Re: make or break time...

[Douglas342@AOL.com]

    Sorry, but I don't see this "the NBA wants XXXXX to be in the playoffs" 
stuff.  The NBA is big business, and big business is, in part,  the sales 
business.  The NBA sells its product.  They can sell Iverson both as hip-hop 
gangsta symbol or as very talented and hardworking basketball player.  They 
can sell the untattoed/stabbing victim Pierce, the frenetic Waltah, the tall 
Mutombo (sp?).  They can sell the story of the Celtics returning to the 
playoffs with their unmatched history.  They can sell the Nets, former ABA 
team made good, or Jason Kidd, reformed from a life of domestic violence.  
They can sell Reggie Miller, still making miracles.  
    They don't much care; the one thing they want more than anything else, 
though, is LA andor NY/NJ, the biggest TV markets still in the playoffs.  
Boston and Philly are medium markets.  Chicago and Houston are out of it.  
"You tell me what is is, boss, and I'll sell it."
   It's nervous time...  Celts by 12!!