NBA’s Circus Looks All Too Familiar

A major professional sports league locks out its players a few months after a successful season has ended with a flashy, big-market team winning the championship. Owners and players bicker over salary caps and luxury taxes. For the first time, the league cancels regular-season games because of a labor dispute.

Sound familiar? It should. It’s the scenario played out by the NHL four years ago--and what the NBA is going through now.

Certainly, there are differences between the leagues and their problems.

The NBA, which last June crowned the Chicago Bulls champions for the sixth time in eight years, is stronger economically than the NHL was when it locked players out on Oct. 1, 1994, four months after the New York Rangers had won the Stanley Cup and positioned the NHL for a marketing bonanza. The NBA also has a more pervasive presence, thanks to wide-ranging TV deals that produce revenues many times what the NHL earns from Fox, ESPN and Canadian networks.

In addition, the NBA began its lockout with a salary cap in place. The NHL didn’t have a cap, but many owners hoped to win one through the lockout. When players rejected it, owners settled for limits on salaries in the first three years of players’ careers--then undermined their own cause with bonus clauses that inflate payrolls. Players made gains regarding free agency, but NHL free agency remains the most restrictive in the major professional sports.

In other ways, however, the NBA dispute is similar. The rhetoric is the same, with players claiming they merely want to earn a living and get their piece of a juicy pie, and owners claiming the status quo will bring financial doom. Both leagues got stuck on a luxury tax--NHL owners couldn’t get it past players, while the NBA and its players are debating it. And both leagues alienated fans who feel no pity for millionaire players and wealthy owners.

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, formerly third in command at the NBA, said he chats with NBA Commissioner David Stern “periodically, on a casual basis.” Bettman wouldn’t comment on his old league, but NBA players and owners would do well to study the NHL’s history in weighing the economic and emotional costs of a lockout. The NBA started from a position of greater strength and might be better able to take a hit, but at what point do the returns diminish?

“Having been through a work stoppage of our own, I can say no one wants to see another one anywhere,” Bettman said. “It gives fans another reason to be disillusioned. . . .

“I think we came back pretty quickly. If you remember, baseball has been in, out [in a labor dispute], in, out, and they had to win fans back over time. We came back with a collective bargaining agreement everyone could live with, and our fans were very loyal. We didn’t go through anything like what baseball did. . . . Could it have slowed our growth? A little.”

After souring fans and advertisers, losing potential growth and all but 48 games of the 1994-95 season, the NHL got a deal that kept the rate of salary growth below the rate of revenue growth in only its first two seasons. Salaries rose faster than revenues last season, and Bettman anticipates the same will be true this season.

Still, he said, “It’s too early to draw a final conclusion” about the impact of the agreement forged by the lockout.

Whatever the outcome of the NBA dispute, hockey fans can sympathize with basketball fans--and gloat a little because the NHL won’t have to go through this again before 2004, when the current labor agreement expires.

TIME TO HOWL

Paint blistered off the walls in the visitors’ locker room Sunday after the Phoenix Coyotes had squandered a 2-0 lead in the third period and settled for a 2-2 tie with the Mighty Ducks.

An angry Keith Tkachuk summoned assistant coach John Tortorella for a private talk and Coach Jim Schoenfeld blasted his players’ selfishness on the power play. In other words, it’s shaping up to be another season in which the talented Coyotes are spectacular only in their ability to underachieve.

Tossed a softball question about whether the power-play problem can be easily corrected, Schoenfeld hammered it.

“No. It isn’t,” he said. “It’s a mind-set problem, not something to do with Xs and O’s. We’ve got to get guys to realize the strength of the power play is in the unit, not the individual. They’ve got to get into those gritty, game-winning battles in the corners and along the boards to set up another play if the first one doesn’t work.”

Tkachuk, through gritted teeth and a bloody lip, insisted the Coyotes won’t implode again.

“It is going to come together,” he said. “It has to. [Sunday’s] game is a great example of why we’re separate from Dallas and Detroit. We’re up, 2-0, and we let them take it to us.

“I’m really disappointed. You’ve got to win those games. Until we do that, we’re not going to get out of the first round of the playoffs. There’s a lot of frustration right here. We can build on this and come together. We’re not going to fall apart.”

Tkachuk did his part Monday, scoring two goals in Coyotes’ 5-1 rout of Colorado.

IT’S A SMALL WORLD AFTER ALL

Eighteen countries are represented in the NHL this season, increasing the percentage of players born outside North America to a record 23.9%.

Canadian broadcaster Don Cherry, who rants about the influx of foreigners, is no doubt delighted to learn that Canada dominates as the homeland of 61.1% of players on early-season rosters. U.S.-born players make up 15% of the NHL, the fourth consecutive decline since reaching 17.9% in 1994-95.

Despite the growing European influence, only three European-born players are team captains--Mats Sundin of Sweden and the Toronto Maple Leafs, Alexei Yashin of Russia and the Ottawa Senators, and Jaromir Jagr of the Czech Republic and the Pittsburgh Penguins.

SNOW JOB

The gargantuan shoulder pads Vancouver goalie Garth Snow wore last season were one reason the NHL has new standards for goalies’ gear. But Snow not only has no problems with the new rules, he likes them.

“Probably the worst thing I did was wear those pads,” he said. “I’m moving a little quicker and I can look over my shoulder and see plays behind the net. What a difference.”

He has been playing like a different person. He has a 2.04 goals-against average and .932 save percentage, compared with 2.59 and .901 last season with Philadelphia and Vancouver.

SLAP SHOTS

Already thin on defense, the Colorado Avalanche took a big hit Saturday when Adam Foote suffered a torn muscle in his elbow. He will be out several weeks. . . . Edmonton lost Marty McSorley indefinitely because of a dislocated shoulder. . . . New Jersey defenseman Ken Daneyko has a new perspective on life as he approaches the first anniversary of his sobriety. “It’s a miracle where I am today,” he said. “I’m very grateful. I certainly wouldn’t have had a family or a career if I kept drinking.”

First-year Coach Dirk Graham hasn’t hesitated to put his imprint on the Blackhawks. He benched three-time Norris Trophy winner Chris Chelios for seven minutes last Thursday when a giveaway by Chelios led to a San Jose goal, and he scratched veteran Eric Weinrich for three games. . . . Must be a trend. Florida Coach Terry Murray last week benched left wing Ray Whitney--the Panthers’ top scorer last season--and defenseman Robert Svehla. . . . Scoring is down but new punishment czar Colin Campbell is handing out suspensions at a brisk pace. Vowing to curb fouls that cause head injuries, Campbell has suspended six players. Kudos to him for taking a decisive stand.

The Maple Leafs, who saw this as a rebuilding year and were in no hurry to deal Felix Potvin, may move sooner if they maintain their fast pace and stay in playoff contention. They still want a top-six forward. . . . The ax is hovering above Hurricane Coach Paul Maurice. After investing $20 million in Ron Francis, owner Peter Karmanos expects more than a 2-2-3 record. . . . The Washington Capitals have changed arenas, coaches, colors and logos but can’t escape their injury jinx. Left wing Richard Zednik (bruised shoulder), defenseman Sergei Gonchar (sprained knee) and right wing Yogi Svejkovsky (sprained ankle) last week joined defenseman Joe Reekie (broken foot) and forwards Michal Pivonka (shoulder), Jan Bulis and Steve Konowalchuk (ankles) on the sidelines. Gonchar may be out six weeks.

Reuters