NBA Lockout Watch, Day 123: Heat Owner Arison Deletes Lockout-Related Tweets

Heat Owner Micky Arison has been “refreshingly honest” on his Twitter feed, according to Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com. In a series of tweets Friday that “he actually later seemed to regret a tad and might even get him fined” by NBA Commissioner David Stern, Arison offered a “valuable window into the cloudy world that’s currently obscuring the league.” When one fan asked, "How's it feel to be apart of ruining the best game in the world? NBA owners/players don't give a damn about fans ... and guess what? Fans provide all the money you're fighting over ... you greedy (expletive) pigs." Arison’s reply “might upset some people but, again, at least it seemed to come from a rare honest place.” Arison tweeted, "You are barking at the wrong owner." He deleted the post “a short time later,” but not before “plenty of people saw it as fellow owners, league executives and players zipped it around cyberspace and added their own, more private, commentary.” When one fan suggested that competitive balance among "all 32 teams" was an “unrealistic and stupid idea,” Arison “re-tweeted it with a smiley face.” He then “deleted that tweet, too, perhaps at an employee’s suggestion.” Later he “clarified the smile was for the 32 teams mistake (there’s 30), not the competitive balance principle.” Windhorst wrote it “may have been the first bending of the truth Arison’s been guilty of on Twitter” (ESPN.com, 10/29). In West Palm Beach, Ethan Skolnick wrote Arison has been “more open on the social media service than most observers expected.” One fan tweeted, “Can you bark at the other owners? This is RIDICULOUS!!!” Arison replied, “Now u r making some sense.” Another fan tweeted, “As a Clipper fan curious do you ever talk w/ Sterling? any thoughts on the guy?” Arison’s response: “lol.” Skolnick wrote, “Certainly, if players see this, it won’t hurt the Heat. By not coming off as a hard-liner, he only makes his franchise more attractive to free agents” (PALMBEACHPOST.com, 10/28). The PALM BEACH POST's Skolnick: “No doubt Stern won't laugh. Neither will some in his caucus.” Still, it is “encouraging that Arison appears ready to live with that” (PALM BEACH POST, 10/30).

DIFFERENCE IN MARKET SIZE: In Memphis, Geoff Calkins wrote the NBA and NBPA “have done plenty wrong,” but “nobody has been more wrong than Arison, the same owner who accelerated the current crisis by going out and buying The Dream Team.” A fan tweeted to Arison, "Heat ratings proved that fans want to see super teams in big markets instead of a ton of small-market teams each with one st(ar)." Arison “retweeted this to all his followers.” Calkins wrote Arison “thinks that fans really want to see a small cluster of Dream Teams.” It is “fashionable to dismiss ‘small market owners’ as if they're a bunch of greedy, hard-line lunatics.” It is “not good for a league when cities like Cleveland, Denver and Orlando can't hold on to stars,” and it is “not good for a league when those stars have to migrate to the biggest cites in order to win” (Memphis COMMERCIAL APPEAL, 10/30). In Boston, Steve Bulpett wrote the “larger point is that while the NBA presents a united front, there is a difference of outlook and goals among the teams.” It is “obvious that those making money just want to keep going, but the less aggressive and/or small-market clubs are after more” (BOSTON HERALD, 10/30). In Ft. Lauderdale, Ira Winderman noted Arison is “considered to be among the owners pushing for a swift resolution to the lockout” (South Florida SUN-SENTINEL, 10/29).

CHIMING IN: In L.A., Mike Bresnahan noted NBA players “went to their Twitter accounts this weekend to express anger with the lockout.” Thunder C Nazr Mohammed “led the online charge with more than 40 Twitter dispatches summarizing his thoughts on the stalemate between owners and players.” Mohammed wrote, "Gotta love David Stern when he says his owners were willing to concede and give us 50% when we're the ones with all the concessions. I knew this would happen. He's a master at PR and negotiating. That's why he's the commissioner. Making us negotiate against ourselves...." (L.A. TIMES, 10/30). In Philadelphia, Kate Fagan noted she has been “Tweeting and interacting with a different segment of the Sixers' fan base: fans located overseas.” Fagan was in N.Y. covering the ongoing labor negotiations and wrote, “All of us here at the stakeout have been reminded of the global reach of this game. Even if there's a certain sense of apathy in the U.S. … there is a notable following overseas.” The NBA is “risking a heck of a lot during this lockout, even if many downplay the game's relevance domestically” (PHILLY.com, 10/28).