With those three simple words at the end of a 60-second TV commercial, the Portland Trail Blazers have begun the process of trying to win us back. Lost in the NBA lockout was any serious effort to express an understanding of fan anger and frustration. After all, without those of us who buy the overpriced courtside tickets and the $9.00 watery beers, “NBA” would merely be an acronym for “No Basketball Allowed.” Now we get to see if the Trail Blazers can convince us that they “get it”…or if it’s just lip service.
Normally, I’m a bit cynical (not something I’m necessarily proud of), so my default reaction is “Yeah? So what? Show me.” I’ll admit to leaning in that direction at the moment, but there are a few mitigating factors that just might succeed in winning me over.
First, the season’s start was delayed by only a few weeks. Inconvenient, to be sure, and more than a little aggravating, but no one died and the Empire didn’t crumble and fall into the sea. On the bright side, 66 games are better than none, right?
Second, it appears, at least at first glance, as if the Trail Blazers are making a legitimate effort to reach out. Call it “sucking up” if you must (and there undeniably should be an element of that), but the team appears to recognize it’s got some work to do. Getting out into the community and visibly reaching out to assist non-profit agencies, schools, and community groups is always a good thing. Sucking up to season ticket holders isn’t such a bad idea, either.
Then there’s the reality that NBA players and owners, as much as I might wish a pox on all their houses, did manage to keep their powder dry and save the season. For the longest time, it looked as if both sides were about to succumb to testosterone poisoning and commit ritual suicide just so the other side wouldn’t win. When you consider the toll losing a season took on the NHL (Gary Bettman’s love child is still playing catch-up from killing off the 2004-05 season), things could have been much worse.
It remains to be seen how fans around the league will react. If teams are smart, they’ll be following the Trail Blazers’ lead and expressing their mea culpas by being active in their communities and embracing season ticket holders. This is something that most teams could, and probably should, have been doing prior to the lockout. Still, if it gets teams to stop taking their fans for granted, than something good will come out of the lockout.
An NBA ticket is not a necessity; it’s a very expensive luxury, one that fans could and may well easily decide to forego. A Trail Blazers season ticket can run from $440 to $6556 depending on seat location and how much you want or need to be pampered…and who buys just one ticket? Those amounts would take a sizable bite out of most anyone’s family budget. In a recession, when discretionary spending gets squeezed, it’s not a stretch to imagine that the Trail Blazers’ bottom line might take a significant hit. If fans are fed up with spoiled players and greedy owners, they could easily take their disposable income elsewhere. Trail Blazers’ management is saying all the right things about “re-engaging” and “re-establishing” relationships with fans and the Portland community. I’m going to at least give them credit for trying, though I still want to see some action before I fall for the promises, flowers, and candy.
As training camps swing into gear and teams prepare for the grand Christmas Day unveiling, there are still a number of questions in search of answers. The reality of a compressed season, free agent uncertainty, and the lack of a real preseason mean that many of these questions may not be answered until late in March or April.
The revised NBA schedule has every team playing at least one three-games-in-three-days sequence of games. Combine that with travel and time zone changes, and a reasonable person would have to question how much the quality of the product on the floor will suffer- and suffer it will. Combine that with numerous additional instances of teams playing three games in four days, and it’s difficult to imagine we won’t see nights where players sleepwalk through 40+ minutes. I understand that the league wants to maximize revenues while playing as competitive a schedule as possible without playing into August. Really, though…who’s going to want to pay a few hundred dollars to watch Kobe Bryant or Dwayne Wade playing as if they need a nap?
Whether or not anyone has considered what sorts of risks the players will incur from such a compressed schedule is difficult to know. Fatigue being what it is, you’d have to think that the ever-present risk of injury would be significantly higher. How many players will suffer season- or possibly career-ending injuries due at least in part to fatigue and/or chronic jet lag?
Like a lot of fans, I’m happy that players and owners managed to come to their senses before they did something phenomenally stupid. I’m not yet ready to forgive and forget, but I’m curious to see how the season unfolds and what story lines it might present. With all of the potential free agent movement, rookies, and new coaches in new places, there’s certainly enough to keep the conversation going and interest high. Everyone- owners, players, and fans- are in uncharted territory this season. Whatever happens, it’ll be nice to see games instead of interviews with attorneys and players’ union representatives followed by somber, morose rebuttals from Commissioner David Stern.
With any luck, perhaps by mid- to late-January, everyone with an interest in the NBA game will be focusing on the games at hand, instead of the damage done by the lockout. It’ll be nice to see things back to normal- SportsCenter highlights, complaints about LeBron James’ ego, wondering if Greg Oden will ever play again. Winter will resume something resembling its normal tempo. America will be saved from being overwhelmed by hockey and college basketball highlights. Life, at least insofar as the NBA can impact it, will return to normal.
Game on, eh??
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