Outside Oberlin

Following a frustrating lockout and the depressing departure of Michael Jordan - the one man who might have been able to restore the credibility and popularity of the National Basketball Association during a shortened 1999 season - one might be tempted to say that it's the end of the world as we know it for professional basketball. As alienated fans in most NBA cities avoid the local arenas in droves and revenue from tie-in merchandise becomes increasingly hard to find, commissioner David Stern and owners around the league will undoubtedly come to regret the unnecessary posturing that allowed the labor stoppage to wipe away four months of the regular season. They will search high and low - but to no avail - for a Jordan-esque savior who will make the public forget its bitterness with his endearing smile, a sweet turnaround jumper and a breathtaking dunk. In short, they will frantically attempt to rejuvenate their league and to unseal the coffin of a sport that once briefly replaced baseball as the national pastime.

But wait a minute. Perhaps all those know-it-all sportswriters - myself included - who have been reporting the death of the NBA since October were wrong. To be sure, the next few seasons may witness a decline in television ratings, a slight dropoff in attendance throughout the league, and fewer compelling rivalries like the ones we were so lucky to witness during the Golden Age of the NBA. Gone are Larry's Celtics and their beloved Garden, Magic's Lakers and Showtime at the Forum, and, last but not least, the days of Air Jordan dazzling fans at both the old Chicago Stadium and the impersonal United Center. But maybe, just maybe, there is life and, somewhere down the road, a prosperous future after Michael. So forget all that end-of-the-world stuff. It's time for the owners, players, and league officials to ask themselves the immortal question posed long ago not by Michael Stipe, but by Axl Rose: where do we go now?

Luckily, they're already on the right track. The new labor agreement may have cost the league a good portion of the regular season and the trust of its fans, but it's an excellent way to put an end to the escalation of salaries that made NBA players look like heartless, overpaid mercenaries. (It should also be noted that the agreement also allows smaller market teams in Milwaukee and Minnesota to compete in the annual free agent sweepstakes that were once dominated by the New York Knicks and the Phoenix Suns.) Meanwhile, the trades and signings that immediately followed the end of the lockout must have caught the attention of even the most cynical fan, if only for a fleeting moment. Finally, owners, coaches and players outside of the greater Chicago area can actually breathe a collective sigh of relief, taking comfort in the knowledge that their teams can once again compete for an NBA title. For years, the league was caught in a period of stagnation, relying on His Airness to generate revenue, a larger fan base and an overflowing trophy case for Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf. Suddenly, it's open season on the championship crown, creating new hope and excitement for fans across the country. (Just don't be surprised if you see some familiar faces - namely Hakeem Olajuwon and Scottie Pippen - in this year's Finals. The Rockets, after all, are loaded.)

But these are merely baby steps in the right direction. Unfortunately, the NBA still has lots of work to do before it can come close to reaching the heights it achieved during the Jordan Era. It must promote its young, marketable superstars like Tim Duncan, Kobe Bryant and Keith Van Horn without labelling them as the second coming of His Airness - this would place enormous and unreasonable pressure upon them to live up to standards that were established by a man whose talents may never be equalled; it would also be an insult to the memory of His Airness. Furthermore, the NBA must bring its players to the fans through a series of league-sponsored autograph sessions and (temporary) ticket price reductions. (I say temporary only because I am a realist, not a utopian dreamer.) Finally, the league must go to any lengths necessary to restore its good name. Establishing a tougher disciplinary system for the usual gang of idiots (Isaiah Rider, Latrell Sprewell, and the like) and keeping all dirty laundry hidden from the public eye would be a nice start.

