Sports Column

NBA can make it hard to be a fan

On Sports

By dwight jaynes

The Portland Tribune, May 18, 2007, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (12 Reader comments)

And speaking of the NBA …

• Doesn’t this league realize a basic business tenet – offending your customers, over time, leads to a decline in business? I cannot recall a move by the NBA so universally criticized –by fans and media alike – as the one to suspend two Phoenix Suns for leaving the bench during an altercation Monday at San Antonio.

Brutal decision. There was no common sense or discretion involved, and it set up the illusion that the league is headed toward the old-time hockey mentality (it doesn’t even exist in the NHL these days) of sending your goon out to take the other team’s star player off the ice.

Man, two players were suspended for where they stood on the floor while two or three other players during this postseason viciously elbowed people in the face, kneed them in the groin or clotheslined them – and got no suspension?

Sorry, that makes the league look stupid.

Justice isn’t just about laws. It’s also about fairness. And really – punishment is supposed to fit the crime, isn’t it?

• Around Portland, we kind of think these NBA playoffs are a big deal. The NBA is “our” league. The Suns-Spurs series and Warriors-Jazz series have been watercooler talk for days. But you probably know that to the rest of the country, they’re not very important. At all.

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