An Open Letter to the NBA

December 3, 2011

To Mr. Stern, Mr. Hunter, Mr. Fisher, and all other parties associated with the National Basketball Association and the National Basketball Players Association:

You're getting off easy.

After the travesty of the 1999 lockout and the following years, when no one in the East really mattered come June, when the Lakers were winning everything, when Chicago was deadly quiet in the post-MJ years, you should have learned not to let this happen.

There was no competition. The second wave of high-school players was coming to prominence, burning brightly on the national stage before flaring out in a second. It was the era of Los Angeles over "whoever else".

You should have learned.

Didn't you watch the MLB strike and the years following? The initial blow to baseball paled in comparison with the future consequences. Baseball needed a fast way to get back on top; the answer was home runs and roided-up heroes. Even on the heels of an incredibly tantalizing World Series, baseball fans are still wary of drugs, big salaries and mealy-mouthed owners, intent only on making more money. Why do think MLB television ratings have fallen so far in the past twenty years? Hint: it's not all Joe Buck's fault.

1999 devastated me. I could have dealt with the break up of the Bulls. Michael, Scottie and Phil leaving was traumatic, but there were always new players. I could finally experience real playoff basketball instead of assuming the Bulls were going to steamroll everyone on their way to the Finals.

Then the league shut down.

Understand, there was nothing to hang your hat on in Chicago sports at that time, save for the 2000 White Sox and the Chicago Wolves. The Cubs sucked (always have, always will); the Bears were a year away from their crazy playoff season (Shane Matthews, everyone, Shane Matthews in the building!); the Blackhawks were slowly being strangled by Bill Wirtz. Now, Bulls went from NBA champions to the worst team in the league. This has a tendency to upset a 20-year-fan, and I was only 11.

After the '99 lockout, I quit playing basketball. I quit watching basketball. I didn't touch a basketball for three years. From that year until 2002, basketball meant nothing to me. I hope I was alone in this, but I doubt I was.

You should have learned from that.

The NFL made you look like petulant children this summer. They settled their dispute in time for a full season and got their fans to act as if nothing had happened. Meanwhile, you sat across the tables and fought over two percent of basketball-related income in the midst of a national debt crisis.

Let me say it again: while you were arguing over who was going to get two percent of the millions...and millions of BRI, the United States of America was careening toward bankruptcy.


You should have learned.

When I found out the season was back on, I was enthused, relieved, but still dissatisfied. 66 games will always mean an asterisk for whoever wins the Larry O'Brien Trophy this year. The Christmas Day games are a nice touch; who can really be upset about three genuinely marquee matchups? Still, the sting of these arduous months should weigh on the minds of any basketball fan.

This is basketball, America's true pastime. Don't let the struggle of business outweigh the beauty of the game ever again. I don't think I'm young enough to come back again.

Sincerely,

JS

Who's Killing the NBA Season?

Last night, the Chicago Bulls and Dallas Mavericks opened the NBA season in one of the most anticipated matchups of the year. The reigning champs had all their stars back on the court and the Bulls, defeated by the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference Finals, were hungry to show they had taken the next step.

It was a classic opening night battle. "Dizzy" Dirk Nowitzki made his usual flurry of awkward fadeaways, turnaround jumpers and hopsteps to the hole; Derrick Rose swooped and spun his way faster than DeShawn Stevenson could talk trash; Rick Carlisle's part was skillfully played by his body-double, Jim Carrey; and in a stunning move, Tom Thibodeau lost his voice before the game even started after one of his kids nearly ran out into traffic.

Seriously, I can't make this up.

The game was tied at 94-all with two minutes left in the fourth quarter. The fans in Dallas had whited-out the entire building; no one had been sitting since the start of the final stanza. Reggie Miller and Steve Kerr were fighting over the seat next to Marv Albert so they could do color for every D. Rose play. Caron Butler was still ugly, but shooting up a storm.

The stage was set: twenty seconds to go. Dallas with the ball, and Taj Gibson guarding the German. Carlos Boozer on the bench with his leg wrapped like a mummy (he got injured on the jump ball because his shoes were untied), screaming encouragement...

...while Joakim Noah and Mark Cuban were trading insults about each other's mothers.

Suddenly, the ball's in Dirk's hands. 10 seconds on the clock. Low post, one on one with Taj. No fouls to give, seven seconds. Dirk turns right, he turns left, six. Fakes right again, five, steps back, Taj steps with him, four, leans back and falls away, three, the shot goes up in an impossible arc, two, floats to the rim, one. And as the buzzer sounds, the ball touches the front rim...

Then I woke up. Another cloudy day in a basketball-free world.

