In this space last week, you may remember I took a small dig at the NBA. That was wrong, and I apologize. Now I'm going to devote my entire column to taking one, giant dig.
There are tons of problems with the NBA, but then again, there are tons of problems with all major sports, so we'll only deal with a few of them. Here's what's wrong with the NBA: Players don't try very hard (at least not until the last few minutes of a game), they don't play real defense, they don't pass to each other, they don't acknowledge the crowd, and games are too expensive to attend.
Five problems, each of them easy to solve if the powers that be in the NBA wanted to stop descending the slippery slope they're on. And if the owners and the players keep going about things the way they are, the league won't be around for very much longer. What they all forget is, if no one wants to watch their games, there's no point in playing them. In other words, if Kobe Bryant scores 50 points, and no one sees it, did he really score at all?
You can say that I'm being dramatic, but as ticket prices continue to increase, fewer and fewer true fans (I'm not talking about corporate fans who bring clients to sit courtside at games) will attend. And do you think a middle-aged, working class fan who has essentially been booted from the stadium he's been watching games at for twenty years is just going to go home and watch some 20-year old selfish player that he can't relate to? No.
None of these problems are new; you've heard them all before, but they exist, and they aren't going away. Here are a few suggestions as to how to fix things:
The first involves a few rules changes. As it stands right now, the court is too small for modern players. Guys in the NBA are too big and too quick for the court. Subsequently, the lane is constantly clogged, people can't drive without being crushed by a slow center whose sole job is to block the basket with his enormous body.
So I suggest we widen and lengthen the court. This would free up the action - especially in the lane - increase the pace of the game, and give more mobility to the skilled players in the league. At the same time, it would hurt the thugs of the league, in other words, any team coached by Pat Riley.
The second rule change would allow zone defense. You're probably thinking, the NBA already has a problem with low scoring, why should it allow teams to play a zone, further decreasing scoring? First, while a zone may decrease scoring a bit, what it will do is increase the scoring runs that teams go on. There will be more ten-point swings in games, as teams that beat the man-to-man defense have to contend with a zone.
This will make coaches do some coaching, forcing them to become strategists again, not just babysitters. Coaches will develop different zone defenses, and will have to scheme ways of beating the zone.
This would also take care of the selfishness problem. There isn't one player in the NBA that can single-handedly beat a zone defense, though many probably think they can. It will force players to be more creative and to PASS THE BALL. Sorry Kobe.
Along with these rule changes, the players and owners need to make attitude adjustments. Players must show their appreciation for the people that pay their salaries (the fans) and owners should figure out ways to get those people in the seats.
At soccer matches, when the players run on the field, they actually applaud the fans. When a team wins, they run over to the fans and cheer for them. They throw water into the stands, they throw their jerseys into the crowd. Basically, they make the ordinary fan feel as though he were part of the game.
They may not like it, but NBA players should be required to do the same. It may seem fake at first, but in time, players will find that the more receptive they are to the crowd, the more noise a crowd will make during a game, and the less it will boo when they screw up.
It wouldn't hurt if every once in a while, the players went outside the stadium to greet the crowd. I know it's a big burden to stand around for 15 minutes and talk to people who don't make four million dollars a year, but imagine how far it would go in terms of public relations.
Finally, the owners just need to offer cheaper seats and cheaper food at games. Anyone that reads the paper knows there is plenty of money floating around in these guys' bank accounts, so it wouldn't kill them to offer the occasional five dollar seat. Hey, fifteen thousand seats sold at a reasonable price is better than three thousand sold to corporations.
In the end, though, basketball can only go so far until the players show they have a true desire to win. I've thought of rules changes for that too - a shorter regular season, awarding points in the standings for winning a quarter - but there's nothing you can do to make a player want to win.
There are great individual players in the NBA - Kobe Bryant, Allen Iverson, Ray Allen - but there are only a few guys in the league who know what it means to sacrifice individualism for championships. The only problem is one of them coaches the Indiana Pacers (Isiah Thomas), one is president of the Washington Wizards (Michael Jordan), one works as an analyst at Fox (James Worthy), and another is the GM of the Minnesota Timberwolves (Kevin McHale).
