NBA Rumors: Harden’s Future with Thunder in Jeopardy after Westbrook’s Extension
Russell Westbrook reportedly just signed a five-year, $78-million-plus maximum contract extension with the Oklahoma City Thunder, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports.
Now you may be wondering, how does this affect James Harden’s future with the Oklahoma City Thunder?
Well, according to John Hollinger of ESPN, this now means that the organization can offer James Harden a four-year extension when he is due for one next season, instead of the maximum of five.
You may be thinking, what does it matter? Harden isn’t a superstar and won’t command a huge contract anyway.
The thing is, young productive shooting guards have become somewhat of a rarity in the league right now. Within the past five years, there have only been a handful of 2-guards to enter the NBA that have flashed the potential to be great.
There is a high probability that Harden continues to develop as he has steadily over his first three seasons, and might become one of the premier guards in the game.
Sure, Harden will be sticking around in OKC for at least the next three seasons as he is eligible to become a restricted free agent, and most likely, at the very least, will sign a qualifying tender after next season.
However, contract disputes have upset many NBA players in the past and it may be more of the same when the Arizona State product realizes he can get the same money and the same amount of years by joining another squad.
The Thunder have built their team amazingly well and do not have a single bad contract on the roster, but GM Sam Presti is going to eventually realize that he cannot keep all of these young studs as they are able to earn bigger deals and move on to cities with brighter lights.
Oklahoma City is built to win now, and has to make a serious run in these next few seasons while they have their core group together.
If not, they will start losing players like Harden to free agency and lose the championship window they worked so hard to open.
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NBA Season in Jeopardy: What Will Happen to the League?
Here we go again! Another league is in a flux and an entire season is now in jeopardy for the NBA.
After one of the most memorable seasons that started with “The Decision” and ended with the Miami Heat threesome of Dwyane Wade, LeBron James and Chris Bosh losing to a veteran-ladened Mavericks team in the finals, the momentum is completely gone.
As you may know, the players decided to disband the union, which most likely means an anti-trust lawsuit is coming. Maybe the players had enough. They were not getting the deal they had hoped for and, to be honest, what is a negotiation that says, “Take this deal or else”?
I asked the question in my first article last week, is it good for the game?
Simply put, no, it’s not. It kills the game that has us begging for its return. Nope! Sorry, NBA fans, the season is most likely done before it has started.
Before Dirk Nowitzki can get his ring (Fed-Ex may be able to deliver it by January), before we can see if Kevin Garnett‘s knees can hold up, we must see if anything can be salvaged. Most of us are settling for college hoops to feed our basketball jones—North Carolina looks awesome right about now. The NFL is in the midst of separating the contenders from the pretenders. Hockey? The NHL has been back since the Chicago Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup. Baseball has been revitalized by the World Series.
But what happens to the NBA if it doesn’t play this season, especially now that we have options?
Revenue that the owners locked out the players over, lost. If the team is your cash cow, you’re not making any money. The economy for several cities will be crippled without the attraction of the league, which will cost jobs. Typical for what is going on with the country going through a recession.
It was a gamble. A gamble that the players will bend to your demands blew up in your face.
Some players—if not all the players—want to play. They didn’t ask to be locked out. The owners gambled on the rank-and-file players not being unified with the stars and it seems they were wrong.
The players have lost patience, not with each other, but with not being able to get to work. Players like Wilson Chandler and Deron Williams have taken their talents overseas with more sure to follow. If I were a star player in my prime I would strongly consider playing elsewhere. Tax-free, housing included and I get to work on my game while the NBA dies a slow and painful death.
The owners didn’t anticipate this and it’s bad timing because again, as we are begging for the game to return, sadly, it will not. The line is drawn in the sand, and who knows if the NBA will be the same again. I think after “Doomsday” last week and the players disbanding this week, it will be a long road back.
Memo to David Stern and the NBA owners: It took hockey three years to matter again, and with the league already having a shaky reputation, three years might make us remember that basketball used to matter.
Remember the names Harrison Barnes and Jared Sullinger from North Carolina and Ohio State respectively because they’re the closest we’re going to get to seeing the pros.
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NBA Lockout: Union Rejects Offer and Disbands, Entire Season Now in Jeopardy
The NBPA has rejected the NBA‘s most recent proposal and the union has been disbanded, putting the 2011-12 season in very serious jeopardy.
After the players meeting on Monday morning, it has been decided that they would not be bullied and drawn to decisions by league-imposed ultimatums, and now we may not have a season as a result.
