Nba Pushing A Bad Idea

Coaches are frustrated about the NBA’s mandate to wear a microphone during nationally televised games. Butch Carter of Toronto and Paul Westphal of Seattle refused Sunday, and their teams were fined $100,000 each Monday.

Westphal said Sunday he would pay the fine out of his pocket.

“Wearing a mike would hamper my ability to coach,” he said.

Westphal also worried that opponents would tape his instructions and use them against his team.

Knicks coach Jeff Van Gundy told the Ft. Lauderdale Sun Sentinel: “It’s not show business. It’s basketball.”

Yes, a game in which grown men attempt to throw a big ball through a small basket. Lives are not being rescued. Science is not being advanced. Great wisdom is not being espoused.

But that doesn’t mean coaches should be forced to wear microphones, or cameras should be placed in the locker room, another bone of contention. After all, when was the last time you needed to know what a doctor told a nurse during surgery?

The NBA is attempting to orchestrate bad theater. As Lakers coach Phil Jackson said, the new approach “puts us right in the same level with wrestling … scripted, animated kind of shows that are made-for-TV-audience-type things.”

This is a bad move for a league known for its marketing magic. From in-house sideline reporters such as Jim Gray to the style-over-substance approach in the presentation of its product, the NBA is moving closer to an X-Games slant and further from the tradition of what made it popular in the first place.

“Good basketball, that’s why they watch,” Van Gundy said. “They don’t come to watch our dancers. They don’t come to watch the stuff on the scoreboard. You can only market a good product.”