Courtesy of The Japan Times‘ Ed Odeven:
The bad economy in the United States is made worse by the NBA’s ongoing woes. Ticket sales staff, parking lot attendants and others with so-called ordinary ties to Stern’s league are now a part of the broader job crisis. Their plight is conveniently ignored by both sides throughout this public-relations disaster.
But that doesn’t mean that some folks outside of the spotlight aren’t thinking about their situation.
“My heart goes out to the many families who depend on that income to survive,” former NBA guard Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf told Hoop Scoop on Monday.
According to The Washington Times, the NBA’s national television rights are worth about $930 million per year. And that’s only one piece of the league’s astronomical earnings.
Or as Abdul-Rauf, who played for the Kyoto Hannaryz the past two seasons told me, “Needless to say, I’m not a big fan of David Stern or ‘big business.’ I believe there are exploitation issues on both sides. But no worries, the goal of the NBA is to make money so there’s too much on the table for them not to have a season, and I think many will agree with that at least.”…
Yokohama B-Corsairs coach Reggie Geary, a former guard for the Cleveland Cavaliers and San Antonio Spurs, spoke about the NBA’s current situation during a postgame chat with reporters on Sunday in Saitama.
I asked Geary what message he would give to Stern, the owners and the players association. Geary then issued the following statements:
“The game, the NBA, it hasn’t been this healthy, domestically or globally, in a very, very long time. And to lose this momentum — the story line (of) Boston, Miami, L.A. and New York now becoming more of a factor with some of the big names — that the quibbling or the arguing over the money they are doing right now, it doesn’t seem to make financial sense to lose that momentum.”
Check out the full story here.
