The Sports Curmudgeon

The biggest sports events of the weekend were the NBA All Star Game and the Daytona 500. I’m not overly fond of either event but it beats a weekend where the two top choices might be figure skating and bowling. Nevertheless, there were sideshows at each event that need commentary.

You have to have heard about Tim Hardaway’s homophobic remarks and the reactions to those remarks. As usual, I have a different view than most commentators. First of all, I am clearly not one of the David Stern acolytes – one who thinks that everything he says and does springs from a font of genius. So, let me say something here without qualification; David Stern did exactly the right thing in cutting all ties to Tim Hardaway with regard to promotional duties and representational duties for the All Star Game. The NBA did not need to be in the midst of that maelstrom and David Stern acted quickly and decisively to prevent that; he deserves credit and praise for his actions.

I have some problems, however, with some of the commentary and analysis regarding Tim Hardaway. One vector for the commentary is that Hardaway apologized for what he said but didn’t apologize for holding the homophobic thoughts/feelings in the first place. Well, hold on there just a minute, Hoss. Tim Hardaway said something that was “insensitive” at the very best and was more probably “odious”. And he has paid a price – in terms of his banishment by the NBA and likely, in terms of future radio/TV gigs – for saying what he did. But that’s light-years different for demanding that he apologize for what he thinks.

To suggest that anyone apologize for what they think is tantamount to telling them they need to change those thoughts. The only logical inference is that the individual(s) making the suggestion hold superior thoughts and that there is a hierarchy of thoughts. If one has any fondness at all for the freedoms that exist in American society, one should recoil in horror at anything that resembles the “thought police”. Tim Hardaway harbors thoughts about homosexuals that are different from my thoughts on homosexuals and are different from the thoughts of many of the media commentators on homosexuals. But Tim Hardaway need not apologize to me, to the media or to homosexuals for holding those thoughts. He only needs to apologize when he speaks those thoughts and offends others or acts upon those thoughts.

On the other side of the coin, some bloggers have decried Hardaway’s banishment by the NBA wondering rhetorically whatever happened to free speech. I’m not a lawyer; I don’t play one on TV; I didn’t stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night. Nevertheless, let me say without fear that the entirety of these next statements is wrong:

The First Amendment protects against the Congress or the State Legislatures passing laws to restrict free speech.

The First Amendment does not render all libel and slander actions moot; “free speech” may indeed have huge costs associated with it.

Jay Leno had a good line on the whole matter of gay players in the NBA:

“I think it’s good for the NBA. Every gay player cuts the number of illegitimate children by five.”

Remember, I said something very praiseworthy about David Stern above. So, I’m not totally bashing him here. However, it does seem that he needs to find some ways to balance the NBA punishment platform. If you say bad things about homosexuals, you get banned from association with the NBA. But if you beat your wife or do cocaine or get into a fight with the fans at a game, you get a slap on the wrist. Let me be clear; the way to balance the NBA punishment platform is not to have Tim Hardaway serve a two week suspension and then come back to be in charge of NBA promotions in San Francisco; the way to balance things is to come up with some stiffer punishments for other antisocial acts perpetrated by folks associated with the league.

The uproar last week surrounding the Daytona 500 had to do with crew chief suspensions when NASCAR determined that some cars had “cheated” during qualifying. That led hundreds of commentators and callers to sports radio shows to drag out the old bromide, “If you ain’t cheatin’, you ain’t tryin’.” I have only one comment about the seemingly universal acceptance of that line with regard to NASCAR:

Do you find it interesting that NASCAR’s greatest popularity and its roots are in exactly the same part of the country where SEC football is dominant?

But the latest “cheating” scandal and the latest “NASCAR crackdown” isn’t really interesting simply because it’s going to happen again and we’ll go through the same moralizing and hand wringing again. Here’s what’s more interesting. A few years ago, NASCAR was on a growth spurt that carried it up beyond the NHL in popularity and equal to if not ahead of the NBA in the US sporting firmament. That growth spurt has stopped. [Please note, I did NOT say that NASCAR hit a speed bump because that would be cheesy.]

In 2006, TV audiences for NASCAR declined more than 5% even though the Daytona 500 last year was the most-watched auto race in TV history. More telling is that less than half of the NASCAR races in 2006 were sold out. There will be an interesting situation to keep an eye on this year. ESPN has the rights to telecast all of the Busch Series races and it will also telecast the final 17 Nextel Cup races. I’m sure that no sports fan would be surprised to read that ESPN is more than dogged in promoting those sports it has on the air. So, NASCAR will get lots more promotion and more time on SportsCenter this year than it had in the past couple of years. Therefore, it will be interesting to note if this sells more tickets to live events and results in more folks tuning in to see the races on TV compared to 2006. If it does not, we may be able to conclude that NASCAR has peaked in terms of its popularity and stature.

Finally, here’s another example of punishment for saying something inappropriate but not for holding the thought in the first place from Greg Cote in the Miami Herald:

“The Big 12 publicly reprimanded Texas Tech coach Bobby Knight for calling the officiating ‘horrendous’ after a loss. A contrite Knight apologized saying he always has been a big supporter of the blind and noting the [bleep]ing refs probably didn’t blow those calls intentionally.”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports…