Stern Facing NBA’s Issues by Living Up to His Name

In the early ‘80s, the NBA was on the eve of destruction. It was saved by the real fab five--Julius Erving, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Michael Jordan and David Stern.

Stern contributed by forging a partnership between the players’ union and owners that resulted in the first salary cap.

Soon, everybody on both sides was rich, pro basketball became as popular as major league baseball and Stern was recognized along with Pete Rozelle as the most enlightened commissioners of the television age.

Where have you gone, Julius Erving?

Where, for that matter, have you gone, Michael Jordan? He’s still playing, but the face of the NBA player today suddenly has become Latrell Sprewell’s.

After Sprewell’s assault of P.J. Carlesimo last week, the NBA needed more enlightenment from Stern.

He responded with “High Noon.”

Stern has forgotten, as baseball’s leaders did years ago, that a league’s most valuable assets are its players.

He began tearing apart the partnership last summer. He warned about a lockout next summer because the owners want a more advantageous labor agreement, then failed to alter that position even when the league signed television deals that almost doubled revenues.

Next came Sprewell. Even though Carlesimo is neither liked nor respected by most players because of his “in-your-face” style, few came to Sprewell’s defense when the Warriors fired him. His act was criminal.

Stern’s reaction, his overreaction, was to establish himself as judge and jury. Without a fair hearing, the arbitrary one-year suspension guaranteed Sprewell would become a martyr to the players and that there would be a showdown with the union.

The union, almost irreparably split less than two years ago, has never been more resolved.

Charles Barkley says the players will boycott the All-Star game. Barkley is Barkley. He says a lot of things.

But even cooler heads such as Jordan and Patrick Ewing have come to Sprewell’s defense, not for attacking Carlesimo but because they believe the punishment was too severe.

That, however, is too vague a distinction for some. In the battle for the hearts and souls of the fans, the likelihood is that Stern will win and the players will lose. That means the NBA loses.

I thought Stern was smarter than that.

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I knew a man named Happy Fine--seriously--who traveled from New York to Oakland just so he could walk the halls of McClymonds High, where basketball’s Bill Russell and baseball’s Frank Robinson and Vada Pinson once walked. . . .

Many hold similar reverence for Philadelphia’s Overbrook High, which produced Wilt Chamberlain and Walt Hazzard. . . .

On the strength of alums Tony Gwynn, Billie Jean King and Gene Washington, I’d put Long Beach Poly up against both. . . .

Then consider other grads such as Earl McCullough, Willie McGinest, Mark Carrier, Tony Hill and Tyus Edney. . . .

I believe Santa Ana Mater Dei, which also has a storied athletic tradition, will win Saturday night’s Division I football title game at the Coliseum. . . .

But Long Beach Poly’s place in high school sports lore is secure. . . .

In an interview for tonight’s College Football Awards Show on ESPN, Ryan Leaf says he would vote for Charles Woodson if the Heisman is for the best player but for Peyton Manning if it’s for the player who best exemplifies college football’s ideals. . . .

UCLA’s Cade McNown is a finalist tonight for the Davey O’Brien quarterback award. On Tuesday, Kansas State kicker Martin Gramatica edged the Bruins’ Chris Sailer for the Lou Groza Award. . . .

Alaska Gov. Tony Knowles was supposed to call during a news conference in Anaheim on Wednesday to announce he has bought the first ticket for the 1999 NCAA ice hockey final four at the Pond. . . .

Knowles, however, was otherwise occupied because of the 1 1/2 feet of snow that buried parts of Alaska. . . .

Maybe it’s because of that kind of weather that the University of Alaska Anchorage, the event’s co-host along with the L.A. Sports Council, is holding it at the Pond. . . .

Mannie Jackson, who owns the Harlem Globetrotters, supports Stern “against shoe manufacturers, some agents and players on the lunatic fringe.” . . .

We wouldn’t want to see basketball turned into a circus act.

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While wondering if Nebraska is the first school needing a new football coach that didn’t call Gary Barnett, I was thinking: I might watch Kansas State play Syracuse if the sport were basketball, ESPN has the funniest sports commercials since the old Miller Lite ones, say it ain’t so, Orel.