These were not negotiations, but rather a one-sided beat down from the owners onto the players, and rather than winning by a 35-point margin, the owners have held firm in their desire to blow up the season and create the “nuclear winter” that Kobe Bryant referred to previously.
The union has informed the league that it is no longer representing the players in collective bargaining discussions.
With factions on both sides and each clearly dissenting in their preferences, the NBA will never, ever get the casual fan to come back to the game as a result of what has unfolded.
It will definitely be interesting to see what the next step will be from here, as the players have stated that they’re done talking about the lockout to the media.
This has gone from bad to remarkably ugly, and the forthcoming process is one that should have been pursued in July if the players knew that this was coming.
The players put faith into the league’s ability to negotiate in good faith, but it was crystal clear throughout this scenario that the owners never sought to bargain with any shred of faith whatsoever.
Had the league bent on a few key system issues, there would’ve been a deal to be agreed upon last week, and we could be planning for the start of the season.
Instead, we have this.
There are two options at this point.
The first is the current road continues to be driven upon and egos continue to pervade while emotions continue to cloud the thought process from parties on both sides.
Or the two sides could once again get back together in an effort to save the season when it’s waning in the wind.
The fans continue to suffer as a result of something they have no control over.
Regardless of the outcome, the league has greatly miscalculated its popularity and power, and this is the result of something that’s been brewing for three years.
It’s a surreal scenario, and one that’s hard to process.
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Stern: Christmas games in jeopardy (AP)
Commissioner David Stern said his “gut” tells him there will be no NBA basketball on Christmas without a labor agreement by Tuesday. That day, when owners and players are scheduled to meet with a federal mediator, is a “really big deal,” he added. Owners will then open two days of board meetings Wednesday, and without an agreement to bring them, Stern believes further…
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NBA Lockout at Pivotal Stage with Regular-Season Games in Jeopardy
The ongoing NBA lockout is one with no definitive end date in sight.
The players and owners are engaged in a staring contest to see which side blinks first, and both sides emerged from Tuesday’s meeting still waiting for the other to make the necessary concessions.
Commissioner David Stern is a master of public posturing.
When the owners and players broke off negotiations on Tuesday evening and announced that no deal had been reached, those who were not in New York staking out the negotiations had to sit by the computer and rely on Twitter updates to hear what the players were saying during their press conference.
After the players were finished speaking, it was time for Commissioner Stern and Deputy Commissioner Adam Silver to address the media.
Suddenly, there was coverage. Real, live television coverage from the labor front.
What happened?
Camera crews didn’t suddenly come rolling in hot and arrive just in time for the Stern and Silver’s address.
The choice not to air the NBPA’s message was a clear one, and it’s an issue that has largely gone unnoticed by many dissecting the events of the afternoon.
In the previous collective bargaining agreement, players were entitled to 57 percent of basketball-related income (BRI).
Stern, in his addressing of the media, made it clear that although a formal proposal was not made, that the owners would be willing to split the difference from where the two sides stood and call for a 50-50 split of the BRI.
Seem fair?
A 50-50 BRI split without any additional concessions and/or deductions still represents a sharp seven percent decline from the previous agreement.
So, what does that mean exactly?
Here is an excerpt from the letter that NBPA president Derek Fisher and NBPA executive director Billy Hunter said to the players detailing what such a move would mean for the league.
During those talks, the owners suggested that they might consider a BRI split likely to yield the players 50% of current BRI. After seriously considering whether we should proceed down this path, our group determined not to do so. Recognizing all the owners’ arguments about the state of the business and the condition of the economy, in our view, the owners can and should share more of the record revenues our players generate. Reducing our share of BRI by 7 points to 50%—a
level we have not received since the early 1990′s—is simply not a fair split.
Stern came out looking like a good guy to some fans, and a great guy to others. He emerged as the voice of reason, calling for a fair deal that was split down the middle between the two sides.
However, what he never mentioned was that the new, fair split between the parties was indeed a seven percent reduction from where the previous agreement had stood.
When the two sides began the negotiating process, they were $8 billion apart—a seemingly insurmountable figure with their backs against the calendar to get a deal done.
Now, as Ken Berger of CBS Sports points out, the players and owners can bridge the gap and offers an idea of exactly how to achieve that.
