The NBA is seemingly back on track after last year’s strike-shortened season. In retrospect, the players’ strike benefited neither the players nor the owners, while alienating the fans and almost killing the goose that laid the golden egg. Above all, it galvanized the public image of the professional basketball player as an overpaid, altitude-impaired thug, devoid of sportsmanship and a law unto himself.

The retirement of Michael Jordan, the greatest player of them all, left a gaping void in league leadership, but all’s well that ends well, and the season finale was a delight. Good triumphed over evil as the squeaky-clean San Antonio Spurs, led by decent Tim Duncan and respectful David Robinson, were victorious over the New York Knicks and the talented, but coach-choking, Latrell Sprewell. But what on earth happened to the NBA? What could make a profitable league turn on itself like that? Perhaps astrology can shed some light on this situation.

The National Basketball Association (NBA) was formed on August 3, 1949, in a daytime meeting in New York City as two rival leagues, the Basketball Association of America and the National Basketball League, joined forces to cash in on the post-war prosperity. The NBA is a Leo, and that lion grew up to be the flashiest, most successful professional basketball league ever.

A challenge to the NBA’s dominance arose when the rival American Basketball Association (ABA) was formed on February 2, 1967 (at approximately 1:00 pm EST in New York City). Note that the leagues’ birth dates, August 3 and February 2, are six months apart. That means that the Sun in Leo in the NBA’s chart is directly opposite the Sun in Aquarius in the ABA’s chart. A common interpretation of this kind of opposition between charts would be that the two entities could either be open enemies or close partners, and these two leagues have been both.

The leadership and focus of both organizations (symbolized by the Sun) opposed each other for several years, but eventually the shot clock ran down on the ABA and the league folded. However, its three strongest teams, the Nets, Pacers and Spurs, were admitted into the NBA in a merger in 1976. The Leo league absorbed its Aquarian opposition, gained momentum and expanded its influence over the next two decades. By the 1990s, NBA basketball was more popular and profitable than ever, and basking in the reflected glory of its ultimate superstar, Michael Jordan. (Jordan was born February 17, 1963, at 10:20 am, Brooklyn, NY. Source: Cynthia Withers quotes him to a mutual friend.)

The trouble started as the planet Uranus entered Aquarius in 1996. Now Uranus is a futuristic radical, a rabble-rouser and a gifted but troubled misfit at odds with the established order. Sometimes a visionary genius, sometimes just a rebel without a clue, Uranus is right at home in Aquarius, the sign of its rulership, which puts it in a sort of perpetual opposition to Leo, the sign of the king or the leader. In the natural order of things, if Leo is the President, then Aquarius is the Congress. If Leo is the parent, then Aquarius represents unruly teenagers. In the NBA, Leo represented the owners, officials and commissioners, while Uranus in Aquarius represented the players’ union in open rebellion against them.

Uranus in Aquarius seemed to herald a “new age” in the NBA, evident in a general deterioration of discipline and an embarrassing series of insubordinate acts against coaches, teams and officials. In the spring and summer of 1998, Uranus had made its way to the point in Aquarius where it opposed the NBA’s Leo while conjoining the former ABA’s Aquarius Sun. The powerful dynamics of this opposition threatened to split the league in two and manifested in the dramatic lockout and strike. At one point, the players did threaten to break off and start their own league, but the owners stood firm. Finally, just as the Sun entered Aquarius, the players agreed to go back to work. Fittingly, the new season opened on February 5, following a splendid Aquarius-Leo Full Moon on January 31 that tightly conjoined both the current position of Uranus and the Suns of the NBA and ABA.

The departure of Michael Jordan and the demise of the Chicago Bulls left a leadership vacuum that drew the long-suffering San Antonio Spurs to the fore. The Spurs were in the right place, with the right men, at the right time. Their center and team leader, Leo David Robinson (born August 6, 1965 in Key West, FL), had responded well to the Uranus opposition in his own chart, which mirrored the situation in the league’s chart. Instead of battling the inevitable, he graciously accepted a diminished role for the good of the team, and turned the spotlight over to Tim Duncan. Robinson’s selflessness was fully repaid in glory, as the “Twin Towers” approach proved unbeatable.

The Spurs’ head coach Greg Popovich (born January 28, 1949 in East Chicago, Indiana) with Sun in Aquarius, was ready for his day in the sun, as was longtime Spurs forward, Aquarius Sean Elliott, who shares a birthday with the ABA (born February 2, 1968 in Tucson, AZ). But the real story was Tim Duncan (April 25, 1976 in St. Croix, Virgin Islands), born with a natal Sun-Uranus opposition, also mirroring the current situation in the league. He emerged as the NBA’s newest champion; brilliantly gifted in his own right, but always the courteous team player.

The Leo league survived to play on, maintaining some traditional class and dignity, but also changing with the changing times and allowing Uranus more freedom of individual expression. But there’s one other Uranian subplot here that we can’t let pass. The ghost of the ABA can finally rest, for, as Uranus contacted the natal Sun of the defunct Aquarian league, their day of victory arrived. The Spurs are the first ABA team to ever win the NBA championship. Timing is everything!