The newly named Washington Wizards this week moved into a new arena in downtown Washington, where the average ticket price is more than $50.
For that you get:
– Chris Webber, who refused to play for Don Nelson, one of the league’s winningest coaches, because Nelson yelled at him. This set off a chain reaction that has turned the Golden State Warriors into the NBA’s version of ground zero.
– Juwan Howard, who agreed to play for Miami for $60 million but jumped back to Washington for $105 million after the league voided the Miami offer on a salary-cap technicality.
– Rod Strickland, who went AWOL on his Portland team because coach P.J. Carlesimo screamed at him too much, and who remains in counseling to settle a domestic assault case.
Not one of them can defend against an oak tree swaying in the breeze.
And they are largely the reason why the NBA suspended Golden State Warriors guard Latrell Sprewell Thursday for one year after he assaulted Carlesimo at practice this week.
Sprewell’s actions were despicable and warranted the swift action, including the Warriors’ decision to cancel the remaining three years and $25 million on his contract.
But equally inexcusable has been the behavior of Dennis Rodman, Nick Van Exel, Robert Horry and Isaiah Rider.
The NBA long has operated under the informal rule of most sports leagues–it’s entertainment, and people come to see the entertainers.
Because of this attitude, heinous acts and transgressions have been met with fines and moderate suspensions. The fines are usually tip money in a league in which the average salary is more than $2 million a year; the suspensions, for players like Rodman, serve as midseason vacations they enjoy.
League officials now admit they may have erred when they didn’t suspend Rodman last year for at least the rest of the season after he assaulted a courtside cameraman and when they didn’t deal more harshly with Van Exel for assaulting an official or with Horry for throwing a towel in his coach’s face during a game.
They have second thoughts because the NBA’s valued constituency, the fans, are starting to fight back by not coming back.
Attendance is shrinking in many arenas that don’t have Michael Jordan. It’s one thing to pay $45 or $60 a ticket to see Jordan and the Bulls.
But if you’re in Sacramento, are you going to pay $50 to see a sulking Mitch Richmond play Rider and the Portland Jail Blazers?
“We have problems,” a top executive from one team acknowledged, endorsing the league’s decision to suspend Sprewell. “The league had to do something.”
The Sprewell suspension should be seen as a warning to players on NBA rosters, which sometimes read like school detention lists.
For example:
– The Bulls have Rodman and Scottie Pippen, who wants to quit his team because he doesn’t like the contract he signed.
– The Hawks have Christian Laettner, who forced his way out of Minnesota by insulting coaches and teammates, and Mookie Blaylock, who has had legal problems with marijuana possession.
– The Cavaliers have Shawn Kemp, who refused to play for Seattle because he didn’t like his contract, which included a $14 million, one-year extension he sought just two years earlier.
– The Timberwolves have Kevin Garnett, who said he never would play again in Minnesota because of an insulting $103 million contract offer; when he signed for $126 million he said it wasn’t about money.
– And the Trail Blazers have Rider, who was suspended for half the team’s first 10 games, and Gary Trent and Jermaine O’Neal, who have faced crimimal charges.
There are many more. B.J. Armstrong got himself traded from Golden State for belittling his team. So did Tim Hardaway after Armstrong took his starting job. Jason Kidd, Jim Jackson and Jamal Mashburn wrecked the Dallas franchise with their personal vendettas. Rony Seikaly quit to get out of Golden State. Vernon Maxwell went into the stands to hit a fan. Derrick Coleman quit playing in New Jersey to get traded. Allen Iverson has had driving and marijuana legal troubles. Cliff Robinson was hit with assault charges. Charles Barkley has been in barroom brawls. Marcus Camby, John Starks, Anthony Mason, Dennis Scott, Dale Ellis and Vincent Askew all have behaved in a manner that would get them fired from any other job.
But the shoe companies, especially Nike, are there with multimillion-dollar deals for kids coming out of high school, like Tracy McGrady, because they can get 14-year-olds in Indonesia to make athletic shoes for 2 cents an hour. Hey, why not have a Jerry Stackhouse shoe? And you, too, could shoot 39 percent.
The NBA has marketed brilliantly, making stars of its players and elevating them well beyond the level of athletes in other sports. But with that has come a loss of values. The NBA likes to say the behavior is merely a reflection of the growing lack of authority in society.
Fine, but people don’t have to pay $50 and $10 for parking to watch that in their neighborhoods.
