The NBA: Lockout Like It’s 1999
The NBA Lockout has been in effect since July 1st, and unlike the NFL, where things started to eventually turn up, things have taken a nosedive into a dark and dangerous realm. Games have been missed, players are fighting among players, owners are fighting among owners, and the players and the owners are fighting amongst each other. Instead of trying to calm both sides down and be a mediator, David Stern has chosen the route of threatening the players into accepting a deal.
To say that the lockout hasn’t gone out of control is like saying that that the Revolutionary War was merely a disagreement among fellow British citizens. It is nothing less than sheer chaos and David Stern knows it. Stern is acting as if he’s in a bad dream waiting for the a hand of his monkey alarm clock to smack him across the face. He doesn’t know exactly what to do, and that’s a problem. The NFL has a solutions oriented commissioner in Roger Goodell, while the NBA has a “please don’t mess this up anymore” oriented commissioner. Instead of solving the problems, Stern is looking for a way to get the problems to magically disappear. When the CEO of any organization puts his hands up in the air and basically says “It’s your problem” to his employees and employers, there’s chaos. Stern has completely lost control of this whole operation and the 2011-2012 NBA season is sinking along with it.
But is there a chance we have a season? Is the season doomed to not happen, or is there legit reason to hope?
My honest feeling is there is hope for a season, but I wouldn’t expect Santa Clause to stuff your stocking with NBA Christmas Day games, either. The truth of the matter is, both the owners and players need to understand that they each have to forgo their own egos and do what is best for each other. That’s the real problem. What both the owners and players are missing is the big picture. The big picture is that the NBA is composed of both the Owners and the Players. While both sides want a fair deal for their respective sides, they have to view themselves on the same team, not on opposite ones. The players want more % of Basketball Related Income (BRI), more freedom in free agency, and less overall restrictions on how teams can acquire players. The owners want more % of the BRI as well, and they want the players to have less freedom in free agency, and more restrictions on how teams can acquire players. In essence the owners want to fix the current problem/fear of players jumping ship from one team to form another team with their buddies.
At the end of the day, the reason we are where we are today is because in 1999, the owners agreed to a ridiculously stupid deal giving the players the keys to the car so to speak. They let the players have 57% of all BRI, put minimal restrictions on salary cap and allowed the players to rule. Now the owners want to scale it back and get a bigger cut of the pie. But once you give rich spoiled teenagers (which is basically what NBA players are) keys to the car, don’t expect to get the car back soon, or even at all. The players abused their privileges, and now the grownups want to take those privileges away. The problem, is that when the owners ask to scale back on the privileges, the players respond by saying they feel like they are getting punished. That is exactly what is happening here. The owners are embarrassed that the players have ruled over them for the last 10 years, and the players aren’t about to let there be a change in the current.
So what are we looking at here realistically? No season? If I’m looking at this purely analytically, I say it probably looks that way. If I look at this from the perspective of a fan, I say there will be ball because I want to see ball. If I’m trying to look at this through the perspective of the NBA as a whole (sort of a middle ground), I say we have a season, but it is short and hastily thrown together. Starting late January/ early February for a 50 game season or so. In essence,the NBA is gonna “Lockout like it’s 1999″ .
But this is just my opinion. I’m a fan, not an NBA insider. I don’t talk with David Stern or any of the owners or players to get a real inside scoop. But I do take the facts of what I’m hearing from many different sources and try to piece some sort of general image together. That image that I see is damaged, but salvageable. If the NBA is smart, they will recognize that both the owners and players have way more to lose than gain by holding out on a season. Revenue from both sides will be lost, and perhaps the most long lasting of all, certain fans and potentially customers will be turned away for years. I just hope the league knows what it is getting itself into.
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