In this age of journalistic hyperbole, the media is too eager to use superlatives when discussing various athletes and sports franchises. According to Sports Illustrated, 1998 was the best year in the history of professional athletics; the 1998 New York Yankees were the best baseball team ever assembled; and Michael Jordan was the best player in the history of the NBA. Some poor, ignorant bastard who has obviously never heard of the Edmonton Oilers even had the temerity to suggest that the 1998 Detroit Red Wings were the most dominant team in the history of the National Hockey League. Well, such reports may have been exaggerated, even preposterous, but at least the sportswriters got one thing right: Air Jordan is the best that ever was, and we will not see his kind again for quite some time. The king is gone, but he's not forgotten. And while his legacy will continue to haunt arenas around the league for years to come, that does not mean that the NBA will be destined for a bleak future bereft of any excitement and drama. Instead, the league will find a way to stand on its own two feet and, with the help of a promising group of young stars and up-and-coming teams in New Jersey, Boston and San Antonio, will soon rule again. So forget whatever you've heard. The NBA is alive, kicking, and playing at an arena near you.

When one gazes out across the American sports landscape today, one sees a completely different world than that of 10, or even five years ago. The discrepancies are not minor ones, either; the last decade and even half-decade have seen some of the biggest changes in American sport since the mergers of the NFL and AFL, and NBA and ABA, and the subsequent major national emergence of those sports. There is no one force driving these changes, but rather they spring from a number of trends that, once they have run their course of change, will forever alter the way America views sports.

One of the chief differences in American sport from 10 years back is the place of women in both the college and professional ranks. The passage of Title IX in 1973 guaranteed the gender equity in any athletic program supported in any way by federal funds; in other words, in every public elementary, middle and high school, college and university in the country. But it in no way guaranteed equity in professional sports, nor did it create an immediate demand for women in American sports, an area always dominated by men. That has taken time - time for full implementation of Title IX both in law and in practice, time for a generation of girls to grow up playing sports, time for them to mature into women who were also sports fans, and time for the American sports and business community to realize that women's professional sports would be successful.

Not to say that women did not exist in professional sports prior to 1973. For decades, there have been women's professional tennis and golf tours, but the effect on American society and gender equity in sports was negligible, as those sports have traditionally been the territory of the rich and privileged, save for the 1980s tennis boom and current golf boom. But in those sports women have been and still are relegated to second-class citizenship, with tournament payouts dwarfed by the men's tours. And until recently, the women's golf tour received little or no television coverage. But all that has changed.

It is impossible to pinpoint the exact moment that women's sports burst onto the scene, as there was not one but many different events that precipitated the changes. The changes began slowly, with the success of and fanfare surrounding Mary Lou Rhetton, the late Florence Griffith-Joyner and Jackie Joyner-Kersee at the Olympics throughout the '80s, and the rise to superstardom of Chris Everett, Martina Navritalova, Steffi Graf and a host of other women in the tennis world. A story of women in sports became everyday front-page news leading up to the 1992 Winter Olympics with the Tonya Harding-Nancy Kerrigan saga. Though it was perhaps not the most positive way for women's sports to break onto the national scene in a major way, it was an effective one. The figure skating at those Olympics broke ratings records, and the subsequent professionalization of figure skating has benefited the women's division of the sport every bit as much as it has benefited the men.

The emergence of women's sports onto the national scene progressed with the continued popularity of figure skating and a growing number of other women's sports at the 1994 Winter Olympics. But it was only when the Olympics returned to America, at Atlanta in 1996, that the popularity and marketing potential of women's team sports was fully realized. The American women's soccer, softball and basketball teams all won gold before crowds every bit as large and enthusiastic as those for equivalent male events (soccer and baseball, where America did not win gold). The crowds, however, were very much different from the male events; the stands were filled with thousands of women and teenage girls, cheering on the sports stars they idolized. And those stars were women!

Suddenly, the reality and financial possibilities of the situation became clear to the American business community. They could have women's professional team sports, and make money. This last bit was the key; that advertisers could bank on relatively large, and more importantly, nearly untapped retail markets. And so it came to be that not one but two women's professional basketball leagues were formed, the American Basketball League and the Women's National Basketball Association, which is governed and promoted by the NBA.

The early results of both leagues are in, and they are nothing but positive. Attendance is high - not NBA-level, but not empty arenas, either. Ratings are good on the games that get television coverage. And marketing is going gangbusters - there's even a WNBA Barbie, which I guess could be seen as a good thing.

