The current NBA lockout is putting the 2011-2012 NBA regular season on hold until negotiations between owners and players are agreed upon.
For the second time in only 13 years, the NBA will experience a shortened season. On Oct. 10, the NBA owners and players union met for more than seven hours to try to come to terms on reaching a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA), but in the end they were unable to make an agreement. This forced David Stern to cancel the first two weeks of the regular season.
The Players’ Union consists of Los Angeles Lakers guard Derek Fisher as the president, Milwaukee Bucks guard Keyon Dooling as the first vice president, Miami Heat sharp shooter James Jones as the secretary-treasurer and a list of five other vice presidents which include New Orleans Hornets all – star point guard Chris Paul.
For those of you who don’t know or just aren’t aware, the NBA Players Union represents all NBA players in many ways, such as, negotiating the terms of a collective bargaining agreement with the NBA, which governs all aspects of players’ employment. The Players Union also ensures that the NBA and its teams meet their obligations under the collective bargaining agreement.
Therefore, as a whole, the NBA Players Union protects all NBA players and makes sure they are being treated equally and fairly and receiving the appropriate treatment from their managers and owners around the league. That treatment mainly consists of the players making sure that they are being paid enough money throughout the season. As of right now, the players union doesn’t agree with the current CBA, which in turn results in the NBA’s version of a “player lockout.”
As of right now, the rest of the 82 game season doesn’t look too hopeful for NBA players, owners and fans. Stern told the New York Times that he and the players union remain very, very far apart on virtually all issues. He expressed sadness about how this situation has escalated in the months that have passed. Fisher and the rest of the Players’ Union have expressed to the media on so many occasions that they believe they simply just have not met a fair deal with the NBA yet, and until they do, the players will hold their ground and remain in the lockout.
With the players and owners yet to come to an agreement with a deadline in sight, it is very unlikely that the 2011-2012 season will exist. Stern expressed that he is “doubtful” about having all 82 games this season.
It is very hard for me to sit back and watch this all play out like it is. I am a huge NBA fan and basketball fan in general and it is very frustrating to think that the NBA may not have a season this year. To be completely honest, I will be very, very disappointed if the NBA cancels or reduces any more games this season. The last time this sort of the thing happened was in the 1998-1999 season when the NBA lost some games due to a work stoppage. It reduced the regular season to 50 games instead of 82. I was only about 7 at that time so it’s hard for me to quite remember the effect it had on young basketball fans. On the other hand, I am old enough to realize this go-round that the current lockout is affecting basketball fans across the United States, just like me.
The more and more research I do about this topic, the more and more I wonder if the NBA players are right about their decision to have a lockout or if they are just being plain stubborn and greedy about the issue. How much more money do they want? How much more money could they possibly need? Are they being selfish?
I’m not them, so I will never know how it feels to be in the situation that they are in. But my thinking is this: if these NBA players love the game as much as they say they do, how is a tiny paycut going to affect a player whose check is already over eight digits? Maybe I’m the one being selfish by thinking like this, but all I want is to see the best players in the world go at it and compete for a whole season, is that really too much to ask?
