As I sat there watching North Carolina and Michigan State honor our nation’s veterans in the Carrier Classic, with both schools playing the first ever organized game, aboard the USS Carl Vinson on a picturesque, California evening, I soon discovered the major difference between college and professional basketball. The NCAA was honoring those who have served our country; the NBA is merely self-serving.
Now more than ever before, it has become clear that NBA players and owners care only about their own well-being. After months of divisiveness, neither side is willing to give an inch. Both parties remain far apart on several issues, with the equitable distribution of Basketball Related Income the main point of contention.
Their season hangs in the balance.
Without getting into too much detail about my feelings on the dispute, which I’ve already established here and here, I thought I’d share some images, pilfered from the World Wide Web, of what a season with no basketball would look like.
A picture tells a thousand words… but unfortunately cannot resolve the NBA lockout.
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Just pull a car onto one of the darkened courts, wait until it rains, don a trench coat, and play ball. That’s real hoops.
Those are some pretty cool courts. One thing that’s come from all this is that I think I like Kobe. He seems to just want to get a deal done. Maybe it’s because he’s made his money, or maybe he doesn’t want to waste another year where he could get a ring…
HB…
I was actually thinking about those times as I was writing the post, so much so that I was tempted to put up those pictures.
I’d be in favor of scab basketball. Pull about 500 of the best street ballers, pay em a grand a week and stick ’em in nba unis. Week 2 = lockout over. 🙂
Well, Chap…
Someone among them needs to have some sense. It’s certainly not Derek Fisher or Billy Hunter.
Finally… someone with some sense.
I like it to, Yaz.
That’d be totally worth watching.
Heck, I may even try out.
I couldn’t care less if they never played again
Like the idea of a streetballer league. My interest in professional basketball has dwindled over the past several years. This episode really does nothing to improve that. I blame both parties.
I love those pictures. Sort of reminds me of the rapture of basketball. No more long waits to get a court. They’re all gone. On a serious note, I’m all for the players and totally against the owners. Sure, you can come down on the players for not caving in the the billionaires’ demands, but you’re being selfish to the point that you want to watch the NBA NOW! Get over it. This is still just a labor/management dispute and its easy to brush aside the players’ demands until you think about what you would do if it was you and your union fighting the corporations. Just like Wall Street, the NBA owners screwed up the works with their ridiculous contracts and now they want the “little people” to pay for their mistakes. Not this time. Write off this season and maybe even the following season too. Sometimes, principle outweighs salary.
Bryce…
Well, you also cheer for the Tar Heels so you might as well be rooting for a professional basketball team.
Well said, C. I couldn’t agree more.
I’m not much into video games any more but remember when that street ball version came out and was a top-seller nationwide?
You’re not the first to suggest that an alternate league form, which is why my suggestion of the NBA folding entirely isn’t as far-fetched as critics once thought.
The NBA…Where an amazing nuclear winter happens
Chump – how will you ever get through the winter without Gilbert and Turk?
Snake…
I know we can’t really compare professional sports to any other business, but… isn’t it the owners who own the teams?
No one likes a billionaire with their yachts and bottles of 18 year old scotch, but to use an example we can relate to, Harned owned the River. He could do with it as he pleased. There was no revenue sharing. He was the boss.
I don’t know, man. I mean, how many times have we called the players primadonnas over the years?
I understand that they’re trying to hold their own but as a result of the lockout, technically, everyone involved is now getting 0%.
Drew…
Why thank you, sir.
You put the whole lockout in its proper perspective.
Now I no longer have to suffer through a season of the Orlando Magic underachieving.
In honor of this post I’m cueing up an old Cheech and Chong song.
” i gotta basketball jones, i gotta basketball jones, oh oh oh ………..
Chris
If Stern were sitting at the ” Final Table ” at the WSOP how’d you think that he’d have fared ? He’s not much of a poker player is he ?
They’ve shot themselves in both feet have the NBA hierarchy and the owners !
Do you honestly feel that Sacramento mayor Kevin Johnson should still consider trying to get the Kings to remain in the city in light of what is now going on ?
The team and organization have been a money losing operation for the past five consecutive years . The Maloofs (owners of the Palms in Vegas) as owners of the NBA team have been idiots over the past decade as they’ve simply duped the city and its residents . 2009 the operation was given a $30 million gift courtesy of Stern’s bailout to fifteen teams within the NBA . How comes no one questions that sort of bulls##t ? Apathy of the so called knowledgeable individuals who follow the game and report on it for the fans .
tophatal ……..
Aer…
Very nice pull.
This one’s for you, brah.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVogvCi4w4g
Al…
You know I’ve always been a supporter of Stern but this time around, I can’t say I’ve ever been more disappointed in him.
The fact that he couldn’t get this whole thing to work and is now totally blaming the players for their unwillingness to compromise is unacceptable.
Again, I’m not sure where it’s written that the commissioner of a sports league has to only represent the owners in such a conflict.
Good point about Kevin Johnson too. He loves basketball, obviously, but at this point, why would he waste any taxpayer’s money on a product that doesn’t give anything back to the community?