Opinion, Sports

Perception versus Reality

Like MikeIn today’s sports landscape, professional franchises must often wage wars on two distinct fronts: on the field and in the court of public opinion. Last week, two of our local teams made high-profile signings that represent how tricky it can be to navigate the rocky ter­rain of winning ballgames while sating their fans’ desire to root for a likeable team.

The first of these moves came on June 23, when the New York Knicks made a big splash by pulling off a trade for former NBA MVP Derrick Rose. Al­though he is still just 27 years old, Rose has been hampered by injuries over the last four years and hasn’t been a viable NBA star since 2012. But with just one year left until he hits free agency, it would appear as though the Knicks’ newest acquisition may be less about what Rose can do on the court and more about the optics of the situation.

Rose may never be the player he once seemed destined to be­come, but he’s still a name. He’s the kind of player whose resume is sure to elicit a positive re­sponse in a fan base that has had little to cheer about over the last few seasons.

But more than that, it seems, the play for Rose might be a cal­culated move by Knicks’ Presi­dent Phil Jackson to announce to other NBA stars that New York is ready to win now. Despite his diminished production, Rose is still the kind of player that car­ries a lot of cache within NBA circles. Will bringing him aboard make the Knicks a more viable landing spot for another big-name free agent, be it Kevin Du­rant, Dwight Howard or Joakim Noah? It’s certainly possible.

It remains to be seen what Rose has left in the tank, and he most likely won’t be a long-term solution at the point guard posi­tion. But if bringing him in can help reestablish a culture of win­ning in Madison Square Garden, at least in theory, then perhaps this could be considered a coup for Jackson and the Knicks.

On the other side of the spec­trum, however, was the New York Mets’ decision to bring back Jose Reyes on June 25.

As far as pure baseball moves go, this one makes sense. Reyes—who was recently given his outright release by the Col­orado Rockies after the emer­gence of potential Rookie of the Year candidate Trevor Story—is costing the Mets the league min­imum, salarywise, and could potentially serve as a valuable fill-in at third base, with David Wright likely done for the sea­son.

It’s a low-risk, high-reward move for a team that, right now, is in desperate need of an offen­sive spark.

But that, of course, is only half the story.

Reyes may have been one of the most popular Mets during his first go-around with the team, but is also coming off a two-month suspension after a domestic violence incident. To that end, all the statements released by both the Mets and Reyes since the signing have been carefully worded to address—and down­play—his scandal away from the field. The Mets’ organization seems to know that a large sec­tion of their fan base could be turned off by Reyes’ actions and are eager to mitigate the fallout over bringing him back.

Will Mets fans welcome his return with open arms? General Manager Sandy Alderson cer­tainly seems to believe that if Reyes can inject some life into the lineup, the talented infield­er’s past transgressions will sim­ply seem like a blip on the radar.

So what’s more important: Winning the public relations battle, or winning on the field?

Nowadays, with the amount of scrutiny faced by those in front-office positions, it feels like the two are so intertwined. Will the goodwill engendered by the Rose move lead to big things on the court? Will Reyes lead to “bad karma” for the Met­ropolitans?

For better or worse, the one thing that the majority of fans care about is the final result. And while both the Rose and Reyes moves might make for interesting stories right now, it’s unlikely that we will know which direction the narrative will take until we see the teams’ final records.