Team logos are beamed onto a walkway of The NBA Store in New York Friday, Nov. 6, 1998. Despite the fact there may be no games until Christmas, and perhaps no games at all this season, seems inconsequential inside 666 Fifth Avenue, where the NBA opened shop on Sept. 18. Everything is available seven days a week, even as commissioner David Stern and union president Patrick Ewing go one-on-one over a new contract. ASSOCIATED PRESS

Lockout stops league, not sales at new Fifth Avenue store

Web posted November 13, 1998

By Larry McShane
AP National Writer

NEW YORK -- The front entrance, a glass-and-steel edifice on posh Fifth Avenue, comes with an Addams Family twist: four muscular metal arms -- Thing on androstenedione? -- each palming a basketball on its revolving doors.

But this is no garden of Gomez, no paean to Pugsley. This is The NBA Store, a midtown Manhattan monument to the league's ability to market itself -- even when there's no game TO market.

There may be no games until Christmas; hey, there may be no games at all this season. That's inconsequential inside 666 Fifth Avenue, where the NBA opened shop on Sept. 18, even as the league was shooting itself with an officially-licensed bullet in its officially-licensed foot.

What's for sale?

NBA golf shirts by Hugo Boss, and NBA jewelry, and NBA date planners, and NBA duffel bags, and NBA crockery ... the league boasts 170 licensees in all.

Overkill?

Perhaps. There are 8 different hats and four different T-shirts for each of the 29 teams.

Everything is available seven days a week, even as commissioner David Stern and union president Patrick Ewing go one-on-one over a new contract. The ongoing labor dispute led NBA officials to open the store with little fanfare this fall.

``There are some things you can control, and some things you can't,'' says a philosophical Rick Welts, president of NBA Properties. ``Once they get back to playing the games, we plan to relaunch the store.''

In the absence of advertising and promotion, most fans may not know yet that it exists. But passers-by are stopping in and shopping.

The store is more a multi-media experience than a retailer, with team logos beaming down from the ceiling and video screens scattered throughout its three floors. LogoMan -- the Jerry West silhouette that serves as the league symbol -- is a ubiquitous presence.

The basement, once home to a bookstore and a bar/restaurant dubbed Pastrami 'n Things, holds the Hang Time Cafe, a haven for soda and snacks. A small basketball court with a regulation hoop is the centerpiece of this level, sitting below a set of bleachers filled with computers to visit NBA.com.

A 4-foot-by-8-foot basement wall of video screens -- each activated by a touching a basketball with the player's handprint -- features an interactive encounter with several players (somewhat ironically given the current dispute) touting the league.

Indiana Pacers star Reggie Miller talks about his sister Cheryl's job as a WNBA coach. Diminutive Muggsy Bogues discusses the origin of his nickname. Tim Hardaway provides a hip-hop discourse on his signature move.

``Yo, whassup?'' Hardaway begins. ``How y'all doin'? I'm talking cross-over dribble today -- killer cross-over dribble. ... Kids don't try this at home.''

The worst part of the lockout is that it eliminates the NBA's millionaires as potential customers -- and the stores boasts some big-ticket items that could inflict sticker shock on even courtside fixtures Spike Lee or Jack Nicholson.

Try these prices:

-- A framed photograph of Michael Jordan -- rare, apparently, because he sports a full head of hair -- for $350.

-- $1,800 designer leather jackets for each team; each one is signed by its creator, Jeff Hamilton.

-- From the ``White Men Can Jump'' collection: An $8,000 Waterford vase featuring Larry Bird getting ready to jam. It includes this touching testimonial from Magic Johnson: ``Just the Bird man. That's all.''

-- $25,000 for a framed picture of the NBA's 50 greatest players, signed by all but the late ``Pistol'' Pete Maravich. Or, for the more fashion-conscious fan, the same price for a 24-karat gold Breitling watch with the Chicago Bulls logo.

The store caters to tourists; Welts estimates that the pedestrian traffic along Fifth Avenue on any given day is about 40 percent visitors from outside the U.S.A., and the NBA beams its games into 196 countries.

The store clientele bears that out -- it's not unusual to hear a father barking at a child in a foreign tongue, his tone sending the international message: ``Don't touch that!''

The store also puts the NBA in competition with products endorsed by its superstars. Should we shop at Niketown, the official store of Jordan and others? Or head over to the NBA Store, the official store of the league officials?

Welts sees no conflict there.

``I think anybody who walks into Niketown is likely to come to the NBA Store, and vice versa,'' says Weltz. ``I actually think that helps.''