So when the sides resume meeting—possibly as early as Thursday, with a league-imposed Monday deadline to reach a deal before regular-season games are canceled—each one moves another $200 million. (They’d lose that money anyway by failing to reach a deal.) The bargaining gap is now $500 million over seven years, or about $71 million a year.
Here’s how they close it: They split the difference. The magic number is $16.05 billion, or roughly 51.5 percent for the players and 48.5 for the owners. Given the format already discussed by the two sides, this could be accomplished with the players receiving a band of 51-52 percent.
Given the fact that the two sides have been able to turn an $8 billion gap into a much more manageable margin, it doesn’t make sense to cease discussing every possible way to save the full NBA season.
The lockout isn’t an issue that resonates with most fans.
Rather than seeing the actual issues that are on the table, most deem the talks as billionaire’s vs. millionaire’s and can’t fathom how the two sides can’t come to an agreement before the start date of the season.
The word “progress” has lot its meaning as a result of it constantly getting used by members on both sides to depict the conversations, as it’s clear that there has been nothing agreed to with just five days to go before the league is forced to cancel (at least) the first two weeks of the season.
Both the players and owners knew that this lockout was coming. This wasn’t something that was a surprise, but rather a scenario that was highly expected and frightfully embraced.
There has been so much time for the parties to make substantive movement in the negotiations, but all we have heard is the word “progress.”
The Merriam-Webster online dictionary offers the following definition: “A forward or onward movement (as to an objective or to a goal): advance”
It’s time to find a new adjective to describe the extended process.
True progress is made when the goal is achieved, and that has yet to happen.
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NBA Lockout: Sides Still Miles Apart as Season Remains in Jeopardy
With preseason games already being missed, Kobe Bryant negotiating a contract overseas and David Stern threatening to cancel the 2011-2012 NBA season, extreme progress needed to be made in today’s labor negotiations to keep from missing regular season games.
Unfortunately, today showed just how far apart the sides are in this negotiation.
This is clearly a dire situation and Stern is looking at any and all avenues that lead to the NBA playing a full season, even if it means pushing back the start date of the season.
Player union representative Derek Fisher had a pessimistic take on how the talks went today, saying,
“We engaged in more intense discussions today to see if we can close what remains a very large gap. Today was not the day to get this done. We were not able to get close enough to close the gap.”
Unlike the NFL lockout, there is a very real possibility that these talks will eat into the regular season. The NBA doesn’t have time for a power struggle and with superstars exercising other options and heading overseas, the players in the NBA have far more leverage than the players did in the NFL lockout.
Even so, everyone wants to see that a deal is done. In the end, three letters are keeping this deal miles apart: BRI.
BRI stands for basketball related income. Last season, players received 57 percent of BRI. The players offered up a deal that would send 53 percent of BRI their way, but the owners countered with an offer that would give them 47 percent.
It was a slap in the face and an indication of just how long we have to go. Somewhere in the middle is where this deal will inevitably fall. While the whole country was hoping for optimism, today was a dark day in the NBA.
Playing a full season is becoming less and less of a possibility every day and the amount of ground that needs to be gained in these discussions paints a bleak picture of labor negotiations in the near future.
The two sides aren’t anywhere near making headway on a deal. They are going to need to take baby steps and there simply isn’t enough time to do so.
With players calling Stern’s bluff and not backing down to the pressure, it’s clear neither side is going to be bullied into making a deal they don’t want to make. While Stern didn’t rule out the possibility of the season, a lost season became a much more real possibility today.
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NBA Lockout: Negotiations Stall, Start of 2011 Season in Jeopardy
The NBA has been in lockout mode for three months now, but indications were that things would come to a head on Tuesday. NBA Players’ Association president Derek Fisher described it (via ESPN) as a “very huge day” for the negotiations between the league’s players and owners.
Right now, Tuesday is looking more like a dark day for the negotiations. Roughly an hour ago, the owners and players called it quits for the day, and the news coming out is not good at all.
The fear going into today was that the 2011-2012 regular season would officially be put in jeopardy, and Fisher indicated that this is exactly what has happened.
Here’s what Fisher had to say, per Yahoo! Sports’ Adrian Wojnarowski:
As for if and when the lockout will come to an end, Fisher indicated that the ball is solely in the owners’ court.
If the owners are going to end the lockout, they’re going to have to get the players to agree to what they deem to be a reasonable split of basketball-related income. The players got 57 percent of the basketball revenues under the old collective bargaining agreement, and the owners are looking to even things out.
