San Diego Union-Tribune

Bettman’s tenacity and shrewdness defines 30-year reign

- Guest column Elliott writes for the Los Angeles Times.

He did open that puck, though.

Gary Bettman made a name for himself in the 1980s as the NBA’s general counsel and third-in-command, the sharp, young lawyer who created the league’s salary cap. Working alongside Commission­er David Stern, Bettman helped stabilize the NBA and transform it into a star-centric league watched by a global audience.

Still, it was a surprise when the NHL, seeking a chief executive who could get them a salary cap and revenue boost, landed on Bettman. He wasn’t born into hockey or part of its old boys’ network. He was from Queens, N.Y., not Canada.

“When I first heard about it, I sent the guy a puck and I heard he spent all day at his desk trying to figure out how to open it up,” said Pat Williams, then general manager of the NBA’s Orlando Magic.

Bettman isn’t warm and fuzzy. He can be haughty, alienating the fans whose interests he claimed to be protecting when he locked players out three times during labor disputes. Spots of color flame in his cheeks when he stubbornly defends what seems indefensib­le, such as his contortion­s to keep the Coyotes in Arizona at a tiny college rink and being unmoved by studies that have found links between repeated head trauma and chronic traumatic encephalop­athy, a degenerati­ve brain disease found in autopsies of more than a dozen NHL players.

But Bettman is smart. Very smart. He figured out how to open that puck and stretch the reach of a sport that doesn’t translate well to TV and has little tradition in many areas of the U.S. The longest-serving commission­er in the four major North American sports leagues, Bettman on Wednesday will celebrate 30 years on the job.

He turned 70 last summer but has no retirement plans.

“Like birthdays, it’s just a number,” Bettman said. “Because everybody’s having me do it, I do reflect on the fact that I’ve been at this a while, and I continue to be excited and energized by what I do.”

His tenure has been marked by a mixed bag of innovation­s. Remember the FOX glow puck?

He also agreed to TV contracts with obscure networks before the current strong deal with ESPN and Turner.

He hit on a winner with outdoor games that appeal to nostalgia. He wisely copied the NBA’s draft lottery and fan-friendly All-Star weekend and was an early adaptor to social media and digital technology. During his watch the NHL adopted shootouts and three-on-three overtime in the regular season, adding drama but distorting the standings. Many Canadians despise him for Americaniz­ing their game, but he devised a program to aid Canada-based teams when currency disparitie­s handicappe­d them.

League revenues, about $400 million when he began, were around $5.3 billion last season. Digital advertisin­g boards introduced this season will pad revenues, but those ads are distractin­g when they change. Franchise values have soared: Philip Anschutz and Ed Roski paid $113.25 million for the Kings in 1995, and Forbes valued the franchise at $1.3 billion last year. Vegas paid $500 million to join the NHL in 2017. A Seattle group paid $650 million in 2021 to become the league’s 32nd team, but additional expansion is on hold.

Growth is his hallmark. So is confrontat­ion.

Media interest sparked by the New York Rangers’ 1994 Stanley Cup triumph faded when he locked players out a few months later and lost nearly half the season without getting the cap owners wanted. He canceled the entire 2004-05 season to get a hard cap but the resulting revenue split didn’t satisfy owners — so he imposed another lockout before the 2012-13 season and got players to reduce their cut of hockey-related revenues from 57 percent to 50.

He allowed players to represent their homelands in five Olympics but kept them home from Pyeongchan­g in 2018 and Beijing last year. In the first instance, he didn’t want to cede control to the Internatio­nal Olympic Committee and Internatio­nal Ice Hockey Federation; he used the potential 2022 Olympic break to make up games lost to COVID. Players wanted to go both times. There’s no plan in place for the 2026 Milano-Cortina Games.

As his momentous anniversar­y approached, Bettman was reluctant to say how he’d hope to be judged.

“I want people to think of me, particular­ly my family and friends, as somebody who’s been a good person,” said Bettman, father of three and grandfathe­r of seven with his wife, Shelli. “The league is not about me. I have had the honor of being a part of this game in important ways, but other people will define my legacy. Some people will think I did a good job and some people will think I didn’t.”

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