Dear NBA, It's Been Fun

For decades the National Basketball Association has helped Americans come together around deeply felt, but harmless rivalries. Even during the most rancorous election cycles, polar opposites from the political spectrum could be seen cheering together for their favorite team in a winner-take-all contest of skill, teamwork, endurance and artistry. I, myself, will never forget the 1993 match up of the Phoenix Suns and the Chicago Bulls. Michael Jordan was poetry in motion. Charles Barclay, a bombastic charactor of undeniable skill. It made him an opponent we loved to hate. For me, that series will ever be associated with the height of human emotion. My wife and I watched Game 1 of the series in the hospital maternity ward, holding our first newborn child, a beautiful girl. All was wholesome, all was vigor, all was life.

Adam Silver (Getty Images)

Who could have known that 23 years later the very same NBA would be bullying a democratically elected legislature and governor to turn my daughter's world upside down? The NBA brand is now being used as a bludgeon -- a fifth branch of government -- to enforce the agenda of Obama's Education Department. They unilaterally wants to rewrite Title IX protections for our girls, into Progressive policies that make our girls less safe than ever. The spectacle of Adam Silver, a towering white male, issuing diktats to the girls of North Carolina makes me wonder what has happened to the entertainment industry.

It's time for a reality check. And that begins with a reminder that the NBA is an entertainment company, no more and no less. The NBA produces no tangible products. They are not retailers of food or clothing, auto parts or household goods. They produce no medicines and care for no people. There is absolutely nothing that I need from the NBA for my day to day survival. Microsoft, Google and Apple may have a near monopoly on my computing needs, Birkshire Hathaway may have a near monopoly on my engergy needs, Walmart has nearly driven all my retail needs into a one-stop box store. But the only reason for the NBA to exist is to feed my desire for fun and escape. Aside from that, they serve no useful purpose.

So what happens when it is no longer fun to watch an NBA game? What happens when the iconic NBA logo is superimposed on a bathroom icon? You see the image of a graceful athlete flying over the privacy wall in a woman's privy. What happens when all the stars of the NBA are made to serve the LGBT agenda? The mind's eye begins to see a toilet rim in place of the basket rim; and the annual three point competition is imbued with a whole new meaning of the word, "SWISH"! When the NBA was cognizant of their marketing niche, people from across the political spectrum could temporarily drop their rivalries and join together for a couple hours of wholesome, non-partisan fun.  But no more.

Now, for every minute that the NBA is on my TV screen, I am painfully aware that I, personally, am funding an elitist agenda. I could not even think of buying a ticket to see a game in person. Who knows how many of those dollars would be funneled directly to further the irrational and divisive agenda that the NBA now represents. T-shirts, socks, shorts and warm up pants that used to mark me as one who loves athletics and wholesome entertainment, now are free advertising for a juggernaut that is trampling the rights of my daughter and my wife. The fun is gone; and with it, the product.

I am not here advocating a boycott of the NBA. That would be the wrong term.  A boycott is a conscious decision to forego buying what you want to buy, in order to make a point. But my point is that the product has suddenly evaporated. The entertainment that the NBA offered for decades is simply gone overnight. The NBA has made the classic blunder of mistaking the means for the end.

Perhaps you remember a group of singers called the Dixie Chicks. They, too, were at the top of their game. But they took their eye off the ball. They thought that their product was high quality singing. It was not. It was entertainment, escape, fun. When Natalie Maines decided to turn their concert into a political platform, all the air came out of their ball in two seconds flat. It's not that they lost their musical genius, they simply stopped being entertaining. Market-forces did the rest.

Dear NBA, perhaps you think that your product was high quality basketball. You were equally mistaken. Your product was entertainment, escape, fun. It is painful to watch commissioner Silver daily letting the air out of the ball on national TV. The best basketball in the world cannot bring back the fun once a fork as been stuck in it.

I'll always remember the 1993 championship games. It is part of my family history. So, thanks for the memories. It was fun while it lasted. Good luck with the new product that you will be marketing from here on out -- whatever that is.