ABL Commits a Big Turnover on Media Exposure

The ABL, which has done so many things right in its young life, did something wrong a while back.

It decided to reach out and touch the media . . . with a smack across the face.

Incredibly, a league that needs all the media exposure it can get--particularly during the World Series and the NFL season--a league that is locked in a life-and-death war with a competitor that has raised media friendliness to an art form, chose to become media unfriendly.

The ABL decided to remain the only pro sports league in America that bans reporters from its locker rooms. The WNBA, by comparison, adopted the same access rules as the parent NBA: Its locker rooms are open, for 20 minutes, 90 minutes before tipoff, and again beginning 10 minutes after every game.

Surely, it was expected, the ABL would open its locker rooms this time around. They were closed in Season 1. Well, they’re new at this, everyone figured.

When it was announced recently that they would remain closed, league CEO Gary Cavalli blamed it on a facilities imbalance.

“We play in small arenas and the WNBA teams use NBA arena locker rooms,” he said. “Our players felt there just wasn’t enough room.”

Hogwash.

The Lakers’ Forum locker room--used by the WNBA’s Sparks--is roughly the size of a big kitchen. There are bigger high school locker rooms. The same is true at NBA venues in Houston and Cleveland.

So yes, throw in a dozen reporters and for ten minutes it’s crowded. So what?

Instead, the ABL has requested players escorted from their locker rooms to stand in a hallway or a separate interview area, for reporters desiring postgame interviews. But make it snappy.

And please, this has nothing to do with men watching women take showers, or change clothes. In WNBA locker rooms, the uniformed athletes sit on their stools and talk briefly to reporters, then the room is cleared.

The most astonishing part of all this is that it comes from a women’s league.

Apparently, ABL people have already forgotten that not so many years ago, courageous women sports journalists battled for access rights to men’s locker rooms.

Nevertheless, the ABL message to the media is this: “We love it that you want to cover our games. but if you want the kind of schmoozing, free-wheeling locker room conversations that can liven up your game stories, sorry, try the other league.”

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Noting four-time Olympian Teresa Edwards’ rocky start with the Atlanta Glory (she’s 1-2) as pro basketball’s first player/coach since Dave Cowens tried it for the Boston Celtics in 1978-79 (he was 27-41), we asked Cowens what he learned from the experience.

“I learned that it was ridiculous, that it made no sense,” he said Monday, after a practice with the team he now coaches, the Charlotte Hornets.

“There really is a slash between ‘player’ and ‘coach.’

“Coaching-wise, everything was more difficult than if I’d just been the coach. I found it hard to criticize myself, for example, in film sessions in front of the other players. And you can’t really coach while you’re in the game. It’s too big a burden just playing.

“Your assistant has to coach during the game.

“And it was hard for me to discipline the players, because they were also my teammates.

“And since every player has a lazy streak, that hurt me as a coach. I’d finish a practice figuring we needed 10 wind sprints--and I’d make it eight.

“And I was less of a player than I should have been because of all the added stuff of coaching.

“The Celtics talked me into it. It wasn’t my idea. Really, I’m surprised anyone would want to try it.”

On paper, Edwards’ team looked like a title contender. On the floor, it looks like a cellar dweller.

The addition of Katrina McClain gave the Glory two 1996 Olympians, to be blended with two premier rookies, Abby Conklin of Tennessee and Tracy Henderson of Georgia. Returning are Saudia Roundtree and Stacey Lovelace, last season’s No. 2 scorer, behind Edwards.

Some juggernaut. The Glory has lost two games by 20 and 27 points.

Teresa, you might want to call Dave.

Women’s Basketball Notes

The ABL will have a dunk contest at its all-star game in Orlando Jan. 18. Colorado’s 6-foot-5 Sylvia Crawley is getting in early practice. She throws down one-handed slammers repeatedly in pregame warmups, as she will at the Pyramid tonight. Other known ABL dunkers are Charlotte Smith and Katryna Gaither of San Jose, Shanda Berry of New England, and Yolanda Griffith of the StingRays.