January 28, 2009
NBA Stuff Today…
A month ago, when the Oklahoma City Thunder had a record of 2-22, you had to wonder if they just might challenge the Sixers’ record for futility in a season. They will not; they have already won 10 games for the year and the Sixers only won 9 games for the entirety of the 1972/73 season. However, very quietly, the Thunder no longer has the worst record in the NBA; if you go and look at the standings this morning you will see that the Washington Wizards are now 9-35 while the Thunder’s record stands at 10-35.
Some of you may be wondering, how can the Wizards be so bad? After all, they have two All-Stars on the team even though Gilbert Arenas is injured yet again this year. The answer to that is very simple; the Wizards play next to no defense; they live and die with jump shooting and they are just not fast enough to play NBA basketball at breakneck speed. Ergo…
I do not know if the Wizards still have this ticket plan, but there was a time when for about $300-350 a game, you could actually sit on the Wizards’ bench for a game. If they still do that, I am not sure that some of the fans who might buy those tickets would not be similarly ineffective if the team had to throw them into the game for some emergency duty.
By the way, attendance for the Wizards is cratering. On those nights when the Wizards play at the Verizon Center, you can go downtown and get tables at restaurants near the arena and even parking without a lot of problems. However, when the Capitals play hockey in the same arena, the place is full and the businesses around the Verizon Center are crowded.
I wonder how much longer it will take before Wizards attendance drops down into “WNBA territory”. Given the economic situation, shelling out $65-95 for a decent seat and $13 for a hot dog and a beer to see a bad team play lackadaisical basketball may become a true luxury item for individuals. Moreover, if you are talking about taking a family of four out to a game, the tab can easily head north of $500.
Now that the Dallas Mavericks are no longer at the top of the NBA West – indeed, they are in eighth place in the NBA West – have you noticed how few and far between are the reports of words of wisdom dropping from the lips of Mark Cuban? I have; and to tell the truth, I don’t miss Cuban’s pontifications much more than I miss David Stern doing his Sultan of Smug act at press conferences.
All of a sudden, Shaq has rediscovered how to shoot free throws; he made 12 in a row over a couple of games a week or so ago and recently shot 9-10 in a single game. That somehow has found its way onto SportsCenter as a news item worthy of close scrutiny. Whatever.
I wondered who the worst free throw shooter in the league was at the moment – not counting some guy who is 1-4 for the season so far. I think it is Kwame Brown of the Detroit Pistons; I could not find anyone who had actually tried more than a handful of free throws who was worse than 22-54 (40.7%).
I have written about the economic problems facing various sports; but when you look at the NBA, things have the potential for a significant decline. The NBA has until December 2010 to decide whether it will extend the current collective bargaining agreement through the 2011/12 season. If it does not exercise that option, that CBA will expire in June 2011. Absent a huge turnaround in the economy, that will generate a near toxic environment for the negotiations because owners will be looking to cut salaries significantly.
Recall that the NBA went through a lockout back in the late 1990s and had to scramble to cobble together a “half-season” that was sufficiently credible that playoffs could go on without people smirking. That could happen again and in bad economic times, the NBA does not need to be one of the “out-of-sight/out-of-mind” sports entities.
I remember the lockout of the late 90s and I remember when teams came back that the arenas were usually about half-empty and people bore a lot of resentment toward players who made mega millions of dollars to play a game that most fans played as kids on the playground. Of course, it was the owners themselves who agreed to pay those exorbitant contracts that generated the resentment toward the players but all that came during times when the economy was strong and the dot-com bubble was still inflating. In bad economic times, that could be an ugly scene while the strike/lockout is ongoing and when the teams eventually come back to play.
Just to keep you current on scientific news, a NASA probe to the planet Mars recently detected a massive current eruption of methane gas on the planet. Scientists see this as evidence of geologic activity and it provides proof that methane – the most basic organic chemical of them all – is there on the planet along with traces of water leading to speculation about possible life forms on Mars.
On the other hand, it could be that John Daly’s rehab venue is on Mars and that might explain the probe’s observation…
Finally, here is an observation from Greg Cote in the Miami Herald:
“A Russian sumo wrestler banned for life from competing in Japan after a marijuana charge is suing for reinstatement. Hmmm. A pot smoking sumo wrestler? Great. Just what a guy that size needs. The munchies.”
But don’t get me wrong, I love sports…
