So to the surprise of no one, NBA owners and players failed to reach a deal yesterday, meaning the lockout will continue and at least the first two weeks of the season will be cancelled.
“We had certainly hoped it would never come to this,” said Commissioner David Stern.
Really? Maybe you hoped it wouldn’t, but you pretty much guaranteed it would. As Billy Hunter, executive director of the players’ union, put it, this was “preordained.” “We probably need to miss a few games for them to be convinced there is resolve among the players,” Hunter added.
I’m not a collective bargaining expert, but I can offer the following highly technical summary of negotiations thus far: The owners and the players are still really far apart. Players and owners are talking a lot, in very serious voices, about hard cap v soft cap, revenue sharing, Larry Bird exceptions, luxury taxes, other stuff about money, more money stuff, players want money, owners prefer to keep money, etc etc oh my god make it stop.
This lockout has been going on for over 100 days. And yet? No one seems to care. Football is exciting and going gangbusters (Lions 5-0? Say what?) Hockey has started back up (did I ever imagine I’d one day consider hockey a more exciting and marketable sport in the US than basketball? No I did not, and yet here we are.) And we always have college basketball, where people actually play defense and seem to care about being on a team instead of just showing off their individual skills.
So maybe I’m biased, because *I* certainly don’t care, but from where I sit? Take all the time you need, NBA dudes. No one really seems to miss you anyway.