Courtesy of TNT’s David Aldridge, we know that the players agreed to lower their share of the revenues:
If you believe NBA Players’ Association head honcho Billy Hunter, that just wasn’t good enough for the owners. Berger reported that they wanted to even things out even more:
To give you an idea of just how far apart the two sides are, Berger wrote a short while after the talks concluded that the difference is roughly $80 million per year. Given where they started, the two sides have definitely narrowed the gap, but they obviously weren’t able to come to a mutually beneficial agreement during this “very huge day.”
Either way, the writing is certainly on the wall that they are not going to reach an agreement anytime soon. In fact, Hunter indicated that negotiations may not even resume any time soon.
Via Wojnarowski, this is what Hunter had to say:
If you’re at all curious when the NBA is going to start canceling games, Aldridge reported that it’s going to happen very soon:
So unless something can get done in the next week, the NBA lockout is going to start eating into the regular season in a few days’ time.
Well, there’s no denying that this is a huge bummer. That said, I think all of us know that these announcements were going to come sooner or later. The players and owners were miles apart when the lockout went into effect, and they are still miles apart. Barring a miracle, this thing is not going to end in the near future.
Back in 1998, a lockout canceled all but 50 regular season games. From the sound of things, we’re going to be lucky if we get that many games this season.
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Denver Nuggets: The 2011 NBA Season Is in Jeopardy, Does Anyone Care?
Apparently, the NBA season should be underway.
As is the case with other NBA franchises, my hometown Denver Nuggets should be playing preseason basketball games right now and working toward their season opener in the first week of November. Instead, they lost a few players who chose not to wait and see what happens on the mainland—they took their talents to Europe and Asia.
Nevertheless, as we enter into the month of October, something strange has occurred. In watching an edition of SportsCenter, it was reported that the NBA had already cancelled a bevy of preseason games, due to a lockout that has been ongoing since the prior CBA expired on July 1.
I stopped and thought to myself, “Really, the NBA is in a lockout? The season is in jeopardy?” In stating this, I am not trying to be flippant. Okay, maybe I am trying to be flippant, but the premise is still the same.
Is anyone paying attention to the NBA lockout?
More importantly, does anyone really care?
In posing this question, I am being slightly facetious. I do recognize that somewhere in L.A. or Salt Lake City, or maybe even Oklahoma City, there is a fan that does not have an NFL team to root for and the NBA is their pride and joy.
Yet, am I the only one who has noticed the glaring inconsistencies with the level of coverage devoted to the NBA lockout in comparison to the NFL lockout of a mere 60 days ago?
When the NFL lockout was in its stages of uncertainty, people literally waited with bated breath to hear the news of the lockout ending—as if their life literally depended on it. Twitter accounts and Facebook alike were all synched in with the NFL and its players to get the groundbreaking news on the potential end of the world.
It was like 2012 a year early. Thank God crisis was averted.
Yet, I do not see the same clamoring over what Chris Broussard has to say on the issue. It is almost as if people either do not know, or do not care, that the NBA is going through a lockout. Unfortunately, for those who do care, this lockout is in dire straits—much more than the lockout endured by the fans of the NFL.
Why Don’t People Care?
For starters, haven’t we been here before…recently?
Can the public—more specifically the fans— really withstand another lockout of overpaid professional sports athletes while our country is on the brink of a recession and enveloped in economic uncertainty? Our educators in this country make less than $40k a year entry-level, and we are supposed to feel even a smidgen of anything other than animosity for a league that lets 18-year-old boys earn $5 million a year straight out of high school?
Oh wait, I forgot. You have to “attend” class at a university for a year and then you can go to the NBA and make $5 million a year.
I’m glad I got that straightened out.
Unfortunately, there are people in our country with Master’s Degrees that cannot find work. Could that be a mitigating factor as to why the fanfare is nowhere in the proximity as it was to the NFL’s version?
Before I am chastised for my soapbox rant about the real polemic in this country, and castigated for being anti-sports, it is worth noting that I mention these issues solely as a means of leading into the real argument for why no one cares about the lockout.
But First, A Nostalgic Moment
Truth be told, I really do love basketball. As a kid my father and I used to go to McNichols Sports Arena (well before the Pepsi Center was created) and watch our Denver Nuggets play. I grew up watching the likes of Alex English and Dan Issel, along with icons in Nuggets lore such as Fat Lever, Bill Hanzlik, and Mike Evans.
