Photo by Mark Heard on Flickr
It seems as though the lockout has lasted indefinitely. The weird, constantly changing presence that screams and demands your attention (but doesn’t understand why it does) has echoed from the beginning of July to the present day. That feeling doesn’t really ever stop. It lulls from time to time, hiding underneath the activity of more active sports, biding its time before it rears back and screams again. Things become too comfortable, and it cries out, “The season might not happen at all!” The difference in recent weeks has been the existence of actual negotiations (as opposed to more informal posturing), and some good has even come out of those modest hours of talking between the NBA and NBPA. The gap has closed to what seems like a manageable sum ($80 million per year is the number recently floated in many reports). It’s an amount that can be negotiated, and it’s an amount worth negotiating (in the context of the money that stands to be lost by both sides) when compared to the effect of missing regular season games.
Whatever happens this weekend, whatever secret or not-so-secret negotiations occur at the final hour, we’ll know whether or not games will be missed by Monday. That’s the deadline David Stern has set. After months of not really knowing anything, at least the beginning of the 2011-2012 NBA season’s fate will become clear. Thinking about it causes knots waiting in my stomach to twist, but I’d rather consider what defined this period than gaze into an uncertain future. I’ve compiled some of the words and ideas written during the lockout that helped to define the period. My hope is that the consensus of these (knowledgable) voices gives some kind of perspective to the directional arrow of the lockout and how it might change its course this weekend.
From Tom Ziller:
That’s why, if Stern’s gang refuses to relent on its incredible demands, these communities that have made the NBA what it is deserve answers from their team’s owners. Fans have financed the arenas that the NBA’s teams play in, paid ever-increasing ticket prices and supported their local team through thick and thin. They deserve answers.
via NBA Allows Lockout Owners To Cheat Fans, Embrace Greed
From Kelly Dwyer:
We’ve gone on at length, since July, about the financial impact an extended NBA lockout will have on thousands of North American workers that rely on an 82-game season to put food on the table. Workers that need those 41 home games to help chalk up the hours, and earnings. Men and women that have nothing to do with a terrible application of a mid-level exemption by owners, or player that burned through his rookie contract in just a few months.
What we forget, when we mock the half-canceled NBA preseason, is the sheer amount of workers that will be hurting due to a delayed series of games that nobody really cares about. Yes, the preseason counts.
via Your daily reminder that every lost NBA game hurts more people than you know
From Tim Donahue:Â
Even if the owners are adamant about a 50% split, and the players have dug in at 53%, there is no math that says it is worth it to either side to lose games. I have tried to find a financial reason for either side to stand firm until the other breaks — no matter how long it takes — but I can’t. Not even if I take off my shoes.
Come Monday, if games are canceled, neither side can win. It will only be a question of which side has lost less.
This is hardly the breadth of the terrific work that’s been done during the lockout by reporters, writers, and the “bloggers”, but it illustrates this: This lockout benefits no one. Everything stems from posturing and negotiating tactics designed to produce the best deal possible at the last available moment. It’s a game of awful wait-and-see, with both sides hurting everything that surrounds and defines their sports. The worst part? No matter what deal is struck, no matter how slanted it might be towards one side, the net result will almost definitely be negative for both sides. Financially, it’ll hurt. Competitively, it’ll hurt. Regarding fan interest in the league, it’ll absolutely hurt.
Money lost in the short-term can always be recovered or sought out with a reasonable understanding that it might be gained (as an owner, player, or part of the system) back, but goodwill and interest take years to generate. If there’s a lockout now, even the most ardent NBA fans will be sickened by the lax, failing negotiations offered. They won’t care whether fault lies more with the owners, players, David Stern, or Billy Hunter. Anger and irritation and sadness will be the only feelings permeated through their tweets and water cooler discussions. After that ends, all that will be left is apathy. Even if a shortened season is saved, perspective will have floated into jaded neglect. But hey, at least the NHL will get a few new fans!
The reasonable NBA thinker can only come to one conclusion at this point: Either the owners and players reach a deal that saves the season (or only loses a few games), or they allow their egos to obscure the path to compromise until the bitter end, causing damage to their own industry.
Decide how you’re going to reach an agreement (an entirely possible and reasonable goal), NBA and NBPA, and do so quickly. If you don’t, much of your fan base won’t forgive you in the near future. They’ll have already made their own reasonable, justified choice.
