Today marks Day 97 of the NBA Lockout with little movement in negotiations and no end in sight between David Stern & the NBA Players Association. Yesterday the NBA officially announced the cancellation of the entire preseason and “with no choice,” according to Stern, the first two weeks of the NBA regular season. If the lockout negotiations continue to move slower than a turtle the only NBA action this year will come from NBA 2K12. The clock is ticking.
The main reason for the prolonged NBA lockout is the $4.3 billion revenue that must be shared amongst the owners and the NBA Players Association. It appears they never got the memo in kindergarten that sharing is caring. Owners are demanding players accept 46% of the revenue while the players are asking for 53%. You don’t have to be Einstein to figure out that a 50-50 split would be a fair compromise for both sides.
NBA owners also want a “hard” salary cap for increased league parity. Owners then want a limit to the contract length and salary for players (that way Rashard Lewis can’t be the 2nd highest paid player!). Finally, owners want to adjust the NBA age limit requirement so players actually attend more than one semester of college. Financially the NBA claims there must be a “hard” cap for this season, but they don’t mention firing bad general managers who give out bad contracts (see Isiah Thomas) or that you can fight in the military at age 18.
It’s a shame that the biggest losers are the common man and NBA free agents that are clinging to minimum salary deals. The NBA has already laid off 114 employees in its New York and New Jersey offices. Current NBA 2nd round rookies and free agents are also out of a job. Most importantly it’s the NBA fan and aspiring young basketball player that will miss a part of their daily routine and their lifestyle without NBA basketball.
Ultimately both sides want to end the lockout and get the NBA season underway as soon as possible. Hopefully the dark cloud that hovers over the NBA will pass to make way for the bright future of stars like Blake Griffin, Kevin Durant, and the continuing legacies of LeBron James and Kobe Bryant, etc.
