King Kaufman's Sports Daily

Backwards World: The NBA bumbles while the NHL gets it right. For now.

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Dec. 6, 2006 | It's Backwards World. Turn right to go left. No thank you means thank you. The NHL is getting things right and the NBA is bumbling around.

The NHL board of governors voted this week not to change the league schedule to add more interconference games. This seems like a minor little non-tweak, but it's actually a smart non-move by the league that brought you what felt like 100 years of the neutral-zone trap followed by a lockout that killed a whole season.

The NBA, meanwhile, has been hit with two unfair labor practices complaints by the players union, both of which were predictable given the tin-eared, highhanded actions lately of commissioner David Stern, who until recently was a powerhouse in the mostly soft competition for best commissioner in North American sports.

Stern was forced to admit this week that his unilateral decision to introduce a new, synthetic-material basketball to replace the old leather ball was a mistake. "In hindsight, we could have done a better job," Stern told Liz Robbins of the New York Times.

You think? Like maybe before you tinker with one of the most fundamental elements of the game, you might want to talk to the players, the only element more fundamental, and see if they like the idea? Stern's move was akin to some London Philharmonic manager telling the violin players, "OK, now you have to use these violins. They're plastic. You'll love 'em! They're all the same!"

Then Stern made it worse by responding to the players' complaints as though they were children.

The ball is too sticky when it's dry and too slippery when it's wet with sweat, the players have said. It doesn't bounce consistently. It cuts our fingers. And by the way there was precisely nothing wrong with the old ball.

You'll get used to it, Stern huffed dismissively. The new ball's here to stay. It's like he's been sitting at Bud Selig's knee, absorbing wisdom from the master.

Now Stern says he'll talk to Spalding, the ball's manufacturer, about fixing the problems. And maybe the new ball isn't here to stay after all. "Everything is on the table," he told the Times.

The other complaint by the union involves this year's crackdown on arguing with the referees or even showing displeasure. The constant whining had to be dealt with, but the hair-trigger technical fouls in response to human reactions are over the top. This is the kind of thing that usually gets dialed back once the point has been made, but surely there was a better way to make it.

Meanwhile, as the NBA has been acting as though simple questions like whether to consult the workers before changing their only tool are impossible mind-benders, the NHL has been doing a lot of smart things. Sometimes the smartest thing you can do is to not do a dumb thing. Score one for the NHL this week. In spite of itself, but a score is a score.

Next page: "Why do we have to play the damn Florida Panthers twice a year?"