Melo’s Suspension Is Bad Business for the NBA

With the 2008-09 NBA schedule coming out today, bits and pieces have started to leak, including the goofball opening night epic Nuggets/Jazz. But the real news in that Denver Post item is that, as is so often the case with NBA players, Carmelo Anthony will have to wait a few days for his season to start:↵↵⇥Anthony will not play against the Jazz or in the Nuggets’ second game of the season as he serves a suspension for his April arrest on a drinking-and-driving charge.↵⇥
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↵⇥He pleaded guilty in June to a reduced charge of driving while ability-impaired.↵↵Something I’ve noticed: Casual fans, and non-fans, only care about the NBA during the preseason media blitz, the first two weeks of play, and then the playoffs. Those first few games are some of the best regular season airtime a franchise can get, and if nothing else, send a symbolic message to all those viewers getting ready to go into hibernation. They set opinions and images for the months to come.↵
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So why is it that players have to serve suspensions for off-season sins right when the season jumps off? The darn thing is 82 games long, with a long stretch in the middle that no one cares about. It’s just not in the best interest of the league, or the team, to keep someone like Melo out of that brief blush of limelight that comes before people get bored with the NBA. I know that Stern is concerned with projecting law and order, and that unpunished sins would set the league back when it comes to public perception. But the only people who benefit from these immediate suspensions are those who wouldn’t watch anyway.↵
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↵Melo, or whomever got caught with an unregistered gun during a traffic stop, will pay their debt to us all. However, it’s just stupid to think that exacting justice right away is the key to the NBA’s health. I’d say some balance between positive and negative always works better if you’re trying to run a business.↵