In attending these games with my dad, I also got to see Magic’s L.A. Showtime, the tenacity and determined will of Larry Bird, the flawless execution of Jordan, and the smooth play of players like Dominique Wilkins and Isiah Thomas.
I very much enjoyed those times with my dad. It is funny how when you are a little kid, you never think about the moment. How rare and special it is. As life happens, you have your own kids and hope that they look at you the same way you looked at your father. If that is indeed the case, I am going to appear to be a pretty awesome father!
Nostalgia aside, it is undeniable that the NBA was a different sport back then. The thought of an 18-year-old kid—save maybe Moses Malone or Chocolate Thunder and later Shawn Kemp—entering into the NBA as a first round lottery pick would have been outlandish.
It almost appears as though it was a privilege to play the game and get paid back then. Now, it is all business, and it somehow became a right for these kids to play in the NBA.
I am not quite sure where this transition happened. But I believe if one begins to look at when the NBA began allowing kids to come straight from high school you can find a solid correlation.
All I know is I miss the old NBA. The league where superstars really were superstars. Not because they said they were going to win “three, four, five championships…”, but because they actually went out and let their play speak for them—without excuses. When it did not happen, instead of blaming others, or dumping your team—a la Carmelo and Lebron—they owned up to it like men and tried again the next season.
This concept is impossible in today’s NBA. This is why my feelings toward it have changed, and why others may have too.
Basketball Today is a Joke
There I said it.
As much as it pains me to say this, the current version of the NBA is a glorified pick-up game. Very rarely are any plays called—on either end—and it all is predicated upon one-on-one clear-outs and fast breaks. I saw more teamwork the 105th time I watched White Men Can’t Jump then I do when I watch a pro-basketball game.
I will acquiesce in one manner and say there are a few teams like the Celtics and last season’s champion in Dallas who did attempt to incorporate some type of team play. I know there are others, but those two come to mind. However, anyone who watched Chicago in last year’s playoffs knows that I am not far off in my assertion. For Knicks fans, their team struggled because they couldn’t figure out how to play as a team.
Seems more logical that they could not figure out who needed more dap, touches, and points.
The current version of the NBA is not your daddy’s basketball anymore. It may not even be your basketball anymore.
It is instead a league of prima donna’s who are insolent, petulant, and highly overpaid.
Don’t believe me?
Well then, let’s take a look.
Money Shown…Money Paid
According to Bill Simmons, there are currently 22 players who are scheduled to make more than $15 million this season. Moreover, most of these players are to be expected. Kobe Bryant, Lebron James, Dwight Howard, Tim Duncan, Chris Paul, D-Wade, and Dirk are all scheduled to break $15 million—some well over $20 million.
One could concede to the fact that the better players—the best players—should be paid top dollar for their talents.
But here is the caveat.
Rashard Lewis ($19.7 million), Gilbert Arenas ($18.5 million), and Joe Johnson ($20.5 million) are on that list too. I am starting to see a problem here. Much in the same way one should see a problem with Elton Brand making $17.1 million this year.
Or maybe it is Emeka Okafor’s 6-year, $72 million contract, Hedo Turkoglu’s 4-year, $44 million deal, or possibly even the 5-year, $50 million signing of Ben Gordon.
Nope. Upon further examination, it has to be the egregious nature of the $28 million over 4 years deal given to Travis Outlaw and the $13.2 million that Golden State will be paying David Lee over the next 6 years.
And who can forget the bane of Knicks fans everywhere—Eddy Curry?
Maybe this is why the lockout—that no one really cares about—has the league at a standstill.
At the Risk of being Hypocritical
It is acknowledged that the stringent rhetoric to which I am describing today’s NBA could easily be applied to any professional sport.
Everyone is just trying to get paid—which is noble.
Nevertheless, the NBA is not as popular as it once was; and Bird and Magic aren’t walking through that door.
One could argue that out of the top four sports, the NBA is third. Lebron James did everything he could to improve ratings and gain followers when he made himself out to be the villain. Likewise, Dirk did everything he could when he slayed said villain.
The NBA is coming off their best year in, well, years. It is suicide to risk going into the fall without a season. The NFL could hold the public hostage because it is the NFL. More people are probably playing fantasy football right now then the NBA will bring in attendance wise this year (clearly not true realistically, but used for hyperbole and effect).
The lockout could end tomorrow—but would anyone notice?
There are talks they may play only half a season and start it in January or February. Sadly, by then, it will be too late.
We will already start examining the potential March Madness brackets.
