Brace yourself for no NBA
This should come as no surprise to even the average sports fan, but let me repeat it: we really may not have a 2011-12 NBA season. At all.
It’s an unfortunate possibility, but there’s nothing we, the fans, can do about it.
The NBA Players Association and the NBA Owners met for extensive labor talks on Tuesday in what was easily the most crucial meeting of the lockout thus far. Coming into Tuesday’s negotiations, both sides knew that they had to cover serious ground in a short period of time if they want the NBA season to start on the scheduled date of Nov. 1.
Unfortunately, the two sides couldn’t find any middle ground and made little progress towards a new Collective Bargaining Agreement. After the meeting, NBA Commissioner promptly cancelled the last two weeks of pre-season action, and it is expected that the first two weeks of the NBA’s regular season will be cancelled next.
You see, the issue that the NBAPA and the NBA owners cannot not agree on is a rather common one: money.
Each year, the NBA makes a certain amount of profit known as Basketball Related Income (BRI). In the previous CBA that was agreed upon in 2005 and expired this year, the NBAPA was awarded 57 percent of the “BRI pie”. The owners took the remaining 43%.
Now, due to 22 of the 30 NBA franchise claiming financial losses last season, the NBA owners are playing the greed card and demanding, not asking for, more money.
On Tuesday, the owners offered the players to receive only 47 percent of the BRI pie, a miniscule increase over their previous offer of 46 percent.
The NBAPA has been fixated on receiving 53 percent of the BRI pie, not the 47 percent offered by the owners in their most recent proposal.
Little progress was made Tuesday, and there are no future negotiation meetings schedule as of now. Both sides have said that they are basically waiting on the other side to pick up the phone and try and make something happen, meaning that NBA labor talks are currently stalled.
Now, the chances of the NBA season starting on time are rather low and decreasing by the minute. The chances of an NBA season even happening at all aren’t much better.
In short, prepare yourself for the realistic possibility of no NBA this winter. There’s still a chance for the season to happen (and possibly even start on time), but don’t get your hopes up.
Follow @ZachMentz or email him at zmentz14@jcu.edu
Great post! I hope there is a season, it would be a shame to have no season after (arguably) the best season ever.
-Sam
http://sambrief.com