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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Brandon Roy’s Injury leaves Career in Jeopardy
The Portland Trail Blazers must have had a few too many black cats cross in front of their team bus this year since they are now facing another potential career ending injury. This time it’s Brandon Roy, who has been hampered by knee and hamstring injuries the past two seasons.The news comes from a pretty reliable source in The Oregonian’s John Canzano, who spoke with a surgeon that says Roy has one or two years left in the league. Sure Roy’s numbers are definitely down since he’s played just 23 games, shot under 40%, and is averaging almost 5 fewer points this season (16.6 PPG), but isn’t this statement taking things a bit too far? Perhaps not when you take a closer look at the situation since Roy is already looking a bit less explosive this season.In regards to his talk with the surgeon, Canzano wrote, “The consulting surgeon whispers that he believes the best-case strategy for handling Roy is this: A) Limit Roy’s practice reps to almost…
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Allen Iverson Retirement: Lesion Growth to Be Removed, Career in Jeopardy
Allen Iverson Retirement: Lesion Growth to Be Removed, Career in Jeopardy
Allen Iverson will be making a trip back stateside for an operation in his right leg. He apparently has a lesion growth that has to be removed and tested to see if it is malignant or benign.
Iverson intends to have the procedure and rehabilitate for the next four to six weeks. He plans to return for the Turkish playoffs, but this may be the end of the line for him.
The injury is painful and very serious and it could very well end his career.
Iverson’s manager, Gary Moore said, “He’s a freak of nature the way he has played through everything, but this was the most pain he’s ever been in. Remember when he took that knee from Shaquille O’Neal, 160 pounds going up against 350? The pain in his leg is 10 times worse than that. This might be the biggest challenge he’s ever had.”
Related articles:
Allen Iverson Returns: A.I. Is Coming Back To the States, But Not for the NBA
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Allen Iverson: Where Does He Rank Among NBA’s Most Profilic Scorers Ever?
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Yao out for season with stress fracture, career in jeopardy
Houston Rockets center Yao Ming will miss the rest of the season because of a stress fracture in his left ankle.
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Yao Ming’s career in jeopardy after MRI reveals ankle fracture
Yao Ming has a stress fracture in his left ankle and the Houston Rockets said there is no timetable for the return of the towering Chinese center …
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Yao Ming’s career in jeopardy after MRI reveals ankle fracture
Yao Ming has a stress fracture in his left ankle and the Houston Rockets said there is no timetable for the return of the towering Chinese center …
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Virginia Tech Basketball: Frontcourt Depth Could Put Breakout Season in Jeopardy
Whatever coach Seth Greenberg did to anger the basketball gods, he needs to figure out how to atone for it before he loses his entire frontcourt.
Despite the fact many fans have been waiting for this season for two years now—anticipating it would be the year the Hokies burst onto the national stage—the success of this season could be in serious jeopardy, as a series of injuries has left the Hokies frontcourt as thin as the Dallas Cowboys’ Super Bowl hopes.
At the end of last season, the Hokies thought the frontcourt was one of their deepest positions. In addition to starters Jeff Allen, Terrell Bell and Victor Davila, Greenberg had JT Thompson, Cadarian Raines and University of Florida transfer Allan Chaney on the bench.
Unfortunately for the Hokies, many of those names will be unavailable when the season starts tonight against Campbell.
Thompson is out for the season after tearing his left ACL back in September. Raines is nursing a broken foot, and Chaney is out for at least this season because of an unknown heart problem that caused him to collapse during a practice in March.
With those guys out of the picture—especially Raines and Chaney—Davila is left as the only true big man on the roster and must make vast improvements from the 5.3 points and 4.2 rebounds he averaged last season.
“I’m just looking to help the team any way I can,” Davila said. “Whether it be rebounding the ball or scoring points—whatever they need me to do, I’m going to perform.”
Because the other two big men have been injured, Davila has been forced to practice against people much smaller than he is.
In the past weeks, he has been going up against Paul Debnam, who is only 6’3″.
