Tuesday, October 11, 2011

NBA Cancels First Two Weeks Of The Season

(Getty Images)
The first two weeks of the regular season were cancelled after both sides failed to end the lockout.

As commissioner David Stern promised, if the lockout didn't end this Monday, he would cancel the first two weeks of the 2011-2012 regular season. The players and owners met Sunday and Monday for about 13 total hours. Although they did solve some problems to the lockout, not all of the arguments have been solved. The last time there was a lockout was the 1998-1999 season, which didn't start until February.

One of the biggest problems of this lockout is who should get more shares of the BRI, or basketball related income. In the past bargaining agreement, the players got 57% of the shares, but the owners want to cut that down to a 50/50 split. The players are willing to give in a little, but won't go below 53%.

Derek Fisher, who is the president of the National Basketball Players Assocation, tweeted @derekfisher "LET US PLAY #StandUnited" on Monday afternoon. Following Fisher's tweet came about 150 re-tweets from other players in the league including LeBron James, Kevin Durant, and Chris Paul.

Some other disputes that still need to be resolved are luxury tax and a salary cap system in order to prevent "super teams" like the Miami Heat.

No other meetings have been scheduled for the future, and the owners and players are not supposed to meet for the rest of this week.

Due to the current lockout, many NBA players, including some stars, have decided to play overseas. Deron Williams joined a Turkish club, the Gasol brothers are playing in Spain, Kenyon Martin and others are playing in China, and Kobe Bryant is close to signing a deal to play in Italy.

Other players like Kevin Durant, John Wall, and Carmelo Anthony are playing in Pro-Am leagues such as the Drew League based out of California, and the Goodman League based out of Washington D.C..

The good news is that if the lockout were to end soon, most of the players would be in good shape and ready to go. The bad news is that some players overseas would not be able to return back to the NBA because of the contracts they signed in their respective league's.

With the NBA locked out, television networks will have to find alternative ways to get viewers. College basketball, college football, and possible hockey all could be seeing more time on TV without any NBA games.

No comments:

Post a Comment