Steps In the Right Direction:
Is The NBA Religiously Sensitive?
By Kelly L. Martinez
Sunday, June 8, 1997:
Trailing two games to one, the Utah Jazz are hosting the defending
champion Chicago Bulls in Game 4 of the 1997 NBA Finals. With
the game still in the balance during the fourth quarter, NBC sports
reporters Hannah Storm and Jim Gray report that Jazz owner Larry
Miller is absent from the game. Storm further explains that Miller’s
absence is because Sunday is his Sabbath and is a sacred day in
the Mormon Church. The Jazz went on to win Game 4, but lost the
next two games and the Bulls captured their fifth title in seven
seasons, but this is not an NBA history lesson.
Larry Miller’s example to a
national audience about the importance of Sabbath day observance
in 1997 was something even the most die-hard LDS sports fan took
notice of. I know, because I am one of them.
Although total elimination of spectator
and participant sports on the Sabbath may seem impossible, it
is heartening to note that there seems to be some progress being
made towards this idyllic goal.
It’s the NBA that looks as
if it’s being religiously sensitive to one of its 30 franchises.
The Utah Jazz is uniquely the only major professional sports team
based in a community that is known more for its religious affiliation
than for anything else (including the 2002 Winter Games).
Could this be why the NBA is showing
signs of religious sensitivity?
The Numbers
In the nearly 10 years that have
passed since the 1997 NBA Finals, regular or post season professional
basketball has been played in Utah on only seven Sundays. Of those
seven Sundays, one was an NBA Finals game (1998), two were playoff
games (1999, 2000), three were during the lockout-shortened 1998-99
season, and one was during the 1999-2000 regular season.
The last NBA regular or postseason
game to be played on Sunday in Utah was on May 14, 2000, when
Utah defeated Portland, 88-85, in Game 4 of the Western Conference
semifinals. Sorry, I did say this wasn’t an NBA history
lesson, didn’t I?
This is not to say that Utah has
not played any games on Sunday since then. In fact, the team has
played 70 Sunday games since the 1996-97 season. Of those 70 games,
only 10 percent were played in Utah.
Ten percent? Hmmm — sounds
familiar.
During the 2006-07 season, NBA teams
averaged 9.2 Sunday games during the 24-week regular season. The
Los Angeles Lakers led the way with 18 Sunday games, 14 of which
were at home. Interestingly, the Chicago Bulls played nine games
on Sunday, but none were at home.
Utah played the fewest with only
three Sunday games, none of which were at home. New Orleans/Oklahoma
City and Memphis played only four Sunday games, but each had at
least one Sunday home game.
So far, Utah is not scheduled for
a Sunday home game in the 2007 playoffs. That could change if
the team advances deeper into the post season because it’s
a safe assumption that television revenues take precedence over
any religiously-sensitive scheduling.
So? What Now?
So what does all of this mean? It
means there is hope. Hope that what happened in Tahiti in 1977
(when an LDS soccer player was willing to give up professional
soccer if he had to play on Sunday) can happen here. Erroll Bennett’s
willingness to give up soccer in order to observe the Sabbath
changed the Tahitian professional soccer policy of playing on
Sundays.
Call me an idealist, but it could
happen here too.
I’ve written much for Meridian
about the importance of the Sabbath day in its relation to sports.
In the five years since I first wrote an article on this topic,
I’ve come to realize that proper Sabbath observance is as
much an act of commission as it is an act of omission.
Proper Sabbath observance involves
what we do as much as what we do not do. To refrain from
watching or playing sports on Sunday does little in the way of
Sabbath observance if we’re not spending quality time with
our families or recharging our spiritual batteries through worship,
service or study.
It would be wise to worry less about
what others are doing on the Sabbath and more about what we can
and should be doing on the Sabbath.
As for the NBA, let’s hope
its signs of religious sensitivity continue. They’re steps
in the right direction.
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