Tue, Apr 30, 2002 page19

• Television networks' schedule frustrates basketball players

  TV demands that the play-offs be shown on the weekends when advertising dollars are greater, creating long breaks

  • BLOOMBERG
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  National Basketball Association coaches and players bemoan their lack of practice time during the regular season. During the first round of the playoffs, they're griping about too much of it.

  To accommodate television networks, which prefer to show games on weekends when more people are at home watching, almost all of the teams have a three-day break at some point during their series. San Antonio and Seattle have four days off between Games 2 and 3.

  

  Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant, left, drives past Washington Wizards forward Michael Jordan during their NBA game in Los Angeles earlier this year.

  PHOTO: REUTERS

  "Everybody would rather get out there and play," said Indiana's Brad Miller, whose Pacers have a three-day break before Game 3 of their series against the New Jersey Nets. "Three days is just too long."

  The NBA usually caters to broadcasters such as General Electric Co's NBC, which paid US$1.75 billion for a four-year TV contract that ends after this season. Under the league's new six-year broadcast agreement, which begins next season, AOL Time Warner Inc and Walt Disney Co agreed to pay US$4.6 billion for NBA rights.

  With so much money at stake, the NBA is willing to stretch its schedule during the playoffs. During the regular season, teams usually play every other day and occasionally on consecutive nights. Besides the All-Star break, rarely are teams idle for more than two consecutive days.

  "You do it a certain way for 82 games, and it'd be nice if it was consistent," Miller said. "NBA players like ritual."

  Nets coach Byron Scott, who played on three championship teams with the Los Angeles Lakers during the 1980s, said three days of inactivity might lead to sloppy play when the teams return to the court.

  "You could lose your timing, lose your edge," Scott said.

  "I'm sure we're not the only ones who'd rather get right back into it."

  NBA Commissioner David Stern would like to pick up the pace, too. Rather than eliminate days off, though, he wants to add more games.

  NBA teams play best-of-five series in the opening round, while the remaining playoff rounds are best-of-seven. Stern said he'd prefer to increase the first round to seven games, as in the National Hockey League, though such a change would require approval from the union that represents NBA players.

  "We would like to take care of that for next year," Stern said. "We can't make that change without the players association. We're waiting to hear from them."

  Billy Hunter, executive director of the National Basketball Players Association, couldn't be reached.

  In the NHL, teams won't go more than two days without playing in the opening round.

  Television networks are looking for new sources of revenue to make up for the worst advertising market in a decade. According to a recent report by Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co, Disney's ABC and ESPN will lose a combined US$2.2 billion on the NBA contract they signed in January.

  Not everyone is moaning about the extended layoff.

  The Spurs lost Game 2 to the SuperSonics while playing without former NBA Most Valuable Player David Robinson, who has a sore lower back, giving him a four-day break to recover.

  "To have a 7-footer as athletic and versatile as Dave would definitely help," said the Spurs' Antonio Daniels.

  Indiana's Austin Croshere, who helped the Pacers reach the NBA Finals two years ago, said most players don't want too much time off during the playoffs.

  "Believe me, everybody would rather keep the same routine," he said.
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