Dale Hofmann

Best sound bite for NBA brass comes from fans

By DALE HOFMANN

of the Journal Sentinel staff

Thursday, March 16, 2000

Never mind microphones for the Milwaukee Bucks. Anyone who has seen them play defense would rather fit them with heart monitors.

The National Basketball Association's great technological flap seems to have been settled with no help from the local team, and that's too bad. George Karl might have worn Mickey Mouse ears if he thought it would get his club some nationally televised attention.

Instead, the league chose to resolve this battle in New York, which is where it also prefers to put NBC's cameras and whenever possible its best players. It's not surprising that David Stern suggested a compromise when the offended began rattling lawyers at him.

The commissioner doesn't understand a lot of things these days, but he's a quick study where litigation is concerned. Actually, the microphones aren't a bad idea. They just need to be clipped to different people. Let the fans wear them.

A league so clearly desperate that it tries to replace Michael Jordan's brilliance with James Bond's equipment can't possibly be hearing the customers. Give them all microphones, or if that's not cost effective, megaphones and mallets so they can beat the management over the head with the obvious.

It's the game, fellows, not the lounge acts. You charge too much, provide too little until the playoffs start, and don't seem to notice how dispensable you made yourselves with that silly lockout.

How sad is it that this whole taffy pull was created by the league's "entertainment division?" Would you go to a restaurant that had an "eating division?" Wouldn't that make you wonder what the rest of the place was for?

"We are in a new generation that is used to being interactive," Stern kind of explained. "We want our fans to be as close as the people in the $1,200 seats."

Differentiating those people from fans might have been a Freudian slip on the commissioner's part. His problem is there aren't enough of them to fill his arenas, and if there were, they'd demand a discount.

They might still want one, when you figure they're investing maharajah money to hear things the NBA would provide free to viewers who can't or won't pay their way into games.

The only remaining benefit for the privileged would come when the coaches chose to turn off their microphones. Or will the league require them to cover their ears in those circumstances?

There might be a limit to the NBA's arrogance, although Paul Westphal and Jeff Van Gundy didn't notice it when they were fined for exercising the right to do their jobs. By the way, will they have to pay those fines now, or can they be Pat Riley for a day?

Letting coaches substitute boom microphones for the lapel models is an oddly appropriate solution, since the league is on its way to playing on empty sound stages anyway. Attendance is dropping like a rock, which is the way the league seems to be thinking while it tries to address the problem.

If the coaches are right, and that will happen frequently, eavesdropping just damages the product to pump up the television show. What does that tell you about the NBA's priorities? And where does this go next?

Miking the referees would be amusing. Their conversations with fans and players are frequently as comedic as some of their calls.

Maybe Stern himself should be wired, so all of us can understand the deliberations that go into this resigned Neville Chamberlain approach to policy.

Next up, we're told, is a move to install cameras in the locker rooms. Larry Bird thinks he has this one figured out. He says he'll just have his players sit around naked while the tape grinds on.

Why not? The NBA is just beginning to embarrass itself.

Copyright 2000
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.