Since Michael Jordan left the association in 1998 the NBA has experienced a drastic drop in television ratings. Constantly we’ve been told the league isn’t as exciting anymore or that it isn’t as talented anymore. These opinions, the ones that have led to these lower ratings, I believe are from small-minded fair weather fans that never really took the time to see anything in the league beyond MJ when he was around. And why should they have seen anything more than that? MJ was all the league ever marketed so should the NBA be surprised that when their one egg left the basket their audience left too?

Starting next season NBA telecasts will no longer be carried by the league's twelve-year television partner NBC, instead the league will start a new partnership with Walt Disney Co. to air the NBA on ABC/ESPN. The league’s deal with Disney is reportedly worth $2.4 billion over the next six years, out bidding NBC’s offer of $1.3 billion over four years. Along with the Disney deal, the NBA is also licensing games to AOL Time Warner for $1 billion over the next six years to be aired on several different specialty sports cable stations including a new start up AOL cable channel. So far, so good, it just makes sense to take the money and run in such a bidding war right? Wrong.

The new Disney Co. deal has ABC airing fifteen regular season games and eight postseason game as well as the finals, with the majority of the games being aired over cable on ESPN and other specialty sports networks. In comparison, the NBA’s old deal with NBC aired approximately forty more games per year.

This new deal is not a good one for the league as it limits the exposure of the league to non-avid sports viewers. With specialty cable channels being depended on to air practically all NBA games the league is purposely cutting itself off from a large segment of the viewing market. With dropping ratings, slumping ticket sales and decreased revenues, the NBA should now more than ever be trying to garner as many viewers as possible. The association should be doing everything in its power to introduce as many people to their product as possible but instead they are retreating to cable, trying to cater only to the aficionados of the league. This approach makes no sense, Stern is preaching to the choir and potentially moving the NBA backwards towards its sideshow roots.

The problem the league should be correcting is their own marketing strategy, it needs to move away from the solo egg approach and branch out. The only mildly interested fans out there really only know four or five players in this close to 450-player league. Beyond Kobe, Shaq, Iverson and Carter there is an entire world of fantastic basketball that isn’t being represented.

About a month ago I met the brother of my roommate, he was a guy who played and loved basketball. However when I asked him he couldn’t name one Sonic besides Gary Payton. This despite the fact that Vin Baker used to be an all-star and Brent Barry and Desmond Mason are slam-dunk champions, positions one could assume would make these players higher profile than the average NBA player, but still not high enough to become a blip on the NBA radar.

So what is a team in Seattle’s position supposed to do to be noticed? Even with the more general coverage in the old NBC deal Seattle has not been able to get a single nationally televised regular season game in the past two years. Under the new deal it would become virtually impossible for Seattle to be on a national mainstream telecast without being contenders for the title, making it even less likely for next year. The Sonics market will continue to shrink limiting exposure to fans within their local area and who pay for the specialty channels that games will be broadcast over. The only way to overcome this is to be literally one of the top four to six teams in the league whom are the only ones that will make the ABC telecast, but not even the most optimistic Sonics fans foresee a championship run in the next couple of seasons.

Taking the money now will impress the league's owners and investors now, but in the long run the league will not be able to experience any growth unless they re-evaluate their own marketing strategies. Today’s NBA can be summed up in two words, “Money Hungry”, there is no regard for the fans or for the tepid viewers out there who will one day be fans. All that matters is the here and now and the bottom line, if that was not the way it was the NBA would have walked away from the bigger pay check to ensure a larger market and healthier product down the road.

The dark days are passing, the golden boy has come home and with the new Disney Deal, tomorrow looks bright again. Although the week after that could be the darkest yet, especially for the middle of the pack small market teams like Seattle. Of course I could be wrong, Stern and Mickey could be walking hand in hand into a glorious future together, at least we can all hope so. Besides there is always an upside right, a silver lining, like not having to listen to Bill Walton anymore, and lord knows I’d pay $2.4 billion dollars for that.

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