ISN’T IT ICONIC?
QUICK QUESTION, SPORTS FANS — WHY IS THE NBA’S GAUDY CHAMPIONSHIP TROPHY, SYMBOLIZING BASKETBALL EXCELLENCE, NAMED FOR A DEAD, FORMER POSTMASTER GENERAL AND WATERGATE FIGURE? AND WHAT CAN BE DONE ABOUT IT?
Sometime this month, the Boston Celtics or Golden State Warriors will hold aloft the Larry O’Brien Trophy — a trophy that is, to correctly use a wildly misused and overused word, iconic. It is a trophy that been freshly re-designed for 2022, but for some baffling, ill-considered reason, NOT been re-named.
If you’re a basketball fan, you’ve seen the bulbous bling a lot, often getting tarnished by Michael Jordan’s second-hand cigar smoke. It’s not artistically significant in any way, but perfectly designed and sized for photo ops, at a sturdy 25.5 inches tall and 29 pounds. The coveted prize from Tiffany & Co. is instantly understood as a symbol of professional basketball supremacy — awarded annually to the winner of the NBA Finals.
As such, it represents the pinnacle of achievement in a beautiful, free-flowing sport. The NBA has attracted millions, if not billions, of fans around the globe, enraptured by its blend of virtuosic talent, athleticism, marksmanship, vision, ingenuity, hustle, strategy and teamwork. In the past few decades, superstars known worldwide by single names (Shaq, LeBron, Steph) have taken the league to unseen heights, with 74% of the rosters consisting of Black players.
So naturally — the trophy is named for an old, dead white guy in a suit… LARRY O’BRIEN, baby.
But this isn’t a hit piece on the late Larry O’Brien. Unlike certain current “commissioners” of major sports, The Meritorious L O’B was not some spineless lapdog of the owners. To be sure, dude had real skills, real clout and real vision— a legit baller in the board room. And he was a political player, to boot.
As a younger, eternally old white guy in a suit, Larry O’Brien was the campaign manager for a young Senate candidate named John F. Kennedy. Then he was JFK’s presidential campaign manager. As the ’60s rolled on, he progressed up the ladder in the Democratic Party, and under President Johnson, became the Postmaster General. (Take that, Karl Malone.)
Surely, that’s more than enough dating profile ice-breakers right there, but you’ll never guess whose office it was at Watergate that Nixon’s henchmen tried to bust into?! Democratic National Committee chairman Lawrence F. O’Brien, that’s who!
So naturally, in the pre-LinkedIn days of 1975, the NBA hired him as Commissioner. Based on his previous track record, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that in his tenure, less than a decade, O’Brien was able to get a whole lot done. For example:
· Saw the NBA through its successful merger with the ABA
· Landed the league significantly greener TV contracts (albeit thanks mostly to the emergence of Magic Johnson, Larry Bird and a young, visionary exec named David Stern)
- Added the 3-point shot
and, perhaps most significantly, at least from a business sense…
· Helped broker a 1983 Collective Bargaining Agreement, complete with new salary cap rules and a revenue-sharing plan to keep the players relatively fat and happy.
Kudos, but still… the Larry O’Brien Trophy? What in the wild world of sports necessitates calling it that?
To Recap:
Larry O’Brien didn’t invent the game of basketball.
Larry O’Brien didn’t play or coach it on a professional level.
Larry O’Brien was an administrative executive, with some serious bargaining table swag, plain and simple.
Yet when he stepped down in 1984, the league hierarchy saw fit to honor him in a radically disproportionate way. Mostly because… uh… hmmm… that’s exactly how the world worked then?**
- **(Quick Example For Those Who May Not Be Aware How Insidious This Legacy Shit Is: Some may recall that the 1981 New Jersey Nets played in the new Brendan Byrne Arena, which was named for the sitting governor of New Jersey. It was so named by the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority, an august body whose members were all appointed by…? (Let’s put it this way, if he were still alive, his ears would surely be Byrning.)
