Until now, the NBA lockout has been all math and posturing. It has been long meetings in a New York conference room, vague public statements and, recently, a few teasingly hopeful signs that got swatted into the seats by David “The Human Management Training Film” Stern.
This week, when the games were supposed to begin, it gets real.
The world will have to limp on minus one less Hawks-Timberwolves game. That clash was to open the Hawks’ season Wednesday in Minnesota.
Gone forever will be the Friday home opener at Philips Arena, against the Boston Celtics. With it went the always entertaining prospect of putting Kevin Garnett and Zaza Pachulia in the same crowded room.
Now we officially enter that wasteland where nobody wins.
Concessionaires and attendants at Philips Arena begin taking it in the pay stub, doubly so in a town that just lost its hockey team to Manitoba.
Hawks guard Joe Johnson will lose a little more than $700,000 in salary this first week, $1.4 million over the bi-weekly NBA pay period.
Thus far, the Hawks have cancelled 13 games. With no settlement soon, the next layer of cancellations could cut into that crucial lord-we-need-something-other-to-watch-than-It’s-A-Wonderful-Life Christmas period.
The question at this stage: How many out there really care?
For the only thing worse than an NBA lockout would be a largely ignored NBA lockout. What a distressing sign for any business: discovering just how dispensable its product is.
Idle chatter
In the Atlanta market, traditionally hit and miss when it comes to pro basketball, nobody’s exactly gathering at Woodruff Park to complain about income inequities between NBA owners and players.
Matt Chernoff does afternoon sports talk on 680 The Fan. Virtually none of the talk has been about the lockout.
“And the saddest part is we’re the [Hawks’] flagship station,” he said. “We’ve spent maybe two minutes on it.
An Atlanta native, Chernoff counts himself a long-time Hawks fan. But it is with tongue lodged in cheek that he said, “I’ll be sleeping in my Joe Johnson jersey this week.”
He can hardly justify talking more Hawks on the air. College football rules the fall in this town, he notes, with the NFL toting the oblong ball through January. College basketball can pick up some of the slack in March, and not long after that, the Braves will back on the front burner. The Hawks are going to have to fight to regain their spot on the discussion docket.
Among those with a more direct financial interest in the team, Hawks season-ticket holder Randy Kessler (second-row seats since 1999) seemed to be holding up quite well.
He had planned to make the short walk from his law office to Philips on Friday night to take in the Celtics game. Instead, he said, “I’ll enjoy saving a few hundred bucks that I didn’t spend on Hawks tickets. Use the money for a nice dinner and a nice bottle of wine and still have money left.”
Actually, Kessler isn’t holding the money yet. The Hawks gave those who bought their seats early for 2011-12 multiple options. Kessler could get an immediate refund; or he could keep his seats and be reimbursed for all missed games, plus a 10 percent bonus; or he could keep his seats, and get 20 percent interest on his money if applied to tickets for 2012-13. He went with the latter choice.
“You got to diversify your portfolio,” he laughed. “Leave some money in SunTrust, Wells Fargo and the Atlanta Spirit [at least until it can complete a sale for the team].”
Some even see naked opportunity in the lockout.
Asked if Georgia Tech would market its basketball team to NBA fans with no where else to go, Wayne Hogan, associate athletic director for public relations, responded with an enthusiastic, “Absolutely.”
There already exists an ad for Tech basketball proclaiming that, “Big time basketball is alive and well in Atlanta.” While its on-campus coliseum is under renovation, the Yellow Jackets will play 10 games at Philips Arena, including their entire ACC schedule. The ACC tournament also comes to Philips this season.
“The longer the lockout goes, the more people will be looking for alternatives,” Hogan said. “ACC basketball in Philips is a pretty good alternative.”
Maintaining contact with the public has been a challenge for those in the Hawks’ front office. It is impossible to market a team that isn’t playing. And all parties are walking around on eggshells, commenting little about the situation in the media because of Commissioner David Stern’s strict gag order.
“We are making a continual effort to reach our fans and our sponsors, staying engaged as best we can,” said Bob Williams, the president of both the Hawks and Philips Arena. He spoke Tuesday from the MedShare headquarters in Decatur, where coaches and front-office employees were packing surplus medical supplies for shipment to countries in need as part of a community-service project. The next day, they would be back at Philips, hosting children from area shelters in a Halloween Hoopla event.
Besides the good deeds, “We’re still going to the office every day, still preparing, watching film, breaking down things from last season,” Hawks coach Larry Drew said. “We have to move forward as if an end [to the lockout] will be near.”
If not, the coach will have much more time than he planned for to go back to California and watch his two sons play high school ball.
Still playing
If no settlement is reached in the next few days, there will a loose form of pro basketball in Atlanta this week. A very loose form. Damien Wilkins, Dominique’s nephew, who most recently played with the Hawks, will gather some of his buddies Saturday at Clark Atlanta for something called the Monster Slam Exhibition Game. Hawks scheduled to appear are Johnson, Josh Smith and Jeff Teague. Among others scheduled to appear are Jarrett Jack (New Orleans), Rudy Gay (Memphis), Louis Williams (Philadelphia) and Anthony Morrow (New Jersey). There is planned a free fan fest beginning at 1 p.m. Tickets for the game, which begins at 3, range from $7 to $25. Proceeds go to the Boys & Girls Club.
Players in town have been congregating at an Atlanta church gym to practice and play pick-up games. Before he took the floor to shoot last week, Jack was asked if he was worried about fans around the league drifting away from the NBA during the lockout.
If you think he was going to concede anything, you don’t know Jack. “Just because we might miss a month or two, that shouldn’t outweigh all those years we put in playing a game we love,” he said.
Unlike the NHL, the NBA most certainly will come back to Atlanta. Negotiators make a concession on a billion here, a billion there, and it is back to basketball as usual.
Then the Hawks will get a more accurate read on just how much, or little, they were missed.
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