NBA Lockout
Brandon Speer
There is a crisis in one of America’s popular sport, basketball. The National Basketball Association is having a very big discussion on whether to have a season this year or not. There are several reasons why there might not be a season. NBA officials and players have two very different looks on the situation, and it won’t be easy to reach an agreement.
The owners have locked out the players ever since July 1st. The main topic of discussion is money. The two sides are in disagreement of how to split basketball related income. The players recently declined to accept anything less than 53% of the money. The owners want to decrease the amount of money to 50% for the players. The owners continue to push for a 50-50 split in basketball related income. Labor experts have assessed that each basketball-related income point reduction is a $40-million hit to the players, but owners argue 22 of 30 teams lost money last season. David Stern has already cancelled all of the preseason, which is not good for teams because they won’t be able to practice together.
Players are also bothered by the owners move towards a hard salary cap tax that would guarantee less money available in contracts. Last week David Stern also cancelled the first two weeks of the regular season, which was scheduled to start on November 1st. Point guard for the Los Angelas Lakers, Derick Fisher, is the president of the NBA players union. Union leaders were set to fly to Los Angeles on Monday for a meeting with players in Beverly Hills. “We find these meetings extremely productive and informative as we review the status and details of the [collective-bargaining agreement] negotiations, answer questions, and discuss next steps,” Fisher wrote.
Right now it’s not looking good if you’re an NBA fan. Both sides have not made much progress over the last couple of months, and the preseason and first two weeks of the season have already been cancelled. There is very little time left to agree on something and start the NBA season. I personally think that they will not be able to reach an agreement in time, so I don’t think there will be an NBA season. I think that the players are getting enough money already, need to be quiet, and accept all the money that they’re getting. There are a lot of citizens who would kill to have even half as much money as they get in one year.
Pugmire, Lance. “No Deal Reached as NBA Negotiators Meet Ahead of Deadline Day – Latimes.com.” Los Angeles Times – California, National and World News – Latimes.com. Web. 10 Oct. 2011. <http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-nba-labor-20111010,0,6766040.story>.
“Still No NBA Agreement as Negotiations Head into Deadline Day – Chris Mannix – SI.com.” Breaking News, Real-time Scores and Daily Analysis from Sports Illustrated SI.com. Web. 10 Oct. 2011. <http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/chris_mannix/10/10/sunday.nba.meeting/index.html?sct=nba_t11_a0>.
Wojnarowski, Adrian, and Marc J. Spears. “NBA, Union to Resume Talks on Monday – NBA – Yahoo! Sports.” Yahoo! Sports – Sports News, Scores, Rumors, Fantasy Games, and More. Web. 10 Oct. 2011. <http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_ylt=Aq.ysJVKS_BhtdkNloeTrUe8vLYF?slug=ys-nba_labor_talks_100911>.