I want myyyyyy, I want my N-B-A....

Last season was the best for the NBA since 2007-08. Not too long of a time span for sure, but you have to understand: that the season the Celtics created the first "Semi-Artificial Nucleus" in the history of the League (being that only one of the players was drafted by that team), leading to the Celtics and Lakers meeting in the Finals for the first time since 1987.

The two teams did not disappoint, even though the Celtics blew out Los Angeles in Game 6, as the series was a solid fight between storied franchises. The highlight was Paul Pierce faking his way to legendary status in Beantown after returning from a leg injury in Game 1. Oops, did I say faking? My fault, let Kenny and Charles say it for me:

"Oh, is this the fake Willis Reed moment?"

That Finals put the NBA solidly at the forefront of professional winter sports. Hockey will continue to jockey (ooh, rhyme) with the hardwood for prominence, but the NBA was back. Then last season, You-Know-Who took his talents to South Beach and put the bullseye on Miami for years to come, and that was before a raucous playoffs that saw:

-A #8 seed defeat a #1 seed for only the fourth time in history (Grizzlies over the Spurs);

-The Nuggets reach the playoffs without Carmelo;

-The Mavericks, long regarded as "soft", finally win their elusive ring;

-The Bulls-Heat begin what should be a long battle for Eastern dominance;

-The Hawks pull off a surprising victory over the Magic, fueling reports that Dwight may leave town;

-The possible final death knell of the Kobe Bryant-era in Lakerland after an embarrassing defeat to Dallas.

All that meant this season of the National Basketball Association was going to be rife with storylines, headlines and for once, not many punchlines (mostly how long Mike Brown was going to stay in L.A.). Forget the teams I named above: Ricky Rubio was finally coming to Minnesota, Blake Griffin had to following his ridiculous rookie season, the Cavs had Kyrie Irving and a small shot at redemption, the Pacers turned heads last year and New York would have 'Melo, Amare and Chauncey for a full season.

This season was going to be YUGE. An absolute financial waterfall for the money men involved. Then, someone turned off the faucet. The question is, who?

The unusual suspects

For once, I can't blame David Stern for this one. He's the commissioner, yes, and he does have final say, but I doubt King David is throwing a wrench into these labor talks. However, the possible culprits are out there.

The owners

'Woe is me' is the call from the lofty perch of NBA ownership. According to the espn.com synopsis of the work stoppage, the owners say they're losing money due to high player salaries and a soft salary cap. I'm not one for business sense at all, but it seems to me that sports franchise owners are the ones who started this trend of paying ridiculous amounts of money for players to come to their teams (George Steinbrenner, rest in peace). That's my opinion, though, and the owners want a hard cap to stop their money losses. Seeing as they don't play the game and usually are earning capital outside of their franchises (see: Jay-Z/Mikhail Prokhorov, Jerry Reinsdorf, Clayton Bennett), the owners have no problem standing pat until a solution is reached—even if the season has to be cancelled.

The NBPA (the players union)

The players say the owners get enough cash from ticket and TV revenues and that revenue sharing would solve many teams problems. They also want a short collective bargaining agreement (the owners want 10 years; the players want less).

Now, if you think of the NBA as America, specifically this "1% vs. the 99%" argument, the 99% of players earn less than $500,000 dollars a year, give or take. Many of these guys are rookies, backups, 10th-and-11th men, or career D-leaguers. The 1% are your Kobes, LBJs, D-Wades, Steve Nashes, D-Roses and so on. The problem is all of those guys really do love basketball and are hurting themselves by not playing. A few have gone overseas (check the video below of Brian Scalabrine tearing up the Italian league), but the majority are working out and killing time. NBPA president Derek Fisher is taking the hard line on this issue, but the players seemingly have more at stake.

The NFL

Didn't see this one coming, did you? Not only was the NFL lockout during the same period as the NBA labor trouble, it was more newsworthy when football finally did return. I wrote that it was disgusting how fans just forgave and forgot since their beloved NFL was back, but a side effect of it was that people didn't seem to really care about no basketball. With fans firmly set in their armchairs for a considerably weak football season, the NBA will take a backseat on the sports pages and in the minds of fans around the country.

The culprit is....

Really, all three are to blame. Derrick Rose has said that it's silly for players and owners to be arguing over millions of dollars during the U.S. economic hardship, and he's right. For both sides to be contending over this much money really is silly, especially when both will benefit no matter what. The days of owners shorting players so badly they have to get second jobs in the offseason are long gone.

