by Sal ManeenMonday night, NBA commissioner David Stern announced the cancellation of the first two weeks of the upcoming season, as his league and its players association could not come to terms on a new labor deal.
Obviously the fans are the big losers in all this. At the same time, the cancellation of games also means millions of dollars lost, as a group of millionaires couldn’t settle their financial differences.
Think about that for a moment …
There is a large contingent of people out there willing to take hard-earned dollars out of their pockets – even in a gloomy economy – and give it to other people (most of whom are already millionaires), just for the satisfaction of seeing a windmill dunk or buzzer-beating fadeaway.
Among the recipients of those dollars are players in a league in which the minimum wage is $473,604 (and that salary only increases depending on one’s years of service in the league).
But now, neither side will see any dollars. Two weeks of games are already dead and gone, and that number will grow larger the longer this lockout persists.
Now, look, I understand the NBA has some serious systemic flaws. There’s something wrong when a league has a professional team pining to leave their long time home in Sacramento, all because their casino baron owners are so deep in debt it literally is reality TV fodder. Thus they field a $29 million team which went 24-58 last year (buoyed mostly young draft picks Tyreke Evans and DeMarcus Cousins).
The NBA is also the same league in which the highest-paid individual is Kobe Bryant (arguably the game’s best and most recognizable player) … followed immediately by Rashard Lewis – he of the 11.8 points per game average (83rd in the league, just behind Carl Landry and ahead of Luke Ridnour), who ended last season coming off the bench.
Clearly, this operation needs to have its finances swatted into the twelfth row like a floater in Dwight Howard’s lane.
Still, there are millions of dollars out there which are now lost. Instead of players and owners each getting some of that pie, they now get none.
Remember when you were little, and you didn’t want to share your cookies with your brother and sister, so mom eventually takes ‘em away? Ask any 3-year-old – one cookie is always better than none.
Well here’s a grown-up version of that which only Gordon Gekko could love.
And the fans are the ones left crying over spilt milk. Except now they’re without their cookies, so they have nothing to dunk.
