Thursday, 5/15/97 Jones’ coaching women’s team is step to prove
league is serious OPINION: Fans can watch solid performances, not
flashy shows like NBA
Why in the world would K.C. Jones, a Hall of Famer and owner of
12 NBA championship rings, want to coach the New England Blizzard
of the women’s American Basketball League? After all, as head man
of the Boston Celtics he coached Larry Bird and company to two
titles and accumulated the all-time best winning percentage in
professional basketball’s most storied franchise. Is it the
possibility of coaching another Bird, such as Kate Starbird, who
recently signed with the league after winning the 1997 Naismith
Award in her final year at Stanford? Probably not. Is it the money?
Considering the fact that Rick Pitino will earn $70 million with
the Celtics over the next 10 years, we can safely rule that
possibility out. Maybe Jones is an extremely gender-conscious
individual. It’s more likely, however, that he’s doing it because
he loves basketball and he loves coaching. There aren’t many dunks,
and there probably will never come a time when there are several
thousand screaming fans at every game. But there will be solid,
fundamental basketball. There will be strategy, hustle and players
coming off of perfect screens for jump shots. In short, it will be
the game as it was meant to be. The fans won’t come to see windmill
slams and players who dye their hair green. The stands will be
filled with basketball purists and not with businessmen in
three-piece suits who are the only ones who can afford tickets.
Signing Jones is a step toward getting more people to take the
league seriously. But I hope that people won’t judge the success or
failure of the league based on comparison with the NBA. Most of the
people who watch the NBA are drawn in by the flashy plays and
high-wire acts put on by the Shawn Kemps and Grant Hills of the
league. While there are several outstanding women athletes out
there, it will never be the same – it’s an entirely different
market. One thing that could ruin the whole thing, however, is the
presence of two women’s leagues. The ABL and the WNBA are competing
for highly skilled players, which may eventually cause the talent
to be stretched thin. If the two leagues don’t merge, it is likely
that both will die within a few years. With 29 teams, the WNBA has
more raw athletes than basketball players. Imagine how competitive
the league would be if it was cut down to 16 teams, leaving each
squad packed with serious talent. Of course, this will never happen
because there is far more money to be made the way things are now.
But the women’s game possesses a different quality from the men’s
game. True, basketball is basketball, but fans aren’t all the same.
If the talent gets stretched too far, the spectators will disappear
from the women’s games. It’s great for the ABL that a coach like
K.C. Jones sees its appeal. I hope it doesn’t go to waste. Zucker
is a Daily Bruin sports columnist. He can be reached via e-mail at
[email protected] Brad Zucker