Will the NBA listen to fans?

By James Anderson Sports Central Columnist

For any company to maintain its success, they have to be willing to listen to the customers that pay money to keep them in business. After this latest season, it has become obvious the fans of the NBA are asking for some changes to be made. Will the NBA listen to the fans and make the legitimate changes that are being screamed out?

Problem #1: Superstar-Driven League

The first problem and most important issue with pro basketball is that it's a superstar-driven league. Everything that happens in the game is driven by what players are on each team. Shaquille O'Neal, Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan, Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, Jason Kidd, Reggie Miller, and Karl Malone will get different calls than the 10th man on the team.

Basketball has to be determined by what each player does on the court as opposed to what the name of the player does on the court. This is frustrating to fans of the NBA because team play takes a backseat to individual play.

David Stern is not likely to try and change this approach to business because the television network that is bidding on the sport wants to know that fans will tune in to see their product and individuals tend to sell pro basketball more than teams do. Attendance was down before Jordan came back and the seats were full to try and get a chance to see the great one come back to play.

Problem #2: Inconsistent Officiating

The second problem with the NBA is quite obvious and can be fixed if the league commits to it. Referees need to be forced to apply the rules as they are written in the rulebooks. The refs using the rulebooks are directly linked to problem one in that superstars have a different rulebook than other players.

It goes deeper than the superstar treatment from refs, though. Refs call the regular season one way for 82 games and suddenly become spectators just like the fans when the playoffs start. It's rather ridiculous to have players, coaches, and fans alike to believe the game will be called one way and suddenly nothing is called just because it's the playoffs.

The league either needs to change the rulebooks to adjust to the rough and physical play or make sure the rules are enforced. It's hard to believe the refs are actually graded to determine which ones have earned their spots as a playoff official when so many calls are blown. If they are the best, then what were the refs like that didn't make it?

Problem #3: Youth Obsession

Every player has the right to make a living in any legal manner possible, but I admit that high school players going straight to the pros also drags the league down to some extent. Most high school players are not physically or mentally prepared to enter the NBA and provide legitimate help to any NBA team.

Jermaine O'Neal of Indiana is the example of what to expect from most high school players. O'Neal rode the bench with Portland because he was on the learning curve and Portland didn't have room to give him a legitimate chance to improve his talent in the games. Portland was competing for titles and finally traded him to get an experienced Dale Davis.

Problem is that while Jermaine O'Neal may not be Shaquille O'Neal, he is still an all-star talent now and Portland wasn't willing to stick with him to see if he was ready to contribute.

Kwame Brown of Washington is the perfect example of a high school player that was getting time, but hasn't accomplished anything yet. Teams that believe they can contend will not give time to high school players that haven't faced any true competition in their young careers after facing YMCA-level talent. The Wizards need to decide again if they will play Brown more, trade him, or wait him out for one more year to see if he will develop.

Washington could have taken Shane Battier, but youth always seems to win out nowadays in pro basketball. Being a rookie at 22-years-old now seems to be a negative thing because it is assumed you've peaked in terms of potential.

What happens is players that would have been at the end of the bench suddenly move up in the rotation. This waters down the talent pool that is on the court and once again affects problems one and two. The emphasis becomes greater on the superstars again as fans don't pay to watch role players perform.

I watched the playoffs this year when guys like Derek Fisher and Doug Christie were cold in the Lakers and Kings series. I know I shook my head and was screaming to stop giving them the ball if they couldn't hit anything.

Problem #4: Taking the Game Away From the Fans

Last, but not least, is that it's a business and not a game to the NBA, which means they will do whatever it takes to make money. This all relates back to the problems above because in the end, basketball will do whatever it takes to turn a profit. Tickets to attend a game are outrageous if you intend on going to more than one game. I saw an article on salary caps by the year and in 1984-1985 the average salary was $330,000. Ticket prices were much more reasonable back then, too.

The NBA had NBC and ESPN/ABC competing for a contract to televise games and that's never good for fans. The winners on this deal are the NBA and ESPN/ABC. What happens to the fans that have no cable? They still get no action, but ESPN might benefit because it's a sports channel anyway and some diehard sports fans might be willing to get cable just for that reason. It won't bring in the casual sports fan that could care less about the NBA, but it might get them to tune in and check out the action just because it's on.

Baseball and football have brought some excitement back to their games. Now every team feels like they can honestly win their championship after Arizona and New England have won. Teams and fans are questioning if the NBA will let anyone win besides the Lakers, which is bad. I really don't see anything wrong with the soft salary cap because most teams can only afford two star players anyway and I totally agree with the cap on the rookies.

The league needs to fix problems one and two to bring back integrity to the game. I understand stars bring the fans in, but if the integrity of the game can't be assured for the fans, then we'll be saying, "will the last one left please turn the lights off?"

I really sense that fans are angry at the state of the game and with tickets so expensive that fans won't be able to afford to take the family out to watch games anymore. I know it's easier for me to take the family to a college game rather than a pro game. David Stern, I hope you're listening.

That's my two cents on the issue. Now you tell me what you consider the major problems in pro basketball today. Is there a solution or will you really be willing to turn your sets off and refuse to attend games? Give me a shout so we all can decide the solution. I was overseas for 10 straight years, so not watching or attending games isn't a problem for me. What about you?

Article courtesy of Sports Central.