So, to reiterate — this is not a hit piece on Larry O’Brien. Rather, it’s a hit piece on the entrenched Pro Sports Patriarchy. and a “think” piece on how easily we could start to gutting those stupid old traditions.
Let’s just use plain common sense. The coolest, most ICONIC basketball trophy in the world — should be named for the sport’s GREATEST CHAMPION.
If a trophy is going to be inappropriately named after somebody, and they didn’t pony up the perpetual dough to keep it alive (here’s looking at you, Alfred Nobel) — then plain and simple, that person should be a paragon of the competition.
Free of charge, dear Adam Silver and NBA Players’ Association, it’s this freakin’ simple. Three easy steps to make
- Give the NBA Champions the same trophy, but now re-name it after the sport’s ultimate winner — Bill Russell. Ironclad argument below.
2. Continue to hand out a Larry O’Brien Trophy — but give it to the NBA Executive of the Year. This move would, you know, make actual sense.
3. Switch the namesake of the NBA Finals MVP from William Felton Russell to Michael Jordan Yes, yes, in 2009, the league did throw a prestigious bone to Russell, and name the NBA Finals MVP trophy after him. It was a much-appreciated gesture, but honestly, just a tiny, too-little/too-late symbolic Eurostep move when a dramatic full stride was called for.
And naming the Finals MVP cup after Jordan would certainly be a more timely tribute and reference for players and fans who were wowed by “The Last Dance.” (Plus, wouldn’t it just be hilarious for the sports-radio debate alone if, by some “Winning Time” miracle, the Lakers got to the Finals next year, and LeBron was gunning for the Michael Jordan trophy? Talk-radio heads would explode.)
Larry O’Brien’s personal and professional achievements are impressive. Guy’s resume could fill a whole Trivial Pursuit pie token! And by most accounts, he did a whole lot of good for the National Basketball Association, at a time when the league was on shaky footing. But L O’B symbolizes team-sports excellence in much the same way a PricewaterhouseCoopers accountant should get naming rights to the Oscars. Yet, currently there it is, the Most Interesting O’Brien in the World, emblazoned on that gold overlay in a point size larger than the championship team’s name. It just doesn’t track, logically. But, PATRIARCHICALLY? Put ‘er there, pal!
Is Larry O’Brien the game? WE’VE ALREADY ANSWERED THIS. No.
The players ARE the game. Make no mistake. They are why we watch. Why we care. And more than anyone else who’s ever hit the hardwood, legendary Hall of Famer Bill Russell’s name should be all over that championship trophy.
There is literally only every single reason in basketball history why this should be. The man played 13 seasons in the NBA with the Boston Celtics, winning 11 titles. He won a state championship in high school, two NCAA titles with that well-known powerhouse, the University of San Francisco Dons, and an Olympic gold medal as well.
Plus, in the immediate aftermath of the Jim Crow Era, in segregated Boston no less, he took the reins from Red Auerbach and led those Celts to last two of those 11 chips, as a player/head coach, with catcalls and death threats flying in from the rafters! Hell, forget the trophy, you could RENAME THE ENTIRE SPORT TO “RUSSELL-BALL” and you’d have a solid case.
The man’s book, Russell Rules, should be mandatory reading not just for incoming NBA players but in public schools. It reveals him to be an extremely thoughtful, pragmatic, fiercely intelligent, goal-oriented fool-non-sufferer, who understands and practices the values of true sacrifice and teamwork.
In other words, a true champion.
Perhaps the players fortunate enough to follow in his footsteps will see the wisdom and necessity of leaning on current Commissioner Adam Silver and the NBA Board of Governors about contacting the engraver at Tiffany’s, stat. They can start by signing this petition:
Make Trophies Make Sense: The NBA should give its champions the Bill Russell Trophy
Michael X. Ferraro is a TV writer/producer and author of CIRCUS CATCH, a short, Dave Zirin-approved sports novel that asks a timely question — in the Golden Age of Cheating, what would happen if a superstar player refused to accept the benefit of a bad call, and tried to overrule the referee?
