Byline: Steve Aschburner; Staff Writer
Las Vegas, Nev. -- You've walked through downtown Memphis and, on any street not named Beale, seen the series of padlocked doors and soaped-up windows. And every time you do, you're reminded that Joe Barry Carroll for Robert Parish and Kevin McHale was not the worst trade in NBA history; Vancouver for Memphis was. You've ridden in a cab in New Orleans, way before Katrina, and heard the driver talk about his sons and how, given the paycheck he takes home, their NBA exposure will continue to come through the television set. You step around tumbleweeds in Oklahoma City, tune in to the arena wars in Seattle and Orlando, and wonder how the honeymoon for the league's latest expansion entry in Charlotte could almost instantly require counseling.
Portland, New Jersey and Milwaukee have had financial problems, too, and it's no leap of logic to see that Cleveland or Minnesota is a just a LeBron or KG opt-out, respectively, away from competitive and revenue issues.
Then you take a stroll north along Las Vegas Boulevard, more commonly known as 'The Strip.' You shade your eyes from the lights and lose count of the limos with wheelbases longer than the taxi lines. Casinos are busy at 10 a.m., packed 12 hours later. With NBA All-Star Weekend crowding into town, whoever isn't wearing Nike is wearing Adidas and D.Wade is getting more hang time from banners on resort hotels than W. Newton. One conclusion: The NBA needs Las Vegas a lot more than Las Vegas needs the NBA.
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This ostentatious oasis, this Disney World for the slightly decadent, is ripe for a major-league franchise, and the NBA pops up as the likeliest candidate by process of elimination. The NFL loathes sports betting - at least the official variety - in a market where one of its teams is headquartered. Baseball's numbers - 81 home games, the need to draw 25,000 to 30,000 fans to each one - are beyond Las Vegas' reach. The NHL already has pushed into too many warm-weather markets, the current play of the Nashville Predators notwithstanding. That leaves the NBA, which is taking the city for a test drive - top down, shades on, Jay-Z blaring - this weekend. 'I think it's inevitable,' Jerry Colangelo, longtime chairman of the Phoenix Suns and one of the NBA's most influential power brokers, told the Arizona Republic last week. Colangelo now oversees USA Basketball, which is based in Las Vegas. 'Just because of the recognition of the marketplace as a vibrant, supportable place for NBA basketball,' he said. 'There's great interest there. They have a history and tradition of basketball. There's a lot of momentum.' Sacramento owner Gavin Maloof, whose family owns the Sacramento Kings and the Palms hotel where the All-Star players stayed, predicts that some team - his or another, expansion or relocation - will call Las Vegas home within 10, possibly five years. In a speech to the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce luncheon on Wednesday, NBA Commissioner David Stern made it clear that the opportunity is there for Las Vegas, waiting on a formal proposal to the league's Board of Governors from Mayor Oscar Goodman and his crew. Stern said he would like to have something in hand about a month before the April 23 meeting in New York. The commissioner recently appeared to soften his stance on sports books, too. Now Goodman believes that, rather than putting all NBA action off-limits to legalized gambling, some version of the 'UNLV rule' might work, with only the local franchise's games banned from the boards.
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Shaquille O'Neal said on Friday that he wants to be the general manager of a Vegas franchise. Michael Jordan surely would be happy to own a team here, and Charles Barkley could be its huggable mascot, losing and winning several times over each year the equivalent of his Hall of Fame-career earnings. It does seem like a matter of time.
'I don't think David would commit to going to Vegas [for All-Star Weekend] if they weren't looking seriously at making that a permanent home for somebody,' Timberwolves coach Randy Wittman said. 'It will be interesting to see down the road what happens there, if that's going to be an avenue that's opened for an existing franchise to move to.'
As a group, the NBA's top performers here for this weekend's events were overwhelmingly in favor of it. Then again, young male millionaires generally are in favor of just about anything, from hang-gliding to handguns. Many got their first taste of Las Vegas in college or during an NBA-sanctioned stay for the summer league held here each year. Some have participated in Team USA trials and practices. Many more are frequent visitors in the offseason or on All-Star Weekends in they don't participate.
Las Vegas in the middle of a three-game swing through Salt Lake City and Dallas? A no-brainer. 'There are a lot of markets that we can grow to in the NBA, and I think this should definitely be the frontrunner for the NBA,' Seattle's Ray Allen said.
Said Phoenix guard Steve Nash: 'Yeah, I can see it happening. There is danger, but I think there's danger in every city, in everything. It's up to people to make the right decision.' The ugliest brawl in NBA history took place in the middle-class suburbs north of Detroit. Two of the nastiest nightclub incidents this season occurred in Indianapolis, long known in league circles as Nap Town. As Toronto coach Sam Mitchell said last week: 'The guys that get in trouble, get in trouble in Milwaukee, they get in trouble in Indiana, Cleveland, wherever. If that's who you are, that's who you are. The guys who don't get in trouble, don't.' And as for any unsavory influences on the sanctity of the game, Wolves forward Kevin Garnett said: 'It's going to go on whether [the league] is in Vegas or not. It's not in Vegas now, and you still have the issue to worry about.' Garnett often has headed to Vegas to decompress in the summer. 'Certain cities are just built for entertainment, and Vegas is no different from that,' he said. 'I wondered why it has taken this long for it to come here.' Still, Garnett said his first thought when he heard about this year's All-Star site was: 'Uh-oh.' And Golden State forward Al Harrington had an interesting take that the Board of Governors might want to explore. 'The biggest thing about Vegas is that there's no police,' Harrington said. 'I don't care what anybody says. I lived out there for two months this summer and I probably saw one cop car, so it's a free-for-all.'
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There are defenders in the lane between Las Vegas and the NBA's rim. The city's TV market ranks 48th nationally, behind the likes of Albuquerque, N.M., Grand Rapids-Kalamazoo, Mich., and Norfolk, Va. The local economy, like that of New Orleans, is built on the backs of tourism and service workers, without a bevy of Fortune 500 companies for sponsorships. Population has boomed to nearly 2 million, but Las Vegas quickly turns into desert, with few nearby cities from which to draw. A modern arena is a big concern. The Thomas & Mack Center in use this weekend is inadequate by current standards. The mayor is a proponent of a downtown location. There also has been talk that AEG, the worldwide sports and entertainment giant that operates Staples Center and the Colosseum at Caesars Palace among its venues, might be interested in a location near the airport with valet parking for private jets. As in other markets, snags and disputes might hang up an arena project here. Casino operators, for instance, are fiercely determined capitalists, not inclined to hand over tax dollars for someone else's business. 'There is no way we'd support putting up a single dollar toward building an arena or stadium,' Alan Feldman, senior vice president of public affairs for MGM Mirage, told a Houston reporter. 'Every casino and hotel in Las Vegas was constructed with private money. ... Libraries, schools, police, mental health care, museums, the performing arts? We're in favor of tax money for all of that. Building a stadium? Not a chance.' Some folks argue that the money brought in by an NBA franchise would make up for any costs. It seems, too, that for all its superficial flash - or maybe because of it - Las Vegas still has that wannabe complex that needs a sports franchise to feel big-league. Meanwhile, the NBA needs another viable market, either to bail out a troubled operation or simply to wave like a cudgel at current municipalities that won't fall in line on arena funding.
The clock is ticking, and one of the leagues is going to be first in, with all of the rights and privileges accorded to it. Las Vegas and the NBA seems like a marriage fit for a drive-through chapel, with Elvis and the four LeBrons as attendants.
