Jimcs50
11-23-2004, 09:46 AM
Nov. 23, 2004, 1:16AM
NBA has chance to reconnect
By RICHARD JUSTICE
Next time you watch NBA highlights, focus on the empty seats instead of the action. Some arenas have acres of them.
They speak volumes about a game that some people no longer find appealing. They speak of a disconnect between fans and players as well.
If this breach can't be repaired, if fans can't be convinced that players care about winning and that they're the kind of people you want to root for, then the NBA will have trouble holding onto its already tenuous place in the hearts and minds of the people who care about sports in this country.
Stern steps in
That's why NBA commissioner David Stern may someday thank Indiana's Ron Artest for starting that riot in Detroit on Friday.
So ugly and so frightening was it that Stern was given the opening he surely has been seeking.
He can't fix everything that's wrong with the NBA by throwing Artest out of the gym for the final 73 games of this season. He can't change the league's image simply by suspending a total of nine players for 143 games.
It's nothing more than a good start.
Some have argued that Artest did what any competitive person would have done. He was in a tense situation, and when a fan threw a cup at him, he went berserk and charged into the stands.
That some fans are jerks, that they get drunk at games and yell profanities is not breaking news. Players simply can't react.
If former Yankee David Wells kept his cool while Cleveland fans were yelling insults about his dead mother before a playoff game, then Ron Artest has no excuse.
If Carl Everett didn't react when a fan conked him with a cell phone, if Albert Belle ignored a shower of batteries one night, if the dozens of players who've had everything from beer to coins thrown at them at Yankee Stadium don't go crazy, then Ron Artest has no excuse.
Fans another issue
Fan behavior is a serious, worsening and an entirely separate issue.
"There has been this movement toward a lack of restraint in society," sports psychologist Harvey Dorfman said, "and the fan for the most part doesn't connect with the athlete anymore. My father made as much money as most ballplayers. Now, because of the huge money, players are not attached to fans in any way. There's some kind of rage and resentment about that."
When that rage is mixed with alcohol, the concoction is volatile.
"Booze frees fans from their inhibitions," he said. "You're not inhibited by your own ethics or by normal behavior."
Can this clock be turned back?
"Maybe you have to have a complete crash," Dorfman said. "I'm really not sure."
Maybe the Detroit fight was part of the crash. Too many fans see the NBA, not as the league of Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett but as the league of Allen Iverson and Kobe Bryant, of the Dream Team's summer embarrassment in Athens and of a perception that players care more about endorsements and lifestyle than winning.
Some good news
If there was good news to come out of the Detroit incident, it's that some players seemed stunned.
Like the 1994 baseball strike educated a generation of players about the dangers of taking the paying customer for granted, NBA players grasped the damage that had been done as video of players slugging fans flashed around the world.
As Chicago Bulls forward Antonio Davis told the Los Angeles Times: "I think that's what our image has become — a bunch of young guys who are really not understanding what it is to play in the NBA, what it means to put that uniform on, what it means to be in front of thousands and thousands of people who love what you do, what it means to make a living playing the game of basketball. They're not thinking about that."
Image is not reality.
I'm convinced the vast majority of NBA players go hard most nights. I'm convinced they care about winning. I'm convinced they want to do the right things, whether it be signing autographs or rolling to the back side on a defensive rotation.
They're not great in the ways we once measured players. Most of them aren't great shooters. Many of them don't understand the game the way, say, Magic Johnson understood it.
Coaches are to blame as well. Far from the day of white-water fast breaks, many NBA games have been slowed to a crawl.
Stern has mandated a host of rule changes designed to allow more offensive freedom, but even though players are more athletically gifted than ever, the games themselves are not as fun to watch.
And yet, they're terrific entertainment. They're still worth the time.
Stern's challenge is to get the focus back on those games and on getting players to understand how lucky they are.
He won't change things overnight. His first step was a good one.
NBA has chance to reconnect
By RICHARD JUSTICE
Next time you watch NBA highlights, focus on the empty seats instead of the action. Some arenas have acres of them.
They speak volumes about a game that some people no longer find appealing. They speak of a disconnect between fans and players as well.
If this breach can't be repaired, if fans can't be convinced that players care about winning and that they're the kind of people you want to root for, then the NBA will have trouble holding onto its already tenuous place in the hearts and minds of the people who care about sports in this country.
Stern steps in
That's why NBA commissioner David Stern may someday thank Indiana's Ron Artest for starting that riot in Detroit on Friday.
So ugly and so frightening was it that Stern was given the opening he surely has been seeking.
He can't fix everything that's wrong with the NBA by throwing Artest out of the gym for the final 73 games of this season. He can't change the league's image simply by suspending a total of nine players for 143 games.
It's nothing more than a good start.
Some have argued that Artest did what any competitive person would have done. He was in a tense situation, and when a fan threw a cup at him, he went berserk and charged into the stands.
That some fans are jerks, that they get drunk at games and yell profanities is not breaking news. Players simply can't react.
If former Yankee David Wells kept his cool while Cleveland fans were yelling insults about his dead mother before a playoff game, then Ron Artest has no excuse.
If Carl Everett didn't react when a fan conked him with a cell phone, if Albert Belle ignored a shower of batteries one night, if the dozens of players who've had everything from beer to coins thrown at them at Yankee Stadium don't go crazy, then Ron Artest has no excuse.
Fans another issue
Fan behavior is a serious, worsening and an entirely separate issue.
"There has been this movement toward a lack of restraint in society," sports psychologist Harvey Dorfman said, "and the fan for the most part doesn't connect with the athlete anymore. My father made as much money as most ballplayers. Now, because of the huge money, players are not attached to fans in any way. There's some kind of rage and resentment about that."
When that rage is mixed with alcohol, the concoction is volatile.
"Booze frees fans from their inhibitions," he said. "You're not inhibited by your own ethics or by normal behavior."
Can this clock be turned back?
"Maybe you have to have a complete crash," Dorfman said. "I'm really not sure."
Maybe the Detroit fight was part of the crash. Too many fans see the NBA, not as the league of Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett but as the league of Allen Iverson and Kobe Bryant, of the Dream Team's summer embarrassment in Athens and of a perception that players care more about endorsements and lifestyle than winning.
Some good news
If there was good news to come out of the Detroit incident, it's that some players seemed stunned.
Like the 1994 baseball strike educated a generation of players about the dangers of taking the paying customer for granted, NBA players grasped the damage that had been done as video of players slugging fans flashed around the world.
As Chicago Bulls forward Antonio Davis told the Los Angeles Times: "I think that's what our image has become — a bunch of young guys who are really not understanding what it is to play in the NBA, what it means to put that uniform on, what it means to be in front of thousands and thousands of people who love what you do, what it means to make a living playing the game of basketball. They're not thinking about that."
Image is not reality.
I'm convinced the vast majority of NBA players go hard most nights. I'm convinced they care about winning. I'm convinced they want to do the right things, whether it be signing autographs or rolling to the back side on a defensive rotation.
They're not great in the ways we once measured players. Most of them aren't great shooters. Many of them don't understand the game the way, say, Magic Johnson understood it.
Coaches are to blame as well. Far from the day of white-water fast breaks, many NBA games have been slowed to a crawl.
Stern has mandated a host of rule changes designed to allow more offensive freedom, but even though players are more athletically gifted than ever, the games themselves are not as fun to watch.
And yet, they're terrific entertainment. They're still worth the time.
Stern's challenge is to get the focus back on those games and on getting players to understand how lucky they are.
He won't change things overnight. His first step was a good one.