The first two weeks of the season have been cancelled, and the lockout has no end in sight. With the Blackhawks stumbling out of the gate and the Bears mediocre once again, it would be very nice to watch D-Rose and Co. flying up and down the court each night. So, someone, please, end the lockout. I think I've run out of Bulls clips to watch on YouTube...

Okay, now I have.

See you in the cheap seats.

JS

The Day the Monsters Died

In the lexicon of Chicago sports, there are many words that will draw the ire of fans. "Choke", for example. "Tanking", "fire sale", "rebuilding", "Wirtz" and "swoon" are some other good ones. Words that will have a Chicago sports fans grumbling and cursing under their breath. But there is (or should be) one word that turns fans into homicidal maniacs.

Mediocre.

This is what the 2011-12 Chicago Bears are giving us. I say, enough's enough.

The Summer of Suffering

The 1980s were bad enough. Hair was too long, clothes were too bright, cars were too boxy. Timothy Dalton was James Bond and Ronald Reagan was president. Add to that a significant labor lockout, the lowlight of replacement players and the rise and fall of the United States Football League, and you have a fairly lousy few years for the NFL.

It's no wonder that the just-ended NFL lockout received so much coverage. Even in the Information Age, where Maurice Jones-Drew's latest tweet is broken down and analyzed on SportsCenter six times in an hour, the lockout was big news. "There might not be a football season," thought millions of Americans. "What's going to happen to my Sunday? My jerseys? My fantasy football league, my office pool?"

You could actually hear husbands everywhere gritting their teeth at the thought of having conversations with their wives on Sunday afternoons. The tension was palpable.

But after weeks of "will they, won't they" on a new collective bargaining agreement, the players and owners finally settled their differences, divided up the tens of millions of dollars on the table and agreed to go back to work. And instead of being frustrated that these millionaires had put them on a tightrope for months, fans were placated. Scratch that, they were relieved.

(Side note: How sobering is it to compare the lockout talks with the squabble in Congress over the American debt? Just think: if Jerry Jones donated about half his assets and Cowboys Stadium to the government, we wouldn't have to raise the debt ceiling.)

I admit, I wanted to see how the country would react to a cancelled football season. Would they finally revolt against outlandish ticket prices and bloated contracts, a la Chad Dukes in his tirade against the Washington Redskins?

We'll never know. Instead, everyone will go back to their merry lives of planning for office pools and fantasy football leagues.

But not me.

Middling on the Midway

I grew up in the '90s in Chicago, which meant basketball was king and everything else took a backseat. Even then, the Bears were damn near an afterthought. While Brett Favre was breaking records and winning a Super Bowl in Green Bay, the Bears were moving backwards. To put it in perspective, from the end of the Ditka Era in 1992 to the hiring of Lovie Smith in 2003, the Bears were 76-103 and made the playoffs twice.

The Packers in the same span were 50 games over .500, won the Super Bowl, only missed the playoffs three times and never had a losing season. Never mind the whole "the Bears have had 50 million quarterbacks during the time Favre was in Green Bay" stat.

It's not fair that I have to look back to my childhood and say that I remember watching Erik Kramer throw touchdown passes. Or that our best offensive weapon for two years was Paul Edinger. Or that two of three "McN" QBs were on the board and we took Cade instead of Donovan or Steve.

Then, it was Michael McCaskey making stagnant hiring and drafting choices. Then it was Ted Phillips. Now, it's Jerry Angelo.

In the words of KRS-One, when's it going to stop?

Fan on strike

When unions were first starting out, it was dangerous for workers to picket. The owners would resort to violent tactics, bringing in dogs, scabs and strike busters to demoralize their employees. Now that's illegal, and even if it was, I highly doubt any NFL players would be going hungry while they weren't playing (Latrell Sprewell, stand up!). But since the fans are the ones who got shafted with this deal, I say we're the ones who should show our displeasure. How so, you ask?

Boycott the season.

Don't watch a single game. Don't follow the stats. Don't go to a game, don't watch a game, don't even think about professional football. I'm so serious about this, I'm encouraging people to watch college football instead. Do whatever you have to in order to show the NFL they aren't allowed to quibble over stacks of money while the financial sector is rotting and fans are wondering if there will be a season.

For Chicago, boycott the Bears to show that Roy Williams and Matt Spaeth aren't the answer. Picket because the product on the field doesn't match the prices on the tickets. Turn your backs because once-majestic Soldier Field is now a blight on the lakefront, a running joke for the Skip Bayless' of the world.

Most of all, boycott the Bears so Jerry Angelo can change his business cards to "self-employed".

Oh, and the NBA is on notice, too. I'm looking at you, David Stern.

See you on the picket line.

JS