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N.Y. Times Columnist
Harvey Araton |
HARVEY ARATON has been a sports reporter and columnist in his native N.Y. since ’70, starting at the Staten Island Advance before moving first to the N.Y. Post (’77), then to the Daily News (’83) and finally to the Times (’91). His writing also has appeared in the N.Y. Times Magazine, Basketball Weekly, ESPN The Magazine, GQ, Sport and Tennis. He is the author or co-author of four books, most recently “Crashing the Borders: How Basketball Won the World and Lost Its Soul at Home.” Araton spoke recently with SportsBusiness Journal
New York bureau chief Jerry
Kavanagh.
Favorite vacation spot: Bermuda.
Favorite piece of music: I’m an old folkie: DYLAN, the Beatles and that era.
Favorite sporting event: Wimbledon.
Favorite movie: “Almost Famous.”
Favorite author: These days, I read very little non-fiction. Speaking off the top of my head, I really like PETE DEXTER’s novels.
Last book read: “Call It Sleep,” by HENRY ROTH.
Athletes you most enjoy watching: MARTINA NAVRATILOVA and MAGIC JOHNSON.
Best professional decision: When I was in my early 20s, I left a full-time reporter’s job in my community at the Staten Island Advance to take a job as a night clerk at the New York Post. I was torn. There was no guarantee that I would ever become a writer at the Post, but within one year I was covering the Knicks.
Most influential people: The guys who wrote in the [N.Y.] Post years ago: PAUL ZIMMERMAN, VIC ZIEGEL, LARRY MERCHANT, MAURY ALLEN and HENRY HECHT. They covered more than the games. They wrote about the people and about the issues. They made sports writing fun and informative. They provided perspective and took the readers places where television couldn’t take them.
Biggest challenge: As I age and the athletes -- FREDDY ADU, MARIA SHARAPOVA and all these kids who are now big-name professionals -- get younger, to not become my old cranky uncle. To cover the athletes fairly and see them as people. To try to stay current at a time when your values change and to understand that [these young athletes] are entitled to their own set of values, being 24 years old.
Best professional advice you received: “Don’t be afraid to take a chance.”
Q: FRANK ZAPPA said, “Rock journalism is people who can’t write interviewing people who can’t talk for people who can’t read.” How would you define sports journalism?
Araton: I don’t know if I’d define it as Frank Zappa does. I look at it as a way of reaching people in a place where they come to be entertained. So, they’re often more receptive to issues than they might normally be. As a columnist for the Times, attempting to explore social issues and more things that transcend the games themselves, I find that it’s been a great forum for me to write about things that help me grow and help me explore and, again, reach people in a place where they’re really receptive to it.
Q: Of the NBA dress code, you wrote: “[NBA Commissioner DAVID STERN] surrendered to the almighty American stereotype, rather than get to the heart of more complex and vexing issues that are generational and racial. He implemented a potentially divisive dress code instead of addressing the corporate sins of those who have marketed the players as slam-dunking caricatures and presided over the bastardization of the sport into something that graying fans of the BIRD/Magic/JORDAN era can barely recognize.” I thought he was just after a more professional on-the-job look.
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Araton Feels NBA’s Dress
Code Is A Stop-Gap Measure |
Araton: The dress code is, in and of itself, not a big deal because, you know, how terrible is it to ask players to wear a collared shirt? But given the timing of the announcement and the implementation of the code at a time when the NBA still has its so-called image problem, my feeling is that once again the players have been, and continue to be, the easiest to point the fingers at for the mistakes of the industry at large. First of all, it definitely continues the sort of demonization of the young African and male athlete as someone who is “out of control,” someone who we have to teach how to dress, someone who is embarrassing us to our fan base at a time when simply there are more important issues.
Most people I speak to who grew up in the Magic/Bird era, when the game was perceived to be much more fan-friendly and much more team-oriented, watch this game now -- this me-first, clear-out-the-side-and-go-one-on-one product -- and they don’t recognize what they see and they don’t like what they see.
Q: In your book (“Crashing the Borders”), you write about the decline in the concept of team play and in the relation between players and fans. You call it a state of crisis. Can it be reversed?
Araton: Last season was a step in the right direction. But I think the NBA, again, finds itself between a rock and a hard place. Our whole sports culture is predicated on the television rating. Everything is driven by, you know, ‘Is the rating getting better? Is it holding its own? Is it winning its time slot?’ And last year, in the NBA Finals, we had an excellent series between two very good teams: San Antonio and Detroit. Now, neither is considered to be a sexy team. And obviously the domestic ratings weren’t that good. But when you have teams like that -- whose best players are not considered to be “me first,” where the focus is on how they function as a group and how they play an aesthetically pleasing game -- the long-term message that came out of that series is that if you’re watching NBA basketball, it’s about team play again. That’s something that can’t be undersold. ... The league needs to step back and say, “We need to send an overriding message to our public that we’re about basketball again.” I think that’s really why people like the NCAA tournament so much: because it’s just about basketball.
Q: You also wrote, “One of the most appealing aspects of the NBA is that it has never been the culturally repressed NFL.” How is the NFL culturally repressed?
Araton: Well, first of all, by its very nature. Everybody is uniformed from head to toe. Everybody looks the same by virtue of the fact that they’re dressed the same. Football is a much more military-oriented sport. We know that in the military everybody is conditioned to think and act the same. Basketball, by its very freewheeling nature and the fact that the players aren’t uniformed from head to toe, that they are exposed, to me has been a more expressive sport. It’s been a game of flamboyant individuals trying to fit into a team concept. ... And basketball has probably been the most progressive in terms of hiring minorities: black coaches, black general managers, women working around NBA arenas. So, I think that’s something to be celebrated.
Q: How difficult is the challenge that JERRY COLANGELO and MIKE KRZYZEWSKI face in running the U.S. basketball team?
Araton: It’s a tough chore if only because they’re going to be asking players to make a commitment of a minimum of two, but more likely three, years. These professional athletes make millions of dollars and play a very long season and have nagging injuries.
Q: Does the game need any rule changes?
Araton: I would like to see the NBA adopt the international rules. Those are the rules that the sport is using in the rest of the world, even though we invented the game. It would open up our game, with the wider lane. I think you would see more passing, more shooting and less physical play around the rim.
