Russ
02-14-2010, 03:12 PM
(Okay, this kinda seems like an article because I sorta wrote it that way. A fanciful article. So don't take it too seriously and feel free to toss your brickbats. :))
You can't miss NBA Commissioner David Stern at weekend's All Star festivities. He's in front of every microphone in town.
It usually goes something like this.
Interviewer: "Commissioner, how about LeBron and Kobe this year."
Stern: "Well, Mark, as you know, the NBA has lost $400 million the last three years. . ."
Or like this:
Interviewer: "Commissioner, can you picture 100,000 fans in the stands to watch the All Star Game?"
Stern: "Yes, Steve, it's a hard to believe that the NBA has lost $400 million the last three years. . ."
Like a politician with a talking point, that $400 million is always the first thing out of the Commissioner's mouth.
And the reason is apparent. Stern is laying the groundwork for a PR war with the players that is bound to come soon. The battle lines are set -- the players will say that the NBA is a gold mine and Stern will counter that the league is about to be evicted from a one room flat.
The underlying pupose, of course, is that Stern (and the NBA) wants to roll back all of the gains that the players made in the last years of collective bargaining. Things like guaranteed contracts (the NFL doesn't have them), revenue sharing with the players, etc.
And Stern knows one thing that "Shock Doctrine" author Naomi Klein also knows -- the best time to push through an unpopular policy that further enriches the wealthy (here, the NBA owners) is during a terrible crisis (real or imagined).
So Stern's problem is this -- how do you take a league that looks to all the world like a symbol of affluence, glamor and excess and make it seem like it's in the middle of a rummage sale. That way you can get your collective bargaining reforms through.
Here's where our Spurs could enter the picture. :)
The last ten years the NBA has been on an upward trajectory -- LeBron, Kobe, the Celtics' and Lakers' rebirth, TV ratings climbing, etc.
The only blips on the radar screen during those past ten years of upward mobility have been four dark (corporately speaking) Junes when the Spurs won their titles. Those boring Spurs. The ratings' killers. After each title, the sports media wrung their hands about the fragile health of the NBA. The Spurs won the title but nobody cares said the ESPN radio voices. And how could a league survive with no contending team in New York. And how many millions of TV sets turned of every time the Spurs showed up in big games. Even the business cable channels like CNBC and Fox Business News chimed in about how bad for the NBA's bottom line the Spurs were.
So when the Spurs won a title, people actually worried about the financial health of the NBA.
And that is the state David Stern is desperately trying to get to get back to now. But his job is kinda hard with LeBron and Kobe mugging for the cameras. And Mark Cuban prancing around like a modern day robber barron in Jerry Jones' palace.
I never really bought those conspiracy theories about the NBA. How the league (through the refs) decided who won the title and things like that.
But the timing of some things always seemed interesting. Like how rules against aggressive perimeter defense (the Spurs' hallmark) were rushed through right after the Spurs' first title in ‘99.
And then right after the Spurs' 4th title in nine years, how the league let "the most skilled big man on the planet" go to the league's glamour team without any compensation to the trading team. (And I won't even get in to .4 in ‘04 or ‘08 with the all-nighter on the tarmac and Joey Crawford refereeing the key game and Fisher jumping right into Brent Barry's three to end that game).
But, as luck would have it, the shoe may be on the other foot this time.
That's because Stern has a tough sales job right about now. And the stakes are much higher than who wins a title in a given year. The stakes are the future of the NBA -- the business model upon which the league will go forward into the future.
Stern's legacy as the best sports commissioner in history is on the line. His vision of the NBA's future could become a reality but only if he plays his cards right. He has to win a PR battle with the players and the issue is image. How is your league doing, David? Can you justify cutbacks to the players given the financial state of affairs?
In other words, are the champs Kobe and the Lakers or are the champs the advertisers' nightmare -- the San Antonio Spurs? It's the steak not the sizzle. The perception of affluence is at the heart of the matter.
The boring Spurs stand ready and willing as always. Waiting to answer the call.
And the refs have their ears to the ground, ready to do the right thing, whatever that may be.
So there you have it. On the one hand, the shame and degradation of another Spurs title. But with it, you might win the PR war and get to place your stamp on the NBA's future for all time.
