You may (or may not) have noticed, but the NBA lockout continues unabated. I realize that the issues involved are complex and in some cases difficult to understand or explain, so I’m not even going to try. Let me just tell you what it looks like from my perspective. Call it “Billionaires vs. Millionaires” if it helps, but neither side is cutting a very sympathetic figure these days.
In one corner, you have the owners- greedy, venal, and possessed of a “masters of the plantation” mindset. They’ve decided they want- and deserve- a bigger slice of the pie, and they’ve successfully managed to negotiate the players into a corner. They run the plantation, and they’ll be damned if they’ll give in to the players. Without their money, they’ve convinced themselves, the NBA would not exist, and so they’re determined to be the ones setting the terms. Worst case, they know that they can outlast the NBA player’s union and field new teams next season stocked with replacement players. Fans probably won’t buy it, but the owners are just full of themselves and arrogant enough to think they can pull it off. And they just might.
In the other corner, you have the players- disorganized, ill-prepared, and bereft of anything resembling negotiating leverage. The union look at the owners’ “take it or leave it” offer, and decided to leave it. The players now think that by decertifying their union, they can file an antitrust suit against the owners…never mind the desperate, last-gasp, Hail Mary feel of this strategy. Given the glacial speed at which our judicial system processes such things, the chance of the 2011-12 NBA season being anything but a black hole just shrank to something close to zero.
I’m a basketball fan, but I’m no fan of seeing greed and avarice occupy the large print on the front page of the sports section. The longer the lockout continues, the less I find myself caring. Sure, I miss watching the Trailblazers…but with each passing day the more I find myself thinking that both sides can pucker up and kiss my backside.
A pox on both their houses….
