Why NBA Fans Should be Concerned

For a lot of NFL fans the recent lock-out seemed brutal and as if it would never come to an end. Indeed, the two sides seemed so far apart that it did look as if football would in fact be delayed or that there would be a lose in games. Luckily, the two parties kissed and made up, with things basically back to how they were, the only players really effected were rookies, no more crazy and outrageous contracts for players coming out of college, they now have to prove themselves for 5 years before they can start making the money rookies used to make, which personally I think was a great move, teams with the 1st pick overall won't have to shell out the money they once had to get their players all but guaranteeing the players will have to play for the team that drafted them.

As rough as the NFL lock-out may have seemed, it's nothing compared to the vast differences between players and owners in the NBA, and will no doubt make the NFL lock-out look like a minor dispute by comparison.

There are a lot of variables David Stern and the NBA owners have to worry about that Roger Goodell and the NFL owners never did, the biggest cause for concern of course is that while football and the NFL is by far the biggest sport in the US, and I guess basketball and baseball would be tied for second, those two sports popularity are dwarfed when compared to the NFL, but as massive as the NFL is in the States, once you leave the confines of the US American Football is regarded as little more than a joke, on the world stage people just don't care about American Football. This gave players a lack of options, it was basically agree to these terms or you won't have a job. The NFL players got very little out of this lock-out, other than the fact that they still have jobs.

On the opposite end of the spectrum other than soccer of course, which is easily the worlds biggest sport, basketball is Huge on the world stage, it's definitely the number 2 sport in the world, giving the NBA players a huge advantage over NFL players. Lebron took his talents to South Beach last year, this year he could end up taking his talents half way around the world to Turkey, that scenario sounds hard to believe but is very possible. Already one of the leagues best point guards Deron Williams of the Nets has said if there is no season next year he will definitely play abroad. Nike offered Kobe Bryant something almost in the Billions if he would take his talents to China next season, were both the Nike brand is huge as is Kobe himself. The crazy thing is most of these players would make considerably more money by going overseas than they ever will under the new terms projected by David Stern and the owners. So at this point the question has changed from will there be an NBA season next year to why wouldn't they play overseas if that's where the money is? In the case of Deron Williams he's said it's not about the money, him playing overseas is more about not losing a year of his career (which he is in his prime) to a lock-out. Many other players have expressed similar sentiments, they don't care about the money, they just want to play, but in the case of Kobe who has been offered a fortune to play overseas, he's said the money isn't the issue, his career is starting to wind down, he has maybe one or two more years where he will look like the Kobe Bryant we all know, inevitably father time will catch up to him and he won't be able to do those amazing things he always has, between the playoffs and regular season this guy has a lot of miles on him. So with that in mind why wouldn't he play overseas, better to still play in your prime than to get a year older, and Kobe expressed similar feelings to what a lot of players have said, that the best basketball is in the United States and it's in the NBA, to compete against any other competition would almost be unfair, kind of like Kevin Durant scoring 66 points recently at Rucker Park in New York. Rucker Park is probably the toughest playground court in the country and Durant scored 66 on the guys there without hardly breaking a sweat. Even though the global game has improved, that's kind of the way I imagine games looking with NBA players playing overseas.

Someone could make the case that David Stern did this to himself, it was and always has been his intent to make the NBA a global phenomenon, and Stern is chiefly among the reason the NBA and it's players are so popular the world over. Stern wisely used the popularity of Michael Jordan and his name in the States to help build the NBA brand throughout the world, that combined with the popularity of Chinese Yao Ming would turn the NBA into a global force. This decision was very good for the league but as it turns out, could turn out to be a big part of the labor dispute.

What exactly is this current strike about anyway? The easiest way to put it, is Stern is trying to prevent a Super Team like we saw last year with the Miami Heat, by putting a strict salary cap on what teams can spend. This also means that many current players would have to take minor to sever pay cuts. A lot of casual fans have argued that "these players make enough money already" the thing people have to realize is these players were given contracts, they were told they would make 'X' amount of dollars and that's what they should get paid. It would be like an employer telling me he was going to pay me $50,000 a year and then halfway through the year asking if would I mind doing the same work for $5,000 a year, that's not right, and that's what Derek Fisher and the rest of the Player's Union are fighting against.

While the NFL lock-out was the equivalent of watching two 4-year olds slap-box, the NBA lock-out is a bare-knuckle heavy weight fight. Thankfully we will have football this coming season, and on time. I would be pleasantly surprised if we had any kind of season next year, half a season or even a quarter of a season would come as a surprise to me, the NBA Season starting on time...that just ain't gonna happen, I would love to be proven wrong.