With Davila unable to practice against players his size, it is possible he could struggle when defended by players of comparable size.
Another key to the Hokies’ success in the frontcourt will be whether Allen can stay on the court and out of foul trouble. Allen had 14 games last season where he was limited to 25 minutes of play or less because of foul trouble.
If he can consistently play 30 to 35 minutes a night, the Hokies’ lack of depth behind him will be less of an issue.
While Chaney and Thompson are definitely out for the season, Raines will recover and be available this season.
The biggest issue for Raines when he returns is his confidence with that foot.
“It might take me a whole year, maybe, like the whole season and into the summertime to be 100 percent confident in it,” Raines said.
The foot has been a fairly chronic issue since he initially hurt it in the preseason of last year. During his time at Tech, he has broken the foot at least twice, with the most recent injury possibly being a break that went undiagnosed.
Though there is no doubt the Hokies will be excited to have him back when he finally makes his debut, Greenberg is making sure he takes it slow in order to avoid further injury to the foot.
“We’re going to take a very cautious path. Let’s face it, he’s had a lot of trauma in that foot and there’s no sense in rushing him back,” Greenberg said. “He might be 100 percent healthy, it’s just the path we are taking.”
With the Hokies thin in the frontcourt, Greenberg will most likely elect to go with a smaller lineup and try to create a faster tempo.
However, when Tech plays teams such as Purdue, who have big men such as JaJuan Johnson—who averaged 15.5 points, 7.1 rebounds a game last season—defending the interior might become an issue.
Luckily for the Hokies, there isn’t a team in the ACC that has a feared low post scorer to worry about. The two biggest talents at forward in the conference are North Carolina State’s Tracy Smith and Florida State’s Chris Singleton, neither of which plays for a team as talented as Tech.
Every time you hear about a team having a “breakout season,” there is always a story of it overcoming adversity to be successful.
If the Hokies end up having that kind of season, it will be the injury-depleted frontcourt that is considered the adversity they overcame.
This article was featured in yesterday’s Collegiate Times—the Virginia Tech student-run newspaper. You can follow Nick Cafferky on Twitter @Caffscorner.
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John Wall’s Turnovers for Washington Wizards Putting ROY Chances In Jeopardy?
John Wall officially made his presence known after dropping 29 points, 13 assists and nine steals during the Washington Wizards‘ season home opener.
The 20-year-old became the youngest player in 25 years to collect at least 25 points, 10 assists and eight steals in the same game.
While credit is clearly due to the speedster who—according to ESPN’s SportsScience—can run faster while dribbling a basketball than Kevin Durant can run without a ball, turnovers have emerged as a point of concern.
In five games this season Wall has committed a total of 29 turnovers, averaging out to just under six turnovers per contest.
Amongst all starting PG’s who have averaged at least 30 MPG this season, Wall currently ranks second to worst in A/T ratio (Steve Nash being the worst thus far), dishing out just 1.65 assists per turnover.
Wall’s competition, Blake Griffin, has played nothing short of spectacular in seven games this year, posting 18.1 points per game and 11 boards on 50 percent shooting from the field.
Will turnovers put John Wall‘s chances of winning the Rookie of the Year award in jeopardy as the season drags on?
With Gilbert Arenas back in action, Wall should see a steady decline in overall numbers; assuming his turnovers decrease as well.
But how low can they possibly go?
During Wall’s one season at Kentucky, he managed to dish out 6.5 assists per contest while turning the ball over four times per game (his assist-to-turnover ratio was 1.62 for the year).
Wall’s advantageous speed enables him to blow by his opponents for quick finishes at the rim, but it seems like it could also be playing a factor in his turnover rate issue.
The season is still very young and Wall could certainly learn to fix his biggest weakness. His chances of winning the ROY award will go to the wire with Blake Griffin this year.
How do you feel about this topic?
For more of Brandon’s content be sure to check out NBAPrimetime.com and follow him on twitter @_nbaprimetime
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