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 State of the NBA New in '99: Lockout, scoring strife and a new champion
Posted: Sunday June 27, 1999 10:20 PM
What a strange trip it's been for the NBA. A short season because of the lockout and a short attention span by the viewers who just didn't tune in. And now, we're a little short on the scoreboard which has NBA officials thinking about changing the rules of how the game is played. CNN/SI's Vince Cellini sat down with Sports Illustrated's NBA writer Phil Taylor and the Philadelphia Inquirer's NBA writer Stephen A. Smith for a roundtable discussion courtside at New York's Madison Square Garden. Vince Cellini : Stephen, I'll start with you. Is this game broken? Is there a need to change the rules? Stephen A. Smith : Oh, there's no question about it. I wouldn't say it's completely broken, but it certainly has a few cracks in it to be quite honest with you. The fact of the matter is, the game has slowed to a crawl. People are constantly disenchanted with what they've seen in these NBA athletes. A special committee is scheduled to recommend to the league's board of governors things like a five second rule and a 14 second rule be implemented. But I also believe that the 24-second shot clock should be reduced to 20 seconds and the 10-second half-court violation should be reduced to seven seconds, therefore speeding up the game. I think people would be more entertained if they saw that. Phil Taylor : I don't know if they need to change all these rules because I think if you go back to the way the game is suppose to be played -- if the officials call the game the way it was meant to be called -- I think you will see a lot of these problems disappear. If you call the fouls away from the ball, the holding, the grabbing, the shoving that goes on away from the ball, you'd suddenly find the players are able to cut and move and pass the way they use to be able to. And by the same token, if you call the travels and the carrying the ball that players get away with now, I think you'd find that some unguardable players are suddenly very guardable. VC : If you took an old-timer and you bring him to a game today, most of these guys can't watch basketball because they say, "That's not basketball." You isolate two players, three guys are standing around and that eliminates for the most part three-fifths of your offense. So naturally, points are going to go down because you are eliminating more scoring opportunities and there are fewer passes with each possession. SS : Well, that's exactly why I think the game needs to be speeded up. The way I look at it, if you take the set 10-second half-court violation and reduce it to seven seconds, you've got seven seconds to get past half-court and get into your offense. Therefore you don't have to worry about the Mark Jackson's of the world bouncing the ball 22 times in the paint over a 15 to 20 second span to post down a smaller guard like Charlie Ward or a Chris Childs. You don't have to see that anymore. You get back to what really attracts people and allows them to come into NBA arenas. VC : It's funny -- of all the things Mark Jackson's done -- he's become the culprit, the example for this backing down rule. PT : That's true and probably unfairly so, because there are a lot of other guys who do it. Charles Barkley is notorious for that. And frankly, anything that takes Charles Barkley's backside out of the game is probably a good thing for the NBA. VC : That's an interesting point. Television ratings were down 35 percent through the first four games of the NBA Finals as compared to a year ago. Obviously, the big factor is that Michael Jordan isn't playing. But what are the other contributing factors? Why aren't people watching basketball? SS : I think the biggest reason is the lockout. That seven month league-imposed lockout really, really hurt the league. And not just from the standpoint of Michael Jordan's retirement but also with some of the stupid things that were also said by the some of the players. Patrick Ewing saying, "We make a lot of money but we spend a lot of money." Alonzo Mourning bringing up the race issue. A lot of players talking about, "We have to feed our kids," for crying out loud, after pocketing a million dollars or more than a million dollars over the last several years. When you make idiotic statements like that, ultimately you pay the price it. And many of the season ticket holders that pay $1,350 for their courtside seats are not hearing nonsense like that. That's just the way it is. PT: Did you hear people talking about the lockout during the NBA Finals?
SS: Yes, I did. PT: I can't say that I did. I'm surprised at the league. To me, it seems like it's gotten past a lot of this as fast as it has. No, question there's still a lot of image problems. People still have a lot of animosity towards some of the players. But to me, it really hasn't shown that much. I'm surprised that the league has done such a good job getting by it. VC: But it's so strange that a league that was the most image-conscious league of all of the professional leagues, may have an image problem. Is that what you are saying? PT: I think you also have to blame some of the sneaker companies who have taken guys like Latrell Sprewell and Allen Iverson who had checkered pasts, and played up those parts of their personalities. I'm not necessarily saying that these guys are all bad guys. But I am saying that's what the advertising world has chosen to focus on and to the exclusion of guys like Tim Duncan and David Robinson. And I think that a lot of the NBA's image problems would be solved if the sneaker companies -- and the people who put those commercials out there that really kind of tend to form the public perception of these players -- if they'd concentrate on some of the guys who are good guys both on and of the court and don't have these checkered histories. VC: Yeah, but all that edginess and tough guy stuff sells. That's what sells. Good guys, milk and toast doesn't sell in the NBA -- and I think the advertisers know that. PT: Right. It sells to a certain segment. But I think that the NBA is going to find -- and even the advertisers -- that they are looking at a narrow group of people. The NBA wants to appeal to everybody. The advertisers want to appeal to the young edgy demographic. The NBA wants those 40, 50 and 60-year-olds to come to look as well and I think that's where the two groups -- the league and the sneaker companies -- might be a little bit at odds. SS : I agree with both of you. But at the same time, I am so sick and tired of everybody blaming the league or blaming the players. Blame the consumers. The consumers are the ones who pay for the tickets. The consumers are the ones who continuously support these guys. You know And1 is advertising Latrell Spreewell. You know Reebok is advertising Allen Iverson. You know Nike is advertising a bunch of David Faulk's clients for crying out loud. You choose to support these people. So obviously the consumer has to take some blame from it. And I think so many times the consumer is more than willing to point the finger at somebody else. But it's just not accurate. VC : We've talked about Tim Duncan. Will he stay in San Antonio for the long haul? That's another question. Trying to keep a superstar like that, in a small market where they're crying out for a new arena for him to play in. SS : All of that talk is bogus. The fact of the matter is he can't go anywhere to get any more money than San Anotnio is going to have available for him. And believe me they will give it to him. They're just trying to parlay Tim Duncan's negotiation into a new arena. That's what this is all about. He is staying in San Antonio. I believe that. PT : I'm with you on that one. Tim Duncan is going to be right there in San Antonio for quite a while. I think one thing that's interesting is that he's not looking for necessarily the most money and even if he was, San Antonio could offer him the most. And he's not looking for a big city. He's already said he doesn't want to play in New York, so I think he's very happy in San Antonio. This was a good marriage -- Tim Duncan and San Antonio. VC : Back to the product itself. If you didn't watch the NBA Finals, then you missed some really exciting players. You missed Latrell Sprewell run the floor and you missed maybe the next huge star in the NBA -- Tim Duncan -- who's a pleasure to watch. Even for the jaded media guys who sit out here and watch him -- we "ooh and ah'd" at some of the things he did. PT : It's very true, There's a lot to still recommend in the NBA. But I think we've seen so much of Michael Jordan and we just tend to think that he was so good that no one else who comes after him can possibly measure up. So I think that it's true. But it's not going to happen overnight. The league has dug itself a hole that it's going to take a while to climb its way out of. But eventually, people will come back. And when they do, they're going to see Tim Duncan, Latrell Spreewell, Allen Iverson, Kevin Garnett, Kobe Bryant and all these great players who are going to be doing some very exciting things.
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