It will be an entertainment site around the basketball game. It's played at the major-league level the same way it's played on the sandlots. The fight for the heart and minds of the audience and their spending money, in a culture that overflows with leisure options, will grow fiercer by the season. One of the first items of business next century will be replacing lost legends. In basketball its Michael Jordan, football its John Elway, hockey its Wayne Gretzky.
Every sport needs an icon.
Golf's best hope, for example, may rest with Tiger Woods. A blossoming star this century, perhaps the king of the sport next. Woods could win the Masters in 2020, and still be younger than Jack Nicklaus the day Nicklaus won his last one. Women's sports should continue their growth, spurred by the Olympics, and enlivened by the popularity of college and pro basketball, and other sports. The rousing success of women's World Cup soccer may have been a watershed event.