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Did you ever read Bill Simmons’ amusing and mostly facetious conspiracy theory that David Stern placed (his former assistant) Bettman as commish of the NHL because he knew Bettman would torpedo the leauge? At the time at which Bettman took over the NHL was on the rise and the NBA’s popularity was waning (EA’s most recent NHL video game outsold it’s NBA game, etc.) Sterm recommended Bettman for the job.

Bettman inherited a league on the rise with a bevy of young stars (or should have been stars in the making, i.e. Pavel Bure). Within a year of assuming the job, the Rangers break a fifty year Stanley Cup drought by winning it all in ‘94, allowing hockey to reach the acme of its popularity in the biggest media market in the world. Meanwhile, prior to the start of that same year’s NBA season Michael Jordan retired making the league’s best player a Nigerian whose first love was soccer, and who refused Nike/Reebok endorsements in favor of producing a signature shoe with an unknown company at a price point ($35) that was intended to be available to all kids and not engender any sneaker theft at knife point. (A nice thought, from a humble and admirable man, but not in the league’s best interest, right?)

Seriously, how do you fuck this up?

My big issue with the way hockey is run (other than overexpansion and epically botched TV contract negotiations) is that it has been in an identity crisis for like the past ten years. Either its powers need to accept it as a niche sport and work to create a successful game within that context, catering to its die hards and focusing on tradition, rivalries, and quality of play. Or, they have to sell out totally. Embrace the entertainment factor other sporting events bring to the game attending experience, go hard after good distribution deals, and go the full mile in making the rule changes that will even further open the game up and increase scoring. (Either way, they have to drastically regulate the size of goalie pads.) It seems like the league has been fence sitting – adopt the “shootout” but sign on with Versus as the league’s official network?…

BTW, the NBA hasn’t always been a juggernaut either (and is facing some economic woes of their own right now). Playoff games (and even the Finals) were aired taped delayed (and some games not at all) until like 1983. The Finals in Magic’s rookie season in which he started at center for an injured Kareem (and dropped 42 leading the Lakers to a title)was aired on tape delay, at 11:30 PM!

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I am not convinced that that is a conspiracy theory.

In all seriousness, in this NFL obsessed country, I think that hockey’s combination of speed and power would sell well with a few cosmetic changes that the NHL just refuses to implement, largely because it is in the thrall of the Don Cherry brigade.