Message to the N.B.A. - "Nobody cares!"

The NBA standoff pits the elite vs. the elite

Excerpt:

Kevin Garnett, 35, the Boston Celtics forward who has had a stellar career, was with the Minnesota Timberwolves in 2004 when a teammate, Latrell Sprewell, augmented the national stock of unfortunate pronouncements. Dissatisfied with a three-year, $21 million contract extension offer, Sprewell said: “I’ve got my family to feed.”

Remembering the ridicule that Sprewell received, Garnett must know the players’ public relations problems as their union, with his emphatic support, tussles with team owners over, among other things, the players’ share of the National Basketball Association’s almost $4.5 billion in revenue last season. With 25 million Americans unemployed, underemployed or too discouraged to seek employment, why should anyone care that fewer than 450 jobs are jeopardized by a labor dispute? The jobs are those of America’s highest-paid professional athletes. NBA players’ average salary is $5.1 million, and even those receiving the NBA minimum ($474,000) are in the highest tax bracket.

Bryant Gumbel compares David Stern to “plantation overseer”

Excerpt:

Stern’s version of what’s been going on behind closed doors has, of course, been disputed. But his efforts were typical of a commissioner, who has always seemed eager to be viewed as some kind of modern plantation overseer treating NBA men as if they were his boys. It’s part of Stern’s M.O. Like his past self-serving edicts on dress code or the questioning of officials, his moves are intended to do little more than show how he’s the one keeping the hired hands in their place.

Comment: As my wife (not even an NBA fan) said yesterday - "nobody cares!". The NCAA is a better sport anyway!