AJ Gilpin Final NBA Lockout

AJ Gilpin

Bryan Lutz

English 151

November 16, 2011

Lockout or Payout?

            Lockouts seem to be a large portion of recent news, whether it be the NFL, NBA or NHL.  The 2004-2005 NHL season was completely cancelled due to a lockout. The NFL had a lockout for the 2012 season but the owners and players resolved the issue and are having a successful season. This does not seem to be the case for the Nation Basketball Association though. They are currently in a lockout that has already cancelled the first two weeks of this season. So what is a “lockout” exactly? It is basically a dispute between owners and players over aspects of the NBA. One of the main focuses of their disputes is money. The NBA is currently fighting over money. The already extremely rich NBA owners are attempting to take even more money from the players. As it looks the lockout will continue till the players are willing to give up more money to the owners.  While more and more of the season gets cancelled both the players and the owners will continually lose money.  The players gain no money at all while the lockout continues. The owners who are still being greedy and asking for more money are still getting paid from television providers like TBS, Fox and TNT. I find it strange that while the owners are asking for more money they are still receiving hefty paychecks. This NBA lockout is a standoff between millionaires and billionaires.

This video by a group in Taiwan gives a breif summary of the NBA lockout so far.

            With the possibility of the entire season being cancelled many NBA stars are doing other jobs or playing overseas just to earn a paycheck. “Nets All-Star Deron Williams has a deal with Turkish club Besiktas -  which is also courting Kobe Bryant - and most top players said they would consider playing overseas,”

            Many star players a being forced to play overseas so that they can make a paycheck. With no end in sight more and more players will be playing overseas or getting regular jobs like us to stay afloat. The lockout is hardest on rookie players that just got drafted. They have not received a paycheck yet so there is no nest egg in which they can live off of during the lockout. Many rookie players like Kyrie Irving have decided to go back to college. Irving will be a sophomore at Duke and is being respected for furthering his education while the lockout is taking place.  Like I said before the lockout is just billionaires versus millionaires. At the end of the day the owners are going to get want they want because they have more power. They have more money and can risk losing an entire season because they are still making money off of television contracts. The players that cannot play overseas will soon fold into the owners. The owners will get what they want and will soon be even richer while the players’ salaries are harshly cut. The owners are trying to make a 50-50 split in the money going to players and owners. There are 30 teams so about 30 owners and around 450 players. It is outrageous that the owners are asking for a split of the money when there are 15 times the number of players than there are owners. The owners are going to continue to do a standoff and not agree to a deal until it is exactly what they want. The players will slowly begin to break down and offer more and more money to the owners until they agree. Hopefully this point happens before the entire season is cancelled. A cancellation is a huge threat this year and hopefully they will reach an agreement before that has to happen.

           Players want nothing more than to play basketball. It is not just a job to them it is a way of life and something they all enjoy doing. The players are willing to give up some money but cannot give up enough to where it will not be worth playing. As shown in the Jordan commercial the players are going to play no matter what the owners decide no matter where. The players love the game and will continue to play.

Many people think that the players are out of line because the last couple years NBA teams have shown record losses and have been losing more and more money every year. The players have been called selfish which is illustratred by this picture. Last season the NBA players were making 57% of the NBA's money and are willing to take a drop in order to account for the loss of money by the teams. People call them selfish even though they are willing to give up some of their money to the owners. I think the players need to hold their ground and make as much money as they can. Honestly why should the players take a 7% paycut? The players are not to blame for the loss of money so why should they be the ones to take the punishment? Many fans just decide to blame the players because they do not know the true facts and just wanna see an NBA season this year.

 You can blame the players or you can blame the owners but at the end of the day everyone suffers including the fans. The amount of people that lose money over this lockout is rediculous. The players, owners, and every person that lives in the cities where NBA teams are losing money. The fans are not being able to spend their money on seats and other things at the game which will not help the cities or our countries already low economies.  "The NBA projects that 22 teams lost a combined $450 million this year while eight franchises reported profits totaling $150 million, thus creating an aggregate loss of 300 million for the league." Think about it they lost that much in a year where basketball was played. The amout of money spent during that season by fans would definitely help the economy. While this lockout continues the economy is losing tons of money that would be going into the economy. This lockout is not only bad for fans it is bad for everyone in the nation.

Wether you call the players selfish or the owners selfish or you dont really have an opinion about this I'm sure that everyone who cares about basketball will agree that while this lockout is happening that the fans and the cities are being screwed because millionaires and billionaires cannot come to an agreement about what to do with the money that the NBA generates in the coming years. This statement is shown very greatly by the peanuts in about every movie.

Lets just all hope that we will soon see NBA played again... preferably by the Christmas games.

Works Cited

Freeman, Eric. "Video: Taiwanese News Animation Explains the NBA Lockout - Ball Don't Lie - NBA Blog - Yahoo! Sports." Yahoo! Sports - Sports News, Scores, Rumors, Fantasy Games, and More. 13 Oct. 2011. Web. 16 Nov. 2011. http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/blog/ball_dont_lie/post/Video-Taiwanese-news-animation-explains-the-NBA?urn=nba-wp9357.

Paul, Ari. "Class Struggle On The Court." Nation 293.7/8 (2011): 23-25. Academic Search Complete. Web. 16 Nov. 2011.

Thomsen, Ian. "Derek Fisher Wants The Ball." Sports Illustrated 115.3 (2011): 46-49. Academic Search Complete. Web. 16 Nov. 2011.

"FIBA Will Clear NBA Players to Play Overseas during Lockout | NBA.com." NBA.com. 29 July 2011. Web. 16 Nov. 2011. <http://www.nba.com/2011/news/07/29/FIBA-clearance/index.html>.