It's Only a Game
By: Gary Adornato
1/13/02



It's only a game.

There are statements that have been repeated so many times, that they 
become accepted as if they were truths.  This one, for instance... the 
simple way to negate any conversation about the multi-billion dollar 
industry that is sports in America.  It's only a game, and so, all 
things are possible.  The rules that govern society and maintain 
structure in our world are magically suspended.  Laws are ignored on 
every level, ethics are changed to fit the need of the moment.  It is, 
after all, only a game...

But the winds are beginning to change.  There's a growing awareness that 
these things that we call games are somewhat more than even 
businesses... something more, not less, than the mundane trading of 
dollars for stuff and nonsense.  Sports teams are changing whole cities, 
rearranging their economies and priorities in the name of luxury suites 
and concession rights.  Billions of dollars are shifting places, moving 
up the ladder from we, the fans, to vendors, to franchises, to players 
and owners and back again... creating whole industries, spawning styles 
and even driving some of the media that informs our lives.  Just a game? 
 Sports is the most dynamic and public of businesses, a significant 
portion of our awareness in the day of many of our lives. 

And always, sports stands as a metaphor.  It always has, though we've 
tried hard at times to deny its place... Heroism and the overcoming of 
adversity.  The value and rightness of diversity, of inclusion.  The 
nobility of a common cause.  We are raised with the storybook of sports 
prominent in the libraries of our minds, and its pages are well worn.  
But always, the uneasiness in calling that part of our lives, the 
manufactured experiences of our exposure to sports, a critical reality.  
After all, the voices call, it's only a game.

Perhaps it is only a game.  Perhaps the grown children in same-colored 
clothes that compete on the fields and courts of the country are really, 
truly just playing.  But we, the tens of millions of fans across the 
country, we pay to watch them play.  We buy the papers that report on 
their games.  We huddle with our friends and families in front of 
screens large and small, and for those few hours we go there, we play, 
too.  And later, we drink the beer and soda that they said we should.  
We wear their sneakers, their jerseys, their hats.  And in the name of 
our playmates, we create a small identity among the many that we carry, 
a choice of allegiance that we label... Fan.

Our willingness to identify with our sports, our teams, our players is 
the essential bond that makes the billions upon billions of dollars flow 
smoothly.  Tens if not hundreds of thousands of jobs, from ticket takers 
to t-shirt makers, from barkeeps to hacks,  from athletes to carparks 
have we Fans' money in their paychecks.  The agreement to be a part, 
this identity of Fan, is the river of money that turns the wheel and 
makes the bread for the table of Sports. 

That willingness is based on faith, a trust that the possibilities for 
every play, for every game and for every season are infinite and 
unknown, subject only to the performance of our players in our arenas.  
It is the critical legacy of the Keepers of our Sports that this trust 
be kept, this faith be justified above all else.  And now, in the NBA, 
there is a breach, a failure that could ultimately break some of those 
bonds.  It is in the system of refereeing, the guardianship of the 
players and the game, that the NBA has chosen to play its own games, and 
it's about to be caught.

We Fans always knew, or thought that we did.  We watched Monroe spin 
with the ball on his hip, and we smiled knowingly.  We watched Magic 
take the extra step, Bird push off to clear his jumper, and we knew that 
they were breaking the rules, that the Star System was in place... but 
it was a subtle thing, and reserved for a precious few whose consistent 
excellence gave them rank and privilege.  It wasn't right, but we 
allowed it as a form of honor.  In the beginning, we were innocent, and 
we opened a very ugly door.


The last generation of basketball players has done what is always done 
to inconsistency - they've exploited it, abused it and turned it into 
something obscene.  As the eighties turned to nineties, and the league 
became more dependent on television riches to survive and to expand, 
what had been a flirtatious tease became raw pornography.  Players began 
to see special treatment as a birthright, and referees more as hall 
monitors than policemen.  And, since it was clear that the referees were 
using their own discretion, rather than a fixed measuring stick, the 
game gradually became one of how far, how much, and how often the rules 
could be bent, mangled and broken.  Player/referee arguments became 
commonplace, even expected, as players lobbied brazenly for their own 
advantage.  Flopping, that pathetic display of manipulation, became not 
only accepted, but taught out of the perceived necessity to level the 
playing field.  The cheating became the norm, and the league, faced with 
a choice of tightening up or continuing the slide, greased the ramp and 
tossed in a few ball bearings on for good measure.

The terrible shame of it was that at the time that the Keepers of the 
Game chose to cheapen it, the players of the game were reaching 
incredible heights.  A combination of extraordinary athleticism, an 
opening of the game to the world, and the growing financial opportunity 
drawing the best athletes away from other sports gave the NBA an 
embarrassment of riches, a cornucopia that continues to spill out today. 
Other generations of hoopsters were wonderful for their times, but few 
realists could possibly deny that the physical talents and abilities of 
this generation of players radically exceeds anything seen, or even 
imagined before.  The raw product of the NBA - it's incredible ballet of 
giants performed in mid-air and blinding speeds - is dynamic, powerful 
and damn fine entertainment. 

So, the NBA comes to this - a brilliant product being dominated by the 
league through its referees, who choose without apparent reason or logic 
who, and when, to favor with critical privileges.  It is the referees 
that too often determine the outcome of close and important games;  it 
is the referees that create allowances and exceptions that allow some 
players, and some teams, to flourish.  There are systemic issues that 
cause some of the abnormalities, but those are in place by the league's 
dictate and desire, so those systems become part of the conscious 
decision of the league.  And because the bestowing of favor so creates 
advantage for some, it is the league that is determining the outcome of 
some of the contests, some of the time, rather than the athletes... and 
that, the removal of self-determination from our teams, makes basketball 
less than "a game"... it makes it a sham.

The choice to bastardize this game is made not by the Fans who pay for 
it, and not truly by the athletes that play it.  It's not made by the 
media that glorifies it, and it's not even made by the Owners that 
steward it.  It is made in private, by Commissioner Stern and a chosen 
few, who have created a system of refereeing that is to the rest of the 
world as the FBI was to America in Hoover's time - powerful and covert, 
unaccountable to anyone but imbued with the authority to punish those 
that question its motives and practices.  Through its machinations, the 
referee system has made it clear that part of the ownership of the game 
of basketball - its integrity, its ethics, its legacy - is tightly held 
by Stern, and shared by Stern with only whom he chooses.  And as a 
government can influence an economy to the point of controlling it, so 
Stern influences the direction of the game of basketball, using the 
referees and their choices to push and tug the game to the place of his 
choosing. 

It is a game, but it's not only a game.  It is an industry that operates 
through, and with, a public trust.  It is a sport that is frequently 
marketed as having a leadership role in our communities, and whose 
athletes are icons for much of our generations.  Commissioner Stern has 
been righteous about the impact of some athletes in their choice of what 
songs to sing, and finicky about the length of their shorts.   He lashes 
out at those that call into question what is reasonably challenged, and 
he shuts the door to that system when those that pay his wages ask to be 
involved.  Stern is playing the hypocrite for overseeing a system that 
cheats even as he punishes people and teams for not following the 
rules... and the ultimate price may well be the integrity and popularity 
of the game, and the willingness of Fans to support it in the future.