Is it even possible to have a commissioner worse than Bud Selig?

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Growing up, I liked sports. I followed everything (except maybe NASCAR, since it is neither a sport nor something that should have to be in all-caps). I gave baseball a special place in my heart and new all of the important statistics, could tell you which Tigers were in the Hall of Fame and which others should be. I could plead the case till the cows came home about how Cecil Fielder was robbed for MVP two years in a row for directly opposite reasons (Ricky Henderson and Cal Ripken, Jr. were the winners, by the way). I still love baseball. Even after the strike, the playoff system, and the steroid scandal, I prefer baseball to everything else. I just can’t stand Bud Selig.

If you can imagine the worst possible candidate for any job, Bud Selig as MLB commissioner would have to trump it. He is clearly biased toward one side (owners), has no respect for the traditions, shows virtually no advertising savvy, has no vision, and is inarticulate. In other words, for a job that’s all about communicating to the public, negotiation, and future planning, the man lacks even rudimentary skills. He has done more to set the sport back than anyone could have imagined, and yet baseball isn’t ruined (yet). That alone is proof that God exists (and that God’s a Cubs fan…).

But I didn’t only love baseball. I loved football and basketball equally. My NFL team was (and still is) the Broncos and I always root for Michigan in any sport, including volleyball and tennis. I was also the weirdo that rooted for both sides of the Pistons-Bulls rivalry. In fact, I even rooted for the Bulls to Three-peat (the first time). I loved Isaiah Thomas and Michael Jordan.

And this is where things get weird. We all remember ‘The Jordan Rules’ and the book that argued that Jordan received special treatment. Most of us didn’t care because we loved to watch it. We were captivated by Jordan and his aerial artistry. He was a master and one of the greatest athletes to ever live. He was so natural and graceful and every boy growing up really did want to “be like Mike.” Then they got their wish.

I don’t know what it was. Whether ‘The Jordan Rules’ were extended to everybody or whether the officials decided all at the same time, all over the basketball world, to stop calling basic rules about dribbling, palming, and traveling. The very fundamental aspects of the sport became inconsistently applied. Everyone got to be like Mike. Now, Playground basketball brought the entertaining flash that the NBA needed to compete and elevate itself into the Big Three of sports. Playground basketball was essential to creating a game that had Michael Jordan as its mighty hero. But somewhere between the playgrounds of NYC and Madison Square Garden, the flash became more important than the sport.

Twenty years ago, only the tall players dunked, but now everyone does. Not a big deal, in itself—evolution, greater athletes, etc.—but now everyone can also reverse dunk from underneath the basket; difficult enough while palming the basketball, nearly impossible while dribbling. The next one you see (probably taking place in the time I type this), watch the guy: he drives along the left baseline, grips the ball, steps two or three times, hops, plants beneath the basket, jumps, twists, and dunks it from the opposite side.

So, I stopped watching the NBA, and the NCAA strangling of the Michigan basketball program didn’t help me care about college basketball, either.

But in the same time, the entire game changed. It wasn’t just the rules, though. When I was young, Shawn Kemp was only the second high-schooler to turn pro after Moses Malone. I rooted for the kid and became a Supersonics fan. Then they opened the floodgates. Some criticized the Spurs for taking a college grad (Tim Duncan) just a few years later. Executives were stumbling over each other to draft the next 18 year-old phenom, while everyone secretly wished that there were the same requirement the NFL has that requires each athlete be 3 years removed from high school. The college game suffered and became the path for the purists with no future, not the next NBA greats. Now we have a ridiculous one-year rule that makes college basketball a joke. One of the greatest memories I have was getting the chance to watch the Fab Five play live and my heart was broken when Chris Webber went pro after his sophomore year. Irrelevant for me was the question of whether or not he was ready; the question was how good could that dynasty have been? The last great basketball recruiting class that went down in infamy after two finals losses and the phantom timeout. Four years would have landed them in the pantheon of basketball gods.

The booster scandal aside, the idea that the entire sport of basketball could be put in jeopardy over a couple of high-schoolers going pro and a couple of officials preferring wicked dunks to calling the game accurately should frighten and worry basketball fans. The fact that commissioner David Stern has been in charge of all of this may be just as frightening. Has he done this on purpose? Has he mortgaged the future of the sport on a couple bucks for owners? And what happens when fans of amateur sports become as disgusted with the product (diluted and just as embarrassingly spotty officiating) as many NBA fans? Is it possible that a well-meaning and decent man like David Stern is a worse commissioner than the criminally incompetent Selig?

Well, once the Super Bowl is over, I’ll only have to wait a week or so before pitchers and catchers report. I guess I don’t need basketball, anyway.