The only question, David, is how bad do you want it? :)
You can't miss NBA Commissioner David Stern at weekend's All Star festivities. He's in front of every microphone in town.
It usually goes something like this.
Interviewer: "Commissioner, how about LeBron and Kobe this year."
Stern: "Well, Mark, as you know, the NBA has lost $400 million the last three years. . ."
Or like this:
Interviewer: "Commissioner, can you picture 100,000 fans in the stands to watch the All Star Game?"
Stern: "Yes, Steve, it's a hard to believe that the NBA has lost $400 million the last three years. . ."
Like a politician with a talking point, that $400 million is always the first thing out of the Commissioner's mouth.
And the reason is apparent. Stern is laying the groundwork for a PR war with the players that is bound to come soon. The battle lines are set -- the players will say that the NBA is a gold mine and Stern will counter that the league is about to be evicted from a one room flat.
The underlying pupose, of course, is that Stern (and the NBA) wants to roll back all of the gains that the players made in the last years of collective bargaining. Things like guaranteed contracts (the NFL doesn't have them), revenue sharing with the players, etc.
And Stern knows one thing that "Shock Doctrine" author Naomi Klein also knows -- the best time to push through an unpopular policy that further enriches the wealthy (here, the NBA owners) is during a terrible crisis (real or imagined).
So Stern's problem is this -- how do you take a league that looks to all the world like a symbol of affluence, glamor and excess and make it seem like it's in the middle of a rummage sale. That way you can get your collective bargaining reforms through.
Here's where our Spurs could enter the picture. :)
The last ten years the NBA has been on an upward trajectory -- LeBron, Kobe, the Celtics' and Lakers' rebirth, TV ratings climbing, etc.
The only blips on the radar screen during those past ten years of upward mobility have been four dark (corporately speaking) Junes when the Spurs won their titles. Those boring Spurs. The ratings' killers. After each title, the sports media wrung their hands about the fragile health of the NBA. The Spurs won the title but nobody cares said the ESPN radio voices. And how could a league survive with no contending team in New York. And how many millions of TV sets turned of every time the Spurs showed up in big games. Even the business cable channels like CNBC and Fox Business News chimed in about how bad for the NBA's bottom line the Spurs were.
So when the Spurs won a title, people actually worried about the financial health of the NBA.
And that is the state David Stern is desperately trying to get to get back to now. But his job is kinda hard with LeBron and Kobe mugging for the cameras. And Mark Cuban prancing around like a modern day robber barron in Jerry Jones' palace.
I never really bought those conspiracy theories about the NBA. How the league (through the refs) decided who won the title and things like that.
But the timing of some things always seemed interesting. Like how rules against aggressive perimeter defense (the Spurs' hallmark) were rushed through right after the Spurs' first title in ‘99.
And then right after the Spurs' 4th title in nine years, how the league let "the most skilled big man on the planet" go to the league's glamour team without any compensation to the trading team. (And I won't even get in to .4 in ‘04 or ‘08 with the all-nighter on the tarmac and Joey Crawford refereeing the key game and Fisher jumping right into Brent Barry's three to end that game).
But, as luck would have it, the shoe may be on the other foot this time.
That's because Stern has a tough sales job right about now. And the stakes are much higher than who wins a title in a given year. The stakes are the future of the NBA -- the business model upon which the league will go forward into the future.
Stern's legacy as the best sports commissioner in history is on the line. His vision of the NBA's future could become a reality but only if he plays his cards right. He has to win a PR battle with the players and the issue is image. How is your league doing, David? Can you justify cutbacks to the players given the financial state of affairs?
In other words, are the champs Kobe and the Lakers or are the champs the advertisers' nightmare -- the San Antonio Spurs? It's the steak not the sizzle. The perception of affluence is at the heart of the matter.
The boring Spurs stand ready and willing as always. Waiting to answer the call.
And the refs have their ears to the ground, ready to do the right thing, whatever that may be.
So there you have it. On the one hand, the shame and degradation of another Spurs title. But with it, you might win the PR war and get to place your stamp on the NBA's future for all time.
The only question, David, is how bad do you want it? :)