Women's team sports got another shot in the arm last year at the Winter Olympics, when the U.S. women's hockey team brought home the gold, and got onto the Wheaties box. The men's team got angry, wrecked some hotel rooms and came home early, without a medal despite having perhaps the most impressive team on paper.

So what am I saying here, that men in sports and the business world are insensitive exclusionary jerks who shouldn't even be allowed to play their own games because they don't play nice? Yeah, that's going to happen. What is really important is that although there has been and still exists inequity between men's and women's professional sports, the gap is slowly and inexorably closing, with the most powerful force in America helping to close the gap: market capitalism.

Ten Sports Highlights of 1998

1. In one of the greatest endings to any football game in recent memory, Steve Young, with no time on the clock, throws a thirty yard strike to triple-covered Terrell Owens for the winning touchdown. The 49ers oust the Packers from the playoffs for the first time in three years.

2. Mark McGwire hits his 62nd homerun in front of a sold-out Busch Stadium, the children of Roger Maris, and fellow slugger Sammy Sosa. Big Mac later hits his 70th homerun against the Montreal Expos, establishing a nearly unbreakable single-season home run record. The ball sells for $3 million at a recent auction.

3. Broncos quarterback John Elway and coach Mike Shanahan beat the Atlanta Falcons for their second consecutive Super Bowl title. Dan Reeves and the rest of his Dirty Birds get spanked on the field while Eugene Robinson tries to get spanked off it.

4. David Wells pitches the first perfect game for the Yankees since Don Larsen. He is later awarded the key to the city by fascist mayor Rudy Giuliani and promptly gets hammered.

5. Jordan hits the winning shot in the NBA Finals, finishes his career as (what else?) a winner and is deifyed by the public and press.

6. Sammy Sosa, overshadowed by McGwire in the home run contest but not the season, is voted the National League's Most Valuable Player. In a typical display of selflessness, he uses his newfound popularity to rally support for hurricane victims in his homeland, the Dominican Republic.

7. Kentucky wins its second consecutive NCAA championship with new coach Tubby Smith, proving that success is a choice for someone other than Rick Pitino.

8. Johnny Mosely wins gold in Na gano with his highflying alpine acrobatics.

9. Yankees win 114 games en route to a World Series rout of the Padres. Arguably the greatest baseball team in the modern era.

10. The Detroit Red Wings beat the Washington Capitals in four games to capture their second consecutive Stanley Cup championship, giving fans in Hockeytown and injured defenseman Vladimir Konstantinov yet another reason to rejoice. Arguable the greatest hockey team since the 1992 Pittsburgh Penguins.

Ten Sports Lowlights for 1998

1. Despite being awarded the Bart Starr award for high moral character earlier in the day, Falcons defenseman Eugene Robinson is caught soliciting oral sex a few miles away from his family's hotel in Miami. The very next day, he is burned during the Big Game by Rod Smith for an eighty yard reception that would ultimately lead to a touchdown.

2. The NBA.

3. With his frequent outbursts against the San Francisco press, future Hall of Fame wide receiver Jerry Rice embarasses himself and his formerly pristine reputation. He goes on to spell team with an I all season long.

4. Karl Malone's greed and his unwarranted public disdain for Utah diminishes his undeniably great basketball accomplishments.

5. 49ers president Eddie Debartolo is found to be involved in a bribe scandal in New Orleans and loses control of the team. Carmen Policy and Dwight Clark subsequently depart for the greener (and considerably more legal) pastures of Cleveland.

6. Latrell Sprewell submits a ridiculous countersuit against NBA, accusing management of racism after his dismissal. After all, he only choked his coach and threatened to kill him.

7. NFL officiating was laughable, leading to undeserved wins by the New England Patriots and the New York Jets. Instant replay reconsidered by league owners and later reinstated for the 1999-2000 season.

8. Mike Tyson tries for come back only to be sent back to jail a few weeks later.

9. Dennis Rodman divorces Carmen Electra and then makes an ass out of himself on the Tonight Show. He even manages to make Jay Leno look good for a brief second.

10. Wayne Huizenga destroys and dismantles the Florida Marlins, his own credibility and the credibility of Major League Baseball.