. Want your GM to catch a player? Zap the 
player slightly to make him pause and collect himself and hope a lot of 
others feel the same. Looking around for the 10 foot pole that's the only 
thing you'd touch him with? Zap the GM to slow him down.


>  The only other thing we're forgetting is, of course, gratuitous 
> nudity.  It's all bread and circuses, anyway.
*Groan* Cheerleaders, I suppose. Y'know every game I'm at the Fleece I keep 
thinking that they really need to get more female cameramen so that I get 
something good to look at too.
So, um, maybe tear-away uniforms...

Kim