2011-12 NBA Season Cancelled???
It was announced earlier this week by commissioner David Stern that if the labor talks did not make any progress this weekend he would be cancelling the upcoming NBA season. I am going to say what I said in my NFL rants this summer. I think it’s ridiculious that while the average American struggles to stay afloat, these guys are arguing about a couple of million dollars. I honestly think American athletes need to be brought back down to the average American’s level.
Some of the major issues they are fighting about are revenue sharing, limited guaranteed money, and a hard salary cap. Notice it’s all money issues and nothing else. At least the NFL had some legitimate arguments with in regards to players safety and health. I don’t what athlete in their right mind should ever think they are bigger then their sport, bigger then their team, and should make more money then the owners. The owners write their checks but in the end it’s fans that give the owners the money to write those checks. The NFL was smart and realized they would probably never be the same and would suffer even more financially in the long run.
However unlike the NFL, the NBA stars have opportunities to play elsewhere. Many have already signed with overseas teams. Here are just some names that have signed already:
Leandro Barbosa
DeJuan Blair
Danilo Gallinari
Nenad Krstic
Ty Lawson
Mehmet Okur
Brian Scalabrine
Kyle Singler
J.R. Smith
Deron Williams
Now none of these guys with the exception of Deron Williams is a major star but they are major contributors to their teams. However the biggest star in the NBA, Kobe Bryant is in serious negotiations with a team from Italy. In my opinion if he goes, a lot of other major stars will start signing overseas deal then. I think they are waiting on Kobe because if he does it, then it’s okay for the rest of them to do it.
If there is no NBA season this year rest assure of two things. One, the NBA will probably never be the same and will be looked down upon for a long time. The second thing that will happen is a lot of people are going to be watching hockey and that will probably take over the NBA in popularity because Hockey is tougher, more physical and rarely do you ever hear them complain about money. If this lockout remains, it will be the second time in twelve years that there wouldn’t be a full NBA season. Baseball had it’s troubles, football had its troubles and hockey had theirs but they all overcame them. I don’t think the NBA can overcome theirs.
Someone once said to me, “Do away with the entire NBA all together. They are a bunch of crybabies and drama queens.” Maybe the person that said this to me is right. What would it be like if the NBA no longer existed? That’s something to think about. In time, maybe it will happen.
