| | NEW YORK -- Pat Riley escaped a fine for refusing to wear a
microphone during last Sunday's Heat-Lakers game on national television. The next
coach to do so won't be treated so lightly. Fines will start at
$100,000.
Despite a chorus of complaints from coaches, the league decided
Wednesday to push ahead with its new policies on the wearing of
microphones and the use of an unmanned camera in locker rooms
during nationally televised games.
Any coach who refuses to wear a microphone will be fined a
substantial amount.
"That's substantial with a capital S," league spokesman Brian
McIntyre said.
The league has been asking coaches to wear microphones during
selected national broadcasts this season, and the compliance rate
has been less than 100 percent. Riley refused to wear one, saying
he would feel inhibited, and Utah coach Jerry Sloan said he'll
"get my throat cut fighting it."
Seattle SuperSonics coach Paul Westphal, whose team plays Sunday against the Toronto
Raptors, has also spoken out against having to wear a microphone.
The News Tribune of Tacoma on Friday quoted Westphal as saying that coaches may be inhibited in communicating to other coaches, the referees and players.
"If you say something negative about a player on the other team or your team, a referee, you can't tell me that somebody is not going to hear that tape that you don't want to hear," Westphal said. "It's an unfair position to worry about how you are identifying the problems. It inhibits the way you coach, the decisions."
Other coaches, including Jeff Van Gundy, Randy Wittman, Phil
Jackson and Larry Bird, have expressed serious reservations about
microphones and cameras.
Players, too, have said they would be uncomfortable knowing
their movements and actions were being watched -- even if most of
what was recorded never made it onto television.
"I won't get into a public debate with individual coaches. All
I can say is the rule is in place," deputy commissioner Russ
Granik said. "I don't want to belittle their concerns, but it has
been determined that this is how we want the business to go."
The new policy on fines will go into effect next weekend.
The teams, not the individual coaches, would be responsible for paying the fine, a league spokesman said.
Television ratings are down 14 percent from last season on NBC
and 18 percent on TNT and TBS, and the league is eager to try new
technology that might enhance telecasts.
Portland Trail Blazers coach Mike Dunleavy has already worn a
microphone for an NBC telecast and said he felt somewhat inhibited
in what he said to his players in the huddle.
"It takes away a little of the naturalness. Guys know they're
being listened to, I think it inhibits them and me from saying
things they need to say -- sometimes positive things and sometimes
negative things," Dunleavy said.
Coaches have been assured by the league that inappropriate
remarks will not be aired during broadcasts and that the cameras
and microphones will not be used to divulge strategy.
Dunleavy and Van Gundy said they had a problem knowing that
someone, somewhere, would be listening to the raw feed or watching
what the camera sees in some control room or production truck.
"They told me they're going to keep that stuff in their
archives," Dunleavy said.
A league memo said the unmanned camera would only be used
briefly to give viewers a feel of what an NBA locker room looks
like during a normal halftime or pregame team meeting.
Still, some players are uncomfortable with giving up a piece of
their privacy.
"We're a family," Latrell Sprewell of the Knicks said, "and it would be like sitting at the family dinner table with a mike. It's kind of like invading space as far as our little family goes."
"What if someone sees me half-naked?" Portland's Detlef Schrempf wondered.
The players union has requested a meeting with league officials
to discuss the policies, and union director Billy Hunter said a
grievance could be filed if the union feels that the league is
unilaterally changing working conditions.
"Our position is they just can't implement this stuff," Hunter
said. "What are you going to see? A bunch of guys sitting around a
locker room? What purpose does that serve? I don't see where it has
a great benefit. The detriment offsets the benefit."
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