NBA legend sees league hype machine hurting the sport
February 15, 2004
NEW YORK (AFP) - Retired National Basketball Association star Oscar Robertson is frustrated that the league has become more concerned with global marketing and dunks than building teams and players with fundamental skills.
In an opinion piece published Sunday by the New York Times, the stellar guard from the 1960s and early 1970s said that his old school lessons have been replaced by marketing-minded managers and no schooling for prodigal talent.
"Many of my colleagues and I ... are saddened by what the game has become," Robertson wrote.
"Professional basketball has been trivialized and dumbed down to the level of a highlight reel. Marketing and entertainment rule the day rather than putting the best product on the floor."
Robertson, nicknamed "The Big O", was a three-time American collegiate Player of the Year who led the 1960 US Olympic gold medal team, was the 1964 NBA Most Valuable Player with Cincinnati and won the 1971 title with Milwaukee.
"Defenses can't guard anyone properly and offenses can't score," Robertson wrote. "I pity coaches at any level who believe in and want to teach fundamentals when youngsters see players on TV with no fundamentals being paid huge sums of money."
The 65-year-old legend sees the growing number of international players in the NBA as a sign the league lacks US youth with fundamental skills, as well as a hunger for stars like China's Yao Ming with international sales appeal.
"Just as America imports cheap labor from other countries to do the jobs Americans don't want to do, the NBA turns increasingly to foreign players who do have fundamental skills and an all-around approach to the game that fewer and fewer American players - even though they may be superior athletes - can be troubled to learn.
"The NBA has made a conscious decision to function as a marketing and entertainment organization and seems much more concerned with selling sneakers, jerseys, hats and highlight videos than with the product it puts on the floor.
"The league wants to extend its footprint worldwide, which is good, but only to the extent of creating individual heroes who can drive sales of licensed products in their countries, a short-sighted approach," Robertson wrote.
Robertson lamented the fact that votes for the NBA All-Star Game, played Sunday in Los Angeles, are in the hands of global fans and Internet access instead of decided by players.
"We have the spectacle of Yao Ming, already an international marketing icon if not quite yet a fully developed basketball player, starting at center for the West instead of Shaquille O'Neal," Robertson wrote.
"I think voting should be returned to the players. Even if we don't have marketing degrees."
Robertson, known for his skills as a pioneer high school star in Indiana, cringes when he sees players like LeBron James turned into dunking highlight reels rather than became all-around skillful players.
"Team play is no longer considered sexy," Robinson wrote. "Individual showmanship is. But one player, no matter how gifted, does not build and sustain a championship franchise."
All-around skills and defense take a back-seat to slam dunks and spectacular moves at the All-Star Game. Such highlights have built a US mentality that will likely never result in the NBA adopting less of a one-on-one orientation.
"Even if basketball people were allowed once again to influence the strategic direction of the NBA, it would take them years to reverse the damage," Robertson wrote.
February 15, 2004
NEW YORK (AFP) - Retired National Basketball Association star Oscar Robertson is frustrated that the league has become more concerned with global marketing and dunks than building teams and players with fundamental skills.
In an opinion piece published Sunday by the New York Times, the stellar guard from the 1960s and early 1970s said that his old school lessons have been replaced by marketing-minded managers and no schooling for prodigal talent.
"Many of my colleagues and I ... are saddened by what the game has become," Robertson wrote.
"Professional basketball has been trivialized and dumbed down to the level of a highlight reel. Marketing and entertainment rule the day rather than putting the best product on the floor."
Robertson, nicknamed "The Big O", was a three-time American collegiate Player of the Year who led the 1960 US Olympic gold medal team, was the 1964 NBA Most Valuable Player with Cincinnati and won the 1971 title with Milwaukee.
"Defenses can't guard anyone properly and offenses can't score," Robertson wrote. "I pity coaches at any level who believe in and want to teach fundamentals when youngsters see players on TV with no fundamentals being paid huge sums of money."
The 65-year-old legend sees the growing number of international players in the NBA as a sign the league lacks US youth with fundamental skills, as well as a hunger for stars like China's Yao Ming with international sales appeal.
"Just as America imports cheap labor from other countries to do the jobs Americans don't want to do, the NBA turns increasingly to foreign players who do have fundamental skills and an all-around approach to the game that fewer and fewer American players - even though they may be superior athletes - can be troubled to learn.
"The NBA has made a conscious decision to function as a marketing and entertainment organization and seems much more concerned with selling sneakers, jerseys, hats and highlight videos than with the product it puts on the floor.
"The league wants to extend its footprint worldwide, which is good, but only to the extent of creating individual heroes who can drive sales of licensed products in their countries, a short-sighted approach," Robertson wrote.
Robertson lamented the fact that votes for the NBA All-Star Game, played Sunday in Los Angeles, are in the hands of global fans and Internet access instead of decided by players.
"We have the spectacle of Yao Ming, already an international marketing icon if not quite yet a fully developed basketball player, starting at center for the West instead of Shaquille O'Neal," Robertson wrote.
"I think voting should be returned to the players. Even if we don't have marketing degrees."
Robertson, known for his skills as a pioneer high school star in Indiana, cringes when he sees players like LeBron James turned into dunking highlight reels rather than became all-around skillful players.
"Team play is no longer considered sexy," Robinson wrote. "Individual showmanship is. But one player, no matter how gifted, does not build and sustain a championship franchise."
All-around skills and defense take a back-seat to slam dunks and spectacular moves at the All-Star Game. Such highlights have built a US mentality that will likely never result in the NBA adopting less of a one-on-one orientation.
"Even if basketball people were allowed once again to influence the strategic direction of the NBA, it would take them years to reverse the damage," Robertson wrote.
