[no subject]

N.B.A. Markets Style at Expense of Substance
By OSCAR ROBERTSON

Published: February 15, 2004


The question I am asked most frequently by youngsters who submit questions
to my Web site is, "What can I do to increase my vertical leap?" It doesn't
matter what age they are; everyone wants to dunk.

I think this question captures in a nutshell the state of basketball today,
and the influence of the N.B.A. on the game as it is played everywhere else.

Professional basketball has been trivialized and dumbed down to the level of
a highlight reel. Marketing and entertainment rule the day rather than
putting the best product on the floor.

Basketball is not a vertical game. The game is won between the foul line and
the basket, an area where so few players today choose to, or are able to,
operate. Dunking is such a tiny part of the game. My answer to these
youngsters is always the same: concentrate on mastering all the fundamentals
and becoming a complete player. I'm sure that's not the answer they want to
hear.

N.B.A. basketball is mostly muscle and flash. Stylin' all the way to the
hoop. Dunks and 3-pointers, with nothing in between. Shooting percentages
continue to plummet. When people tell me that scores are lower today because
defenses are better, I have to laugh. Once I resisted the idea of the N.B.A.
permitting zone defenses. Anymore, what does it matter? Defenses can't guard
anyone properly and offenses can't score. One guy freelances while the other
four stand and watch. There's no movement, no creation of an open shot on
the weakside, no positioning for an offensive rebound.

I pity coaches at any level who believe in and want to teach fundamentals,
when youngsters see players on TV with no fundamentals being paid huge sums
of money. Why be concerned with traveling, double dribbling, palming or
carrying the ball, or failing to box out under the hoop when there are no
consequences in the N.B.A. for such behavior?

Players today are bigger, faster, stronger and more agile. But many of them
can't dribble, can't shoot from outside, can't create shots off the dribble,
can't guard anyone and are lost without the ball. Or even with it.

I can already hear the cries of protest: I'm "old school" and out of touch.
You've got that right. Many of my colleagues and I who were fortunate to
play during the golden age of the N.B.A.  the mid-60's to the early 70's 
are saddened by what the game has become today. And it's not about the
money. I believe an athlete should be able to earn whatever the market will
bear. But I also believe he or she actually ought to earn the money by
delivering true value in return, i.e., a level of play that advances rather
than diminishes the game.

And why has the game of professional basketball changed so radically? Other
pro sports haven't. To become a position player in major league baseball,
you still need most or all of these skills: hitting, hitting with power,
speed, defense and a strong arm. In football, offensive and defensive
strategies come and go, but the basic attributes required to play each
position haven't changed all that much.

Once upon a time in basketball, regardless of your position, you were
expected to be able to dribble with either hand, master all the basic
passes, play aggressive defense whether man or zone, at least be able to
guard and contain an opponent to some degree, at least box out your opponent
if not rebound, command at least three or four reliable shots from various
distances, and execute basic offensive maneuvers like running routes without
the ball, setting screens, running the pick-and-roll and creating a shot off
the dribble.

Most of today's so-called star N.B.A. players have fairly one-dimensional
games. Why? Potential stars skilled in one or two areas of the game are
identified at a very early age and coddled and wooed from middle school on
up. Few coaches will require them to develop a complete game or warm the
bench until they do. So they reach the N.B.A., often after only a year or
two of college if at all, without more than a minimal concept of the overall
game of basketball. The exceptions like Kobe Bryant, Kevin Garnett, LeBron
James and Carmelo Anthony are a distinct minority.

Thus, just as America imports cheap labor from other countries to do the
jobs Americans don't want to do, the N.B.A. turns increasingly to foreign
players who do have fundamental skills and an all-around approach to the
game that fewer and fewer American players  even though they may be
superior athletes  can be troubled to learn.

The N.B.A. has made a conscious decision to function as a marketing and
entertainment organization, and seems much more concerned with selling
sneakers, jerseys, hats and highlight videos than with the product it puts
on the floor. The league wants to extend its footprint worldwide, which is
good, but only to the extent of creating individual heroes who can drive
sales of licensed products in their countries, a shortsighted approach that
does nothing to grow the overall level of play. Team play is no longer
considered sexy. Individual showmanship is. But one player, no matter how
gifted, does not build and sustain a championship franchise.

I always thought that the game itself was the product and that team success
took precedence over the achievements of individual stars. Such thinking
today is passi. The N.B.A. has bet the farm on marketing those players it
believes appeal to the hip-hop culture, which has the same relationship to
true culture as N.B.A. basketball does to real basketball. Even if
basketball people were allowed once again to influence the strategic
direction of the N.B.A., it would take them years to reverse the damage.

As we take a break for another All-Star weekend, which is basically a
made-for-TV miniseries, the focus is more on artificial contests created
especially for television  the only thing missing is a three-legged race 
than on the teams on the court, and on getting certain individual players
onto the floor rather than creating teams that match up well against each
other.

Now All-Star voting is in the hands of the fans, and extended worldwide via
the Internet. Thus we have the spectacle of Yao Ming, already an
international marketing icon if not quite yet a fully developed basketball
player, starting at center for the West instead of Shaquille O'Neal.
Personally, I think voting should be returned to the players. Even if we
don't have marketing degrees.


Oscar Robertson, a 12-time All-Star, is the author of "The Art of
Basketball" (Oscar Robertson Media Ventures, 1998) and "The Big O: My Life,
My Times, My Game" (Rodale Press, 2003).