The NBA is a business. And if that’s true, then David Stern is doing the right thing. If the majority dislike your players, change your players. If the media thinks your players are out of control, tame your players. It does not matter if it’s true; if the NBA is a business, its only objective is to make the majority of the public like it enough to buy products from it.
Middle America hates the NBA? David Stern (a Liberal who donates his money to the Democratic party) hires Matthew Dowd, Bush strategist, to fix it.
People think your players dress like hoodlums? David Stern, who has made countless dollars peddling hip-hop music, puts a dress code in place banning any clothing that could possibly be associated with hip-hop culture.
People think your players are out of control? David Stern puts in place a no tolerance rule that forbids players from complaining about calls.
It doesn’t matter what the truth is; truth and reality have no place in business. Business is all about perception, and perception becomes the only ‘reality’ that matters. As long as those empty seats in Memphis, Atlanta, Charlotte, New York and Philadelphia start getting filled. As long as the ratings on ABC rise from a 2.2 during the regular season. Nothing else matters but getting the numbers back up, getting the money to flow in again.
In a business, nothing can be gained by defending unpopular employees. It doesn’t matter if your employees have done anything wrong. If people don’t like them, you fire them. And if you can’t fire them, you constrict them, you force them to become likable. In politics, too; just look at the chameleon, John McCain, who has been all things to all people for the past decade. The objective isn’t being truthful, the objective isn’t being faithful to your own beliefs, the objective is winning. And winning means selling your soul, selling your players out, selling out the arenas.
Rush Limbaugh thinks NBA uniforms are in “gang colors” and “gang styles”, even though there is no difference between NBA jerseys and the jerseys in the NHL, MLB or NFL? Fine. Ban teams from making new black uniforms (something Stern has actually done, hence the fact that there haven’t been any new black unis since the Bulls introduced their black alternates in 2002).
People are sick and tired of seeing young black men making millions of dollars? Well, put in an age limit so those kids can sweat for it first.
People want to see ten game suspensions, even though precedent says that the fight is worth only five or six games? Give them the ten game suspensions.
And what happens when enough people say that the NBA is too black? Well, then David Stern will have to make the biggest change of all. But as long as there are asses in the seats and eyeballs on the television sets, there’s no problem. After all, he’s a businessman. His players are commodities, and if they are imperfect, they must be fixed. If they don’t work, just recall them and replace them with a better version. Airbrush the tattoos on Allen Iverson. Have Big and Rich perform at halftime of the All Star Game. Get rid of those thug chains. Anything to make your flawed commodities acceptable.
In business, you must turn your back on everything you believe and everything you know is right. And David Stern is a damn good businessman.
