Synthetic basketballs that is. In the brouhaha over the NBA’s new synthetic basketballs Ralph Nader weighed in on this weighty issue:
It seemed strange that the consumer most affected, most benefiting from Ralph’s roar, were several dozen millionaire jocks.
Among the points cited by Nader were that Steve Nash of the Phoenix Suns and Jason Kidd of the New Jersey Nets had injuries “like paper cuts” on their hands, that the new ball “frequently became lodged between the rim and the backboard,” and, our personal favorite, the New York Knicks’ Eddy Curry saying, “The ball never leaves my hand the same way.”
Nader ended his letter of chastisement to Stern with a body blow: “Perhaps, finally, you will learn your lesson as to your attitude toward the league you have been entrusted to manage. The well-being of the players should be your highest priority. After all, you need them more than they need you.”
Now being an absolutely obsessive sports fan, and being a huge basketball fan who also happens to be first and foremost a Dallas Mavericks fan, I am as concerned about my team’s former point guard, and my favorite NBA star, Steve Nash’s fingers as anybody. I am glad that Commissioner Stern will spare him the paper cuts. But please, can anybody get rid of Nader?
He responded calmly to the first question, something along the lines of: Why in hell are you wasting your time on guys who buy diamonds by the bushel?
He said he was an advocate for all workers, no matter their salary, and that he had been a sports advocate as far back as 1970. He also said he had a website, leagueoffans.org.
Then he got more specific about Stern. He called him “abrupt and autocratic.”
Oh, oh. The A-words.
Later, he added that Stern was “arrogant” and he was happy that, in his backtracking on the basketball issue, “Stern would now have to eat crow.”
Before the conversation ended, he said he and Stern had been at odds a few years ago, over officiating in a Sacramento-Lakers game. He said they had talked at that time, and though Stern had been dismissive, he also had been “polite.”
I am absolutely speechless at the way this man’s mind works. Cue Stern:
He said he hadn’t read the letter until the night before, a full two days after his decision had been announced and Nader had sent his letter.
“I guess it got lost in the fan-mail folder,” Stern said, a smirk in his voice.
He was read Nader’s quotes. He responded that it was “good to know that Mr. Nader is following the headlines so well, so he can stay current on all the main issues of the day, such as Iraq, poverty, health care, unemployment, the budget deficit and the NBA’s basketball.”
What we have here is a man desperately seeking attention (editor- You have a blog, what is it about if not attention. Shut up!) Maybe taking the side of the corporations that basketball players are in a dispute of what kind of ball they earn their millions with helps in fund raising, or something. You tell me.
Of course, the other side of this issue has its “progressive advocates.”:
Judging from the sarcastic open letter that PETA sent out to NBA players on Tuesday, one day after Stern caved in to the players’ months-long complaints, this tussle isn’t over.
“The way some players have whined about this makes you think that balls of any kind are in short supply,” Mathews wrote in an email to me yesterday.
PETA rejoiced when the NBA announced it was changing to a synthetic leather – or “cruelty-free, non-animal” ball, in PETA parlance. The organization ranked the NBA’s decision at No. 2 on its list of major victories in 2006, just behind “California High School Vows to Give Pigs a Break” from being chased for sport at a school pep rally, but several spots ahead of my first choice, “Whole Foods ending the sale of Live Lobsters and Crabs”.
I think we should put Dan Matthews and Ralph Nader in a cage and let them fight this one until they both aren’t standing anymore.
Hat Tip- Marginal Revolution
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Cows are going to be killed whether PETA likes it or not. Wouldn’t it be better to use the dead cow skin for something instead of seeing it go to waste? Use all parts of the animal, like the Indians did.
When I lived in Fort Worth I had a client who owned a company whose whole job was to prepare “cow wrappers” for shipping to leather manufacturers. Quite lucrative actually. They got them from meat packers. Of course you are right, leather from cows does not result in the death of cows, it is the result of the death of cows.
Of course publicity about how we are killing cows so that we can bounce balls is more appealing to the American public than pointing out that we need to give up steaks and hamburgers, so institutionally it makes sense to make a pointless but non-threatening gesture. Victories need to be had to keep the money and attention flowing.
More importantly, I want Nowitzki happy. All the better to rain jumpers on Yao and company;^)