Sports Feature NBA OR BUST???

James Loving/National Radio Text Service

The players feel that they are contributing to the league in such a way that they feel they should be considered partners. That's based upon the large attendance figures and the popularity of the league today and the money the league will make in the future. The players feel the NBA is a success because of them.

Monday January 4, 1999

WHO'S LEAGUE IS IT ANYWAY?

During the last week in October, prior to my leaving for Asia, I was walking along Venice [CA] Beach in the USA when I spotted a tall figure shooting hoops [baskets] on the basketball court. As I approached I noticed that it was the Los Angeles Clippers 7'3" back-up center KEITH CLOSS.

At the time I figured the NBA player's lockout would be over by the end of November. I thought the players would give in and go back to work, but I was wrong. I never dreamed that this story would hold up until the first week of January 1999.

The 22-year-old Closs is one of the nicest guys you would ever want to meet. He's very personable and polite. He's also a million dollar a year player and a diamond in the rough talent.

What I gathered from Closs is the players feel that they are contributing to the league in such a way that they feel they should be considered partners. That's based upon the large attendance figures and the popularity of the league today and the money the league will make in the future. The players feel the NBA is a success because of them.

I told Closs that if the players were willing to share in the financial losses as well as the profits then perhaps they might have a case in wanting to be considered in a sense, partners.

I asked for the basketball. I walked my 6'1" body to the foul line and said to Closs, "You have to get one of these [a type of shot I was about to take]." With a suit jacket on, I feathered up [shot], AND MADE, my first two HOOK SHOTS. He and his friend ohhh'd and ahhh'd with the spectators in the stands. Kareem Abdul Jabbar I'm not, but I still have the touch. After narrowly missing my third shot, I figured it was time to quit while I was ahead.

I told Closs that a million dollars was a lot of money to me. I added that even the NBA minimum salary of $272,000 was a lot. I noted that there were a lot of non-NBA basketball players who would love to play in the league and were chomping at the bit to do so. I joked that I would come out of retirement and rain [make] three's all day for a million dollars. Having lived 29 years of age a number of times in my life I was seriously joking.

The point is the NBA owners and David Stern are not. They are not giving in. I never thought they would. My feeling was that the players would wake up and smell the coffee by the end of November. I felt that they would realize they had a good thing going. I was wrong.

Today's NBA players are reaping the rewards of the seeds that their predecessors planted. We're talking about George Mikan, Bob Cousy, Bill Russell, Bob Pettit, Wilt Chamberlain, Elgin Baylor, Jerry West, Bill Bradley and many other NBA GREATS that never made the amount of money that today's NBA's AVERAGE player makes. The old time NBA players set the foundation that today's NBA players stand on.

Once upon a time Fuller Brushes were a great product but it took Fuller to sell them. I was in attendance at the NAB in Las Vegas in the early 80's, when NBA Commissioner DAVID STERN announced an agreement with TED TURNER for the NBA to be carried on Turner's cable channels. That was the beginning of a marketing effort that brought the NBA game into homes around the world. The exposure and popularity began. Stern is to the NBA what Fuller was to brushes.

It seems that today's players are a bit misguided. Many of today's NBA players don't have a college degree. With what they have in the way of a college education what kind of job could they get? How much money could they make a year TO WORK a real job and not PLAY A GAME? In the early days many of the NBA players worked in the off-season to pay the bills.

Closs noted that he was financially OK, but the players who were making NBA minimum salaries were hurting because they had families and had houses to pay for. His voice was full of sincerity and concern. Closs has a point.

There is something to be said about the haves and the have-nots of the NBA. After taxes how much does a minimum salaried player clear? They might be considered the impoverished privileged.

Many of today's players don't know business from smizzness. They're mostly kids playing a game. In many cases they've never had to work. To the average Joe on the street why should he care about players who want more money to play basketball when the average Joe can't make enough money WORKING to feed his family. The other irony is the average Joe probably can't afford to take his family to see a NBA game.

The poor fan attendance for the NBA Stars basketball game in Atlantic City in December indicated that the fans could care less about the player's arguments and can do without NBA basketball.

Being a player's rep today is a thankless job. LORENZEN WRIGHT is the Clippers rep. Wright is a mild mannered polite individual who seems out of character in that position. If the 23-year-old Wright hadn't left college after his sophomore season, he would be just a rookie in the NBA this year.

Many of the player's reps weren't even born when Cousy, Baylor, West and Chamberlain were lighting up the nets [making shots] when they were laying that NBA foundation. When today's players demand something, what is their perspective? How deep is their resource of information?

Young impressionable players are to a great extent influenced by their agents. Agents could be considered WOLVES in SHEEPS clothing, who are thinking of their best interests and not the players.

It was Cousy who started the NBA labor movement in the 1950's. There isn't a player in the NBA game who was born at the time. Now 70, Cousy has criticized union chief BILLY HUNTER and the hi-profile players and agents.

"They've done so much damage to the game we all love, just for the sake of unbridled greed, ego and control," AP reported Cousy as saying. "These agents are just pulling Hunters strings. The agents don't love anything but their percentage they will suck dry, the vehicle of the moment, until it dies."

No one has benefited by the NBA lockout. Owners are in business to make money. The players have NO OPERATING EXPENCE, the owners do. In business. a partner shares in the financial loss as well as the financial gain. Are the players prepared to do that? I don't think so. It's time for the players to appreciate what they receive to run up and down a court and put a ball in a hole.

There are a lot of good guys in the NBA like Closs and Wright. You will probably never hear their point of view. I heard Closs' and I feel that he feels he's right. I also feel the players are misled.

Having recently returned from Cambodia I had a thought. Why not let the NBA players live there for a month and see what real financial suffering is about. After that experience perhaps they would appreciate the money they make TO PLAY A GAME.

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