Daniel writes for TheFanManifesto. He can be followed on twitter @bogie711. The entire FanMan team can be followed on twitter at @TheFanManifesto.
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Sports agent Falk says entire NBA season is in jeopardy
David Falk, who was Michael Jordan’s agent, says the NBA could lose an entire season if any games are canceled.
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NBA Season in Jeopardy as Both Sides Walk Away from Negotiations
The NBA has a great marketing department.
They probably do a better job promoting their star players than any other professional sports league. Of course, part of that is the nature of the sport. Basketball only has five players, and every player is involved on every play.
The fans are much closer to the players during the game than you are at a baseball game. We get to see the players, tattoos and all, unlike in football, where they can’t take their helmet off without being penalized. The NBA even has a great slogan to promote it’s game.
The NBA: Where Amazing Happens.
Well, brace yourself, basketball fans, because we aren’t going to see “amazing” for quite some time. In the latest round of labor negotiations, the players and owners both walked away from the table dejected.
The owners want a bigger split of the revenue (the players currently get 57 percent), and more importantly, they want a “hard cap.” The players want to keep the majority of league revenue (they are proposing a number close to 53 percent), but won’t negotiate unless the current “soft cap” system stays in place.
The players are going to lose this negotiation. Everybody knows that. It’s “billionaires vs. millionaires” as everybody likes to say. If this were a game of chicken, imagine the players riding at the owners in a Ford Taurus. The owners are riding in a Sherman Tank.
The players don’t stand a chance.
Sure, the owners should concede on a few of the smaller issues. They should try to treat the players as fairly as they can. But let’s be honest here, the owners are losing money! What kind of business can keep operating if it’s losing money? Teams like Memphis, Indiana and New Orleans would be better off if there was no NBA season because then at least they would break even!
When your best case scenario as an owner is “shut the season down, so I don’t lose money,” then your business model is screwed! Why can’t the players see that? Don’t they see that the system needs a serious overhaul?
Think about it, guys like Eddie Curry and Stephon Marbury can sign huge contracts that are fully guaranteed, then just stop playing hard, but they still get paid every penny. How is that fair to a guy like Serge Ibaka, a promising young player who is outperforming his contract?
Shouldn’t the system be set up to reward the guys that perform? Wouldn’t that make the game better?
If your favorite NBA team could shed a couple of “bad contracts” right now and replace those guys with players that could help your team, wouldn’t that make the game better? Why should the owners carry this “dead weight”?
That is what makes the NFL such a great league for the fans. If a guy like Albert Haynesworth or Terrell Owens tries to hijack your locker room, you can get rid of him without paying the full amount of the contract.
Of course, the players say that they shouldn’t be punished for the owner’s poor business decisions. Really? That is their comeback? Let me repeat their argument in plain English so we all understand them.
“Gilber Arenas signed this contract for a gazillion dollars. It’s not our fault you paid him that much when he was one of the top scorers in the league. It’s not our fault that you thought he might keep playing at a high level. You should have considered the fact he might get hurt, bring a gun in the locker room, and then revert into a role player. And you should fully expect to pay him like a top five player in the league if that worst case scenario ever comes true.”
What planet are you guys from? Can you tell me how in the world that makes sense? I wish these guys would stop and think for one second about the game. I wish they would remember how they felt when they were breaking into the league, trying to earn that first contract, and then trying to earn a regular spot in the rotation.
Instead, they are trying to protect players who are stealing money.
Commissioner David Stern gave this quote, courtesy of cnnsi.com, that sums it up perfectly:
“We know how to negotiate over dollars when the time comes, but they so conditioned any discussion on our acceptance of the status quo, which sees a team like the Lakers with well over $100 million in payroll and Sacramento at 45,” Stern said. “That’s not an acceptable alternative for us. That can’t be the outcome that we agree to.”
Does the NBA want to be like baseball, where the Yankees and Red Sox dominate the sport, with only a couple of teams taking turns challenging them every year? Or would they rather be like the NFL, where every team has a chance to compete in a given year? In the NBA, Minnesota is perennially awful. In the NFL, the Browns, Lions, and Rams have gone from terrible to young and exciting in about 18 months.
Why can’t the players see that?
So for now, all we can do basketball fans, is hope and pray that the players will get a clue. All we can do is hope that maybe a deal can be struck, and that the season will start on time. If that doesn’t happen, I have a new slogan the league can use. David Stern can borrow this from me, free of charge.
The NBA: Where Stupidity Happens.
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