Nick Van Exel, the point guard for the Los Angeles Lakers, was recently suspended for seven games and fined $25,000 for hitting referee Ron Garretson. The incident occurred after Van Exel was charged with two technicals, the second for protesting the first. The NBA has issued statements that boil down to, "We're mad as hell and we aren't going to take it anymore." Yeah, right. The problem with this whole situation is the inability of the NBA to even understand its problem, much less deal with it.
The first problem is with the suspension itself. Seven games!!?? That's it? Van Exel committed a crime against sports that should be punished severely. The officials in a game cannot be allowed to be intimidated, bullied, or otherwise threatened. How can they do their jobs? The referees can't be afraid for their lives if they make a call against a player. What would happen to basketball? Will Shaq become the toughest player to defend simply because he's the biggest threat to the health of the officials? Think of what this sort of thing could have done for the career of Mark Eaton. He was huge.
That, of course, is the point. If a danger to the officials can have such a major impact on the sport, then any evidence of such danger must be stamped out quickly and thoroughly. Anything less is inviting trouble. Taking Van Exel away from L.A. for the last seven games of the season is very likely to have no effect on the team. They will still win roughly half of their games, and they will still make the playoffs. A well-rested and hopefully re-focused Van Exel will return for the playoffs, and maybe even help the team past the first round. The effect of those seven games will be almost nothing.
Even less impressive is the fine. $25,000? Who cares? This guy is a multi-millionaire. Twenty-five grand is his weekly lunch allowance. The fact that the league thinks that it has severely punished this player is laughable. Clearly, NBA Commissioner David Stern has no idea what kind of money these guys are making. If he did, he would fine him some real money, a sum commensurate with his crime. Perhaps in the hundreds of thousands.
The fact that the cost of a year at Yale is an irrelevent sum to these players is a symptom of the real problem-a growing disrespect for authority. Nick Van Exel made a million dollars without having done a day's work. That kind of instant, easy success can't help but change a person. Although I'm sure Van Exel wasn't asking Garretson if he knew who he [Van Exel] was, á la Michael Irvin, I wouldn't be surprised at all if the same tone were there. When you learn early that people will fawn all over you no matter what you do (starting with the college recruiting process), it becomes hard to listen to people criticize you. Or call you for a foul.
Despite Van Exel's obvious crime, the referee must, I think, share some of the blame. It is the job of the ref to diffuse tense situations, and calm angry players. The official has to keep order. Unfortunately, too many of the refs today think that means throwing T's at people. Van Exel's whining about the first technical foul is not unusual, but the referee needs to be able to handle that situation better than a knee-jerk punishment. Officials are not gods, and they can't respond like petulant children when players get insolent. That doesn't do anything but exacerbate the problem. Something I think we witnessed earlier this week.
I don't want to sound like I'm blaming the victim here. Clearly, the players shouldn't hit the refs no matter how out of line the officials are, but I do think that it is the place of all the involved parties to build some bridges.
There is one other group that has contributed to this problem, however. No, I don't mean the agents who feed player egos and make them unruly, and I don't mean the NBA coaches who can't help their players grow up. I'm talking about the media. The media actually can change people's opinions. Just like it is out-of-line for Sports Illustrated to show a grotesque picture of a dying John McSherry, so is it also out-of-line for Sportscenter to make Van Exel the big story of the night. There is something to be said for a guy like Bob Page, who would relegate the Van Exel thing to a small spot, and preface it by talking about how imbecilic and embarrasing the whole thing is.
Now, I know that the ESPN guys aren't rooting for violence in sport, but they know it sells, and by selling it so enthusiastically, they are definitely encouraging it. Kids will see the highlight, the same kids who learn to survive on the hostile playgrounds of most of America, and then these kids will see Van Exel make a game-winning shot in the playoffs, and they will emulate him. All of what they know of him. The glorification of his act, combined with the lack of censure will leave Van Exel intact, and hurt basketball. Some of those kids will become good, they will get recruited. The recruiters will remove them from the world of responsibility, and then those kids will become wealthy beyond their dreams. And the cycle continues....
Copyright 1996, The Yale Herald, Inc. All rights reserved.
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