National bonehead association: the NBA has a proud heritage as an innovative sports league, but it's suffered through a recent spate of silly ideas

Basketball Digest, March, 2003 by Jeff Ryan

Here's a hearty New York nix to that!

RESUMING THE OLYMPIC PRO-GRAM

Team USA's strategy of drafting NBA players for the past three Olympiads has resulted in three gold medals and absolutely no intrigue, competition, or excitement. Three jeers for the red, white, and blue.

Face it, Olympic basketball was a lot more entertaining when a bunch of college kids, some of whom weren't ever going to become multimillionaire pros, brought an innocence and hunger to the floor every night and didn't win merely because they were all-time greats who had much of the competition thoroughly intimidated. Unfortunately, the failure of Team USA (a squad that featured no All-NBA First Team or Second Team members) to win a medal at the 2002 World Championships will assure that the U.S. stockpiles a "Dream Team" of big-name bullies in Athens in 2004.

"I'd really like to see us go back to using the college players," says NBA analyst Kevin Loughery. "People say, `But the other countries are using their pros.' So what? It's more interesting with the college kids. When our college players used to beat their pros, it was more of an accomplishment."

GIVING CHARLOTTE ANOTHER CHANCE

In December, Robert L. Johnson became the first black principal owner of a major pro sports team when he was awarded an expansion franchise in Charlotte. It's too bad, however, that Johnson wasn't able to achieve his earlier goal of buying an already existing franchise. The NBA needs more expansion the way Rasheed Wallace needs another technical foul or Allen Iverson needs another tattoo.

Look around. Expansion has already watered down the talent pool, creating far too many bad teams. And there aren't enough first-rate centers to fill a division, let alone what will soon be a 30-team league.

On top of that, who says Charlotte deserves pro hoops? Increasingly disillusioned with the Hornets and owner George Shinn before the team fled to New Orleans, Charlotte fans gave up on the team over the past few years and attendance finally declined to a league-worst 11,286 fans per game last season.

It would have been a better idea to have made Charlotte wait a few years before landing another team--and via relocation, not expansion.

SETTING UP IN FOREIGN PORTS-OF-CALL

Among the dumbest ideas being kicked around, but one that some experts think is inevitable, is the league expanding to Mexico and perhaps even Europe. Well, in attempting to turn the Washington Wizards, Nets, Portland Trail Blazers, Phoenix Suns, and everyone else into the Harlem Globetrotters, the geniuses kicking around this idea are showing themselves to be about as smart as that Washington Generals forward who keeps raising his arms on defense only to have one of the Trotters repeatedly tickle his armpits.

Let's ignore for a second the afore-mentioned problem of new teams watering down the talent base, and focus instead on inconvenience. Cross-country road trips are tough enough without having to also be concerned with the water in Mexico City, the electrical outlets in Rome, or the size of the beds in Paris. Just imagine jet lag become the deciding factor in crucial games. Or think about the absurdity of, say, Barcelona and Indiana playing a seven-game playoff series with Game 5 in Indianapolis, Game 6 in Spain, and Game 7 back in Indianapolis. It's plain nutty.