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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