This column originally ran in The Standard-Times on Oct. 28, 2006.

By Nick Tavares

As the old adage goes, there's only so much time in the day. After taking time out of the day for necessary tasks like laundry, cleaning, oil changes, eating and — of course — working, the average person might be left with one or two good hours of "goof off" time. If that person is lucky enough.

And that's why so many people have hobbies. Among other things, there's stamps, model building, crafts, dancing, record collecting (present) and, if you're reading this, sports. After a long day of duties you may or may not want to accomplish, sitting down during coveted prime-time hours to take in a game can seem like a nice, relaxing way to cap the night.

Save for the rain, the World Series has been pretty entertaining. Football has a firm grasp on Sunday afternoons. Hockey is back, and of course, basketball is around the corner.

The last sport there, basketball, has had some image problems lately.

The Ron Artest-Vs.-Detroit fiasco from a couple of seasons ago didn't help. Before that, stories of Shawn Kemp's many children with many mommies didn't help. In sports, arrests and less-than-stellar behavior are all too common, but in the NBA, they're greatly magnified.

Which is why a headline like "Stern Wants NBA Players to Leave the Guns at Home" really doesn't do much to help change that perception.

The image problem in the NBA stems mainly from middle America not understanding the hip-hop culture that has dominated the league for the past few years. An arena full of shirts, ties and khakis may not be so quick to accept cornrows, tattoos and gold chains. Flashy style can be taken as cocky posturing very quickly.

When violence and criminal activity come into play, that's when the bruise becomes a black eye.

"It's a pretty, I think, widely accepted statistic that if you carry a gun, your chances of being shot by one increase dramatically," Stern said. "We think this is an alarming subject, that although you'll read players saying how they feel safer with guns, in fact those guns actually make them less safe. And it's a real issue."

When the line is actually crossed — say, when Indiana's Stephen Jackson fires a gun into the air five times outside a strip club after a fight outside the club — the outcry falls on the obvious. 'They're all thugs,' they might say. 'They're not the players I grew up loving.' 'Larry Bird wouldn't be tied to the shooting of rapper Fabolous.'

And you know what? Maybe Bird wouldn't have had a $50,000 chain ripped off his neck either. But that's not the issue. In turn, that's the problem.

The comparisons to players past — Bill Russell, Oscar Robertson, even Michael Jordon — are part of the problem in the NBA. This is a new era in sports, with new fads, new temptations and more exposure than ever before. And whenever something gets bigger, the problems come along with it. Some players, like Tim Duncan or Shaquille O'Neil, are never mentioned in police reports. Some, like Jackson or the Celtics' Sebastian Telfair, make themselves subjects on the evening news.

It's not just basketball, but for reasons of economics and demographics, the problems are magnified. The magnificent playoffs last season, led by Dwyane Wade, LeBron James and Steve Nash, are pushed to the back page because of a lesser player's criminal activity. But that can change. It'll take the acceptance that the NBA is no different than any other sport. However, it will also take pressure from within the league, from the players themselves, to make that transformation.

Is it a simple matter? No, not even close. But it's not a lost cause. Image is just image, and like anything else, it can change.

And to get the ball rolling? Leave the guns at home. It's simple, but it's a good start.

Nick Tavares is a columnist for The Standard-Times. Contact him at ntavares@s-t.com

Date of Publication October 28, 2006 on Page B06