One less bell to answer

Geez.  Did you see what happened in Motown Friday night? 

There's no one else I would like to be right now than the commissioner of the National Basketball Association.  As I sat in my office and watched the tape of whatever you'd like to call the display between the fans and players in Detroit Friday, I'd come to a quick and forceful decision.

I'd shut the damn league down.

Enough.

Enough of overpaid, out of control athletes who can't control themselves on or off the court.  Enough of the players who make millions and millions of dollars, more money in a month than most of us will make in a decades, and then whine about the disrespect they get because they aren't paid more.  Enough of the arrogant atmosphere that has been prevalent in the league for the last seven years, that anything goes, that when a player does what he is paid to do, he will trash talk anyway.

But by shutting down the league, I'd accomplish more.  I'd also be saying enough of fans who are clueless as to how to behave in public, enough of fans who can't just have a beer or two, but have to drink enough until they get to the point where they take a play against there team personally.  Enough of the taunts, obscenities, everything. 

Enough of the league and the accepted thugery that it has become. 

Living in Chicago, I enjoyed the 1990's.  I will tell my kids about watching Michael Jordan play the way my father used to talk to me about watching Ted Williams.  But towards the end of the Bulls' phenomenal run, when I was working as a retail manager at two locations in the inner city and saw how people used something as trivial as a basketball game to riot, destroy, and rob, I let any and all feelings for the game go.  I haven't regretted it once.  The attitude of the league and the character of a majority of the players disgusts me.  It's the largest "me-first" conglomeration I have ever seen.

So after watching players from the Indiana Pacers and Detroit Pistons go into the stands and fight with fans, and watching fans go onto the court to confront players, I'd say enough.  I'd announce that the league is shutting down until further notice, and then I'd resign, letting everyone know that I want nothing more to do with this stuff.

Of course, that's not going to happen.  People will get fined and suspended, but I will be stunned if anyone gets arrested, and by that I mean anyone who makes a ton of money playing pro ball.  I'm sure that a few spectators will face charges, and they will be deserved.  But when it's announced that players are facing suspensions and fines, there will be outcries from the union, and perhaps a comment or two about a family going hungry.

What there won't be is any contrition, because that environment doesn't call for it.  I suppose you might hear it, but don't believe it, because it doesn't exist.  It can't be sincere.

There are people in the NBA who should have played the final games of their career tonight.

I sure hope there's a whole lot of people out there who watched and/or bought tickets to their last NBA game tonight.