On the rebound
NBA players focus on getting back to work, winning fans back
Posted: Thursday January 07, 1999 01:12 AM
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Raring to go: NBA players are ready to resume hostilities on the hardwood Jonathan Daniel/Allsport |
ATLANTA (CNN/SI) -- Now that the lockout is over, the real work
begins for NBA players and franchises: winning back blasé fans.
"It's our duty now, both owners and players, to work together to rebuild
all the damage that we've done," said Houston Rockets center
Hakeem
Olajuwon. "We're going to do our best." The best had better be
good. Online polls at sports web sites Wednesday showed overwhelming
indifference to the settlement of the lockout. At CNNSI.com for
instance, about 78 percent of the first 35,000 respondents to an
unscientific poll clicked on "don't care" when asked, "How do you feel
about the upcoming NBA season?" Other polls around the Internet world
registered similar results.
Clearly, the NBA's problems are far from over despite the announcement
Wednesday that an agreement had been reached and a lockout-shortened season
of approximately 50 games will begin on or around Feb. 1. Free
agent Charles
Barkley, a fan favorite in the past, didn't take anything to heart
during the NBA labor battle. After all, in dealings such as those that have
transpired over the past six months, personal feelings garner about as much
respect as a poorly set pick. "I don't take anything that's said
or done in business personal," said Barkley. "You know, anytime I negotiate
a big deal, I might say some things to the guy across the table, but I hope
he doesn't take it personal. If he says something to me, I don't take it
personal."
It's time to mend fences and rebuild bridges. "Now we just got to
be a family again," said Houston Rockets forward Mario Elie. "You
sort of tend to fall apart during negotiation, but when it's all settled,
we're a league -- the owners and the players -- this is what makes the NBA
possible."
But at this point, the question is what constitutes a
meaningful regular season in 1999? "I guess our projected date is
no later than January 18," said NBPA executive director Billy Hunter. "Once
that happens, then the season will happen no later than February 1. It will
probably be a total of 54 games because there are probably going to be some
games played back-to-back and the season's going to be extended by two
weeks." San Antonio's David Robinson
thinks the short season will turn out OK. "I think it's a
respectable season," said the Spurs center. "We get 50 games in and prepare
ourselves for the playoffs. It's going to be a lot of fun still."
The shortened season means all games are important. Golden State
guard Jimmy Jackson said, "I think the guys are going to work a lot harder
because we all know that in a 50, 50-plus game season, every game really
counts now, rather than 82 games." New York Knicks center
Patrick Ewing doesn't care how many games are played. His focus is on
winning that elusive championship. "Fifty games is 50 games," said
Patrick Ewing of the New York Knicks, the union's president. "We got to get
back out there and get the job done. Hopefully I can get me a championship
with 50 games." Championship or no, most players are just happy to
be back at work. "I'm just glad to be playing," said Orlando Magic guard Nick Anderson.
"It's not a legitimate NBA season, [it's] sort of like college basketball
... we should have had this thing done a long time ago, for the fans if
nobody else."
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Charles Barkley: "I don't look up in the stands and say I got to play because the fans are there. I play because I love to play" AP |
It's those fans who have suffered -- not the general
public, which has expressed apathy towards this battle of millionaires -
and it will be the fans who will decide if they're ready to forgive, forget
and fill arenas again. "Well, we can't worry about that," said
Barkley, never one to trumpet the cause of role models. "If the fans don't
come to the game, we still have to do our job. I don't look up in the
stands and say I got to play because the fans are there.
"I play because I love to play. Some of the fans are going to have bad
attitudes and some of them are going to come to the games, so we have to
play for the ones that are there. But if nobody comes to the games, you
still have to do your job." Veteran Kevin Willis
said, "It's about going out and playing basketball, getting back to what we
do best, and that's go out and perform and show the fans that 'hey, this is
a game that we love.' They love watching us and being entertained and it's
[the lockout] just a business deal that went long and sour, really. So, now
it's over, hopefully the fans will come out and support us, but it's not
going to happen overnight." The NBA has no way to measure the
degree of damage done by the lockout, because this league never missed a
game over a labor dispute before this season. The NHL saw it's momentum put
on ice by it's work stoppage during the 1994-95 season. And it took three
years and a heroic home run chase to re-capture the hearts -- and wallets
-- of baseball fans.
But if Michael
Jordan retires, taking with him legions of fans who want nothing more
than to watch the best the game has ever produced, the NBA will most
certainly stand face-to-face with its greatest challenge ever. The big
question is, will fans help the league conquer this challenge?
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