Do the owners and/or players understand how the average American fan, maybe making $35,000 or $40,000 per year, is not likely to sympathize with either side?
Does anyone else think that by scrapping the entire season maybe both sides would get a little perspective about how good they actually have things?
I just started watching the NBA last year and even chose a favorite team so I’m a bit disappointed. I don’t care to pay attention to their reasons about the lockout though. I actually thought it was a publicity stunt at first…
If money was such a big concern then why are they giving up so many games?
They just built a super team and rivals are getting interesting. They got the best player doing soap operas, going from face to heel and now back to face. I don’t know the stats but I’ll be willing to bet there was an increase in profits this previous year and then they pull this crap… Although somehow, someway, this might be a good business move… Stern is rich for a reason after all…
I wrote what I wrote without mentioning that the NBA is the ONLY professional sports league that I actually follow closely, and the only pro sport that I have any kind of emotional investment in. The Utah Jazz have meant a great deal to Salt Lake City, and we as a small market will feel the hit (both economically and morale-wise) a lot more than places like LA or NYC are going to.
Quite frankly, the vast majority of pro athletes (in any sport) seem so out of touch with reality, so pampered, so egocentric, smug and self-satisfied that it wouldn’t bother me if the NBA, NFL and MLB all folded and the superstars were forced to get jobs making $10 per hour.
(I know, I know, just venting a bit—There has always been and there will always be sports stars who are lavished with money and adulation for their strength and physical dexterity; None of this is new)
They have actually done some news stories about this very subject here in SLC; I actually do feel very badly for the vendors, small business owners and others who will be taking a serious economic hit due to the strike/lock-out/Mexican Standoff.
It’s a fine vent, but this is a negotiation. Neither side is going to say “We give up, we realize how good we have it, you guys can have it your way.”
Furthermore, neither side is crying poverty. They’re trying to get their side the best deal they can, and they have differing views of the league’s financial status and future.
I don’t understand where the anger is coming from. Almost everyone thinks the NBA season is too long already. I’m not going to miss a couple weeks, or a month, or even 2 months of the season. Anything beyond that? Sure. But chopping a bit off the season isn’t going to lose me.
God I hate this bullshit Pollyanna narrative that gets trotted out with every CBA in a professional sport. The rolleyes doesn’t even begin to capture how trite and off topic this lazy commentary is.
And, even though he mentions both sides lacking perspective, the idea inevitably (in this case 37 minutes later) turns into a rant about players being overpaid.
They don’t generally suggest that the billionaire owner get forced to own a gas station, or hardware store, so they know how tough their customers have it. It’s always the player who should spend the off season bagging groceries or picking up garbage in a park to get their perspective back.
Because the owners don’t owe their entire financial future to the NBA. The average NBA career is around three years, losing any games much less a whole season is a huge blow to the grand majority of players. Most of them already lost more money in this first cancellation than the difference between the two proposals, and it’s going to get worse as time goes on. The players are just holding out to protect the stars and the agents future money at this point and getting royaly screwed in the process. If the stars keep signing big contracts overseas and preaching unity there is going to be a mutiny.
so they can’t be out of touch, pampered, smug and self satisfied? That’s only true if you are the athlete who people come to watch?
While that’s true, the league initially offered a 46% split of revenue, a 26% reduction in the current revenue split of 57%.
If the players had agreed to that, it would be a salary reduction of hundreds of millions of dollars per year for 6 years. That kind of salary reduction is worth fighting.
No. You see, we’ve had thread about this before, and it turns out a handful of posters think nobody cares, which means no one cares. You can’t argue with ironclad logic like that!
It’s terrible timing on the NBA’s part because in terms of basketball, the league is doing very well. There are a lot of young players to be excited about, some good teams that are peaking or on the rise, and a lot of other good things. But they’re not going to find the common ground in their dispute until they’ve alienated a bunch of people and lost a significant amount of money, so…
So does anyone have a list of players who’ve signed overseas? I suspect that if the league DOES shut down for the season, a lot of other players will end up signing overseas contracts (for a lot less than they make in the NBA); it will probably set off an arms race in several of the European leagues.
ETA: Answering my own question, here’s a list. Doesn’t look at all like they’re all superstars. Also looks like there are at least some mistakes in the list - I kind of doubt there’s an Italian club named “Bnei Hasharon”.
This would all end instantly if Lebron threatened to go to China without opt out. Stern would settle immediately or at least speed this process up. Add Wade & Howard along with other big names.
Maybe those guys are enjoying their vacation and not worrying about money. Or maybe they feel they have no right to complain.
I’m not sure you are right, and I’m also not sure why the star players would do that in the first place. The interests of the star players are not the same as the interest of the average players or the scrub. That’s kind of what the owners are relying on: some of the players can afford to sit on their cash for a while, but a lot of them can’t.
Well, to an extent you may be right, but 15 years ago, I probably went to 15 or 20 games each season, where in the past few years I might go to 3 or 4, if that.
For years, the Utah Jazz were selling out each and every home game, even on the years when they were struggling; These days, you can buy a ticket at the box office 5 minutes before tipoff for virtually any game of the season.
The economy is obviously a big part of the equation, but a LOT of once-loyal fans are seemingly getting turned off by the greed and narcissistic behavior of the players and owners alike.
Exactly, and if you remove those star players from the equation the rest of them would take any deal the owners offered just to get back on the court. The league survived Jordan retiring, star players come and go, there are more Lebrons and Howards coming.