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NBA All-Stars can't afford another black eye

Ken Berger

February 9, 2008

It was almost a year ago, with the NBA reeling from a disastrous All-Star game in Las Vegas, when NBA Players Association president Billy Hunter raised some serious concerns about bringing the event to New Orleans in 2008.

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina's devastation, with law enforcement stretched thin and lawlessness rampant, New Orleans might not be prepared for an event of such magnitude, Hunter said. And if NBA Commissioner David Stern didn't address his concern for the safety of the players he represents, Hunter threatened litigation that would pull the plug on the Big Easy's All-Star party.

Today, at least 100 NBA players and tens of thousands of fans are preparing to converge on New Orleans for All-Star weekend Feb. 15-17. It is going to happen, and Hunter is no longer standing in the way.

"I've been informed that there's going to be all kinds of security in New Orleans," Hunter told Newsday Friday night before the Knicks-Spurs game, following up on our interview that ignited a national controversy last year. "I guess in the year since I raised these issues, we've had the BCS championship game, we've had the Bayou Classic, the Essence [Music] Festival. So there've been a series of major events and activities that have been hosted in New Orleans, and apparently there haven't been any problems."

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He and Stern better hope that continues, because the NBA can't afford another black eye like Vegas.

An All-Star weekend altercation at a Vegas strip club involving NFL player Pacman Jones led to a shooting that resulted in Commack native Thomas Urbanski being paralyzed from the waist down. Although no NBA players were involved, the multiple shootings, dozens of fights, and hundreds of arrests marred the weekend and posed this question: If Las Vegas, the party capital of the world, couldn't handle All-Star weekend, what city could?

"Our players appear to be extremely sensitive and conscious about what occurred last year," Hunter said. "It's unfortunate that it gets laid at the feet of the NBA, because there were no NBA players involved in that."

In the court of public opinion, however, that's largely irrelevant. Hunter and Stern both know that the NBA will be blamed for whatever happens around their event. On the heels of last year's Vegas fiasco and the Tim Donaghy scandal, you had better believe that Stern will do everything in his power to curtail this year's festivities.

Stern returned Thursday from a pre-All Star fact-finding trip to New Orleans and reported to Hunter that numerous local and state agencies are ready and able to crack down on mayhem. Even so, players are being warned to stay within the business district and French Quarter and avoid outlying areas that are still struggling to recover. Fans and revelers should be warned, too.

"When you kind of wander out into the suburbs, into the Ninth Ward and others, then things are pretty chaotic," Hunter said. "They look pretty much like they were three or four years ago when Katrina struck."

Of course, it would be too late now to cancel the event if Hunter still had concerns. He said his doubts were eased last March when he visited New Orleans and met with city, state and law enforcement officials who assured him that the city could handle the event. His initial concerns also led to a face-to-face meeting with Stern to quell the controversy.

Hunter said city and state officials "convinced me that things were going to be OK, that there was going to be more than enough security in place. Up until now, nothing has occurred to dissuade me from that belief."

Hunter and Stern will address all players in attendance early in the weekend to "raise any issues that need to be raised and provide any cautions," Hunter said. "... We haven't spent any more time addressing that issue than we have any others."

Let's hope that's good enough, because the bull's eye will be on the NBA once again if anything happens.

"Some things you just can't avoid," Hunter said. "If that happens and if we know that our players were not involved in anything illicit or any kind of miscreant behavior ... we just have to address that as it occurs. I don't think you can anticipate every possibility."

The 'other' O'Neal

With so much focus on Shaquille O'Neal being dealt to Phoenix this week, another O'Neal who expects to be traded continues to fly under the radar. Pacers power forward Jermaine O'Neal said he's planning to sit out "as long as possible" to allow bone bruises in his left knee to heal. He's at odds with team officials who initially stated that he'd be out for two weeks and told a small group of reporters before a Knicks game at the Garden Wednesday night that he would accept a trade.

"It's not about me sitting out necessarily to get back as soon as possible," O'Neal said. "It's to make sure I can get back at an All-Star level and really do the things I'm capable of doing because I've played pretty much on one leg for the most part this year.

"My team is 10 games under .500, so I know if any name is going to come up from my team, it's going to be my name," he said. "And I'm extremely comfortable with that. Extremely comfortable."

O'Neal had torn meniscus repaired in his left knee last April and says he suffered bone bruising because he came back too fast - a mistake he vows not to make again because at 29 he's at a "crossroads" in his career.