Quote:
Originally Posted by Zassk
I never really understood the problem, either, given that I never heard a player complain about Seattle. I speculate that there's a big sense of entitlement among basketball players, and that they resent having to deal with border control, something I've never heard baseball or hockey players complain about. And I suspect that Vancouver being the "least black" city in the NBA was also an issue, one that was never spoken of out loud. However, there's a lot more sponsorship and consumer money available here these days, and more awareness and appreciation of Vancouver among the elite. The circumstances are really a lot different than they were 15 years ago. Our little city grew up quite a bit in those years.
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I think it had to do a lot about not being aware of what kind of city Vancouver was. It was ignorance from much of the players. Playing in Vancouver was like playing in another continent for many of the players. Stu Jackson, and the organization really did not do a very good job of marketing the team, and educating their players on what kind of city Vancouver was. I think with a new relocated team, and the extra exposure that the Winter Olympics brought to Vancity, I think the NBA could be very successful this time around. Sure, there are some wounds within the people still, but for the most part, the NBA is an entertaining product. People here enjoy ball, especially during the winter time when it's raining most of the time. To have a competitive team here, and an improving team from year to year would bring a lot of fans into the building. A team that continues to fail, and never win more than 23 games would bring doom. I mean, if the Memphis relocated BACK to Vancouver, they'd attract a lot more attention, given that they've (to date) won 39 games so far, and they're .500 on the year.
Stern is not going to be Commish forever. And eventually, I do believe that the city is going to be given another chance. Will the Aquilini's step up and bring a team to the city? If they do, we'd have a greater chance to keeping the team here for a long, long time, because we have local ownership. The Aquilini's, imo, are pretty proud Vancouverites. They'd make pretty good owners. For the record, they should NOT listen to Stern's suggestions for whom to hire as GM.