Last week, NBA commissioner David Stern said that the league will enforce a mandatory dress code aimed at improving its image, effective Nov. 1, the start of the regular season.
But if Stern really wants to improve the NBA’s image, he should contract a portion of the league. You heard me.
Let me explain.
Last Christmas, I bought my dad (who’s been a Boston Celtics season ticket holder since 1980) the Larry Bird: A Basketball Legend DVD, which has the full telecasts of three of Bird’s greatest games. We popped it in and watched Game 7 of the 1988 Eastern Conference semifinals between the Celtics and the Atlanta Hawks.
Four minutes into the first quarter, the following sequence occurred: Dominique Wilkins misses a 20-footer, Celtic forward Kevin McHale rebounds, outlets to guard Dennis Johnson, who charges through the lane for a layup but gets blocked. Hawks guard Doc Rivers tracks down the ball, fires it to center Kevin Willis, who leaps for a dunk but gets blocked by McHale. McHale then outlets it to Bird, who passes to Johnson, who finds center Robert Parish on a bounce pass for a dunk.
On the ensuing possession, Wilkins hits a jumper, then Bird quickly takes the ball out of bounds and tosses it to guard Danny Ainge, who hurls a cross-court pass to a streaking McHale for a layup. Willis then outlets it to Rivers, who knifes through three Boston defenders for a fast-break layup. You still with me?
This frenetic pace continues throughout the game. It’s basketball in its purest form. There’s a fast break every other minute, if not more frequently. Players drive to the hoop with reckless abandon. They play with a sense of urgency. They hit open shots. They’re creative. It’s almost poetic.
It’s also incredibly fun to watch, and it makes you go “Wow!” – if not in your head then out loud. This smart, fast-break style of play that defined the NBA in the 1980s – said by many to be the sport’s Golden Age – will never exist in today’s over-expanded league because the talent pool has been severely diluted.
A case in point: the 2004-05 Boston Celtics. If Bird’s Celtics represented everything the NBA could be, last season’s Celtics represent why the league will never again reach those heights.
When the Celtics’ current coach, Doc Rivers, came to Boston last year, he wanted to implement a fast-break philosophy, much like his old Hawks team. But he couldn’t do it. Why? A lack of talent.
To run an effective run-and-gun offense, you have to have an intelligent point guard capable of finding the open man. You have to have a strong center who can pull down rebounds and make smart outlet passes. You have to have wing players who can run the floor and hit open shots. You have to have a go-to scorer who can create his own shot when the offense slows down.
Most of all, you have to have players who are creative. There is no team in the NBA, save for maybe the San Antonio Spurs, that fills all those roles.
Last year, the Celtics had only one of those go-to scorers – Paul Pierce. So Rivers had to use a half-court offense and revolve it around Pierce.
It’s a scene that has been repeated around the league for years: teams forced to run a stagnant, half-court offense and let one or two stars carry the scoring load. Just look at Kobe Bryant’s Lakers, Allen Iverson’s 76ers, LeBron James’s Cavaliers, Kevin Garnett’s Timberwolves, Dirk Nowitzki’s Mavericks, Michael Redd’s Bucks or Ray Allen’s Sonics.
In 1987-88, there were 23 teams in the NBA. Today there are 30, with talks of one being added in Las Vegas. The situation is just going to get worse.
Last year, however, there was cause for hope. The Phoenix Suns, led by Steve Nash, recaptured the magic of the ’80s glory days with a fast-break attack and creative athleticism. The image of Nash leading the break with graceful scorers Joe Johnson and Shawn Marion on the wings, Amare Stoudamire in the middle and sharpshooter Quentin Richardson on the outside is not one any NBA fan will soon forget.
But the Suns were a short-lived aberration. Free agents Johnson and Richardson signed with other teams over the offseason. Rampant free agency is just one of the many negative byproducts of overexpansion.
I know David Stern would never contract the NBA. But he should take a look at what overexpansion did to hockey. Did hockey really need to start franchises in Atlanta, Carolina, Florida, Tampa Bay, Nashville, Anaheim, Columbus and Phoenix? Conversely, did the NBA really need to put teams in Toronto, Charlotte, Memphis, New Orleans and now possibly Las Vegas?
The NBA could be headed for a similar fate as hockey. And a dress code isn’t going to do anything to stop it.