It's The End of the League As We Know It
by Jeff Clark on Nov 8, 2011 9:49 PM EST
in NBA Articles
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Print"This is the end, my only friend, the end." - The Doors
Is tomorrow the end of the lockout? Or the beginning of the end of the season? Or the end of hope for reason and sanity? Or perhaps another dead end. All I know is I'm at my wits end.
Standoffs, media stakeouts, marathon bargaining sessions, cancelled games, mediators, lawyers, unions, agents, revenue sharing, BRI, system issues, posturing, propaganda, grandstanding, fake deadlines, bluffs, bluster, ultimatums, calling bluffs, decertification, accusations, bad slavery analogies, ...on and on it goes, and where it stops, nobody cares. Well, the fans care, but who really cares about them?
In a deranged sort of way, you almost have to admire some of the parties on both sides. You can see the chess moves and the delicate way each side is playing the public relations game. Stern sets artificial deadlines so that the players will push their reps to let them play. Hunter stares down the threat and lets his players rattle sabers on decertification. It is a high stakes game of chicken.
But the one's caught in the middle are the fans (not to mention the stadium workers and other people relying on the NBA for gainful employment). We've already gotten run over by both sides and we're waiting in the middle hoping that one or both sides will swerve at the last minute rather than crush us between them. Both sides will give lip service to knowing how important this is to fans but actions speak with megaphones and I'm going deaf in both ears watching this unfold.
Both sides will have some kissing up to do when this is all said and done. Not with each other, but with us. Here we diehards stand, just waiting to come back to the sport with our wallets out, knowing that these green-eyed-monsters have been fighting over our basketball-allocated-incomes. We know that they know that they've got us and it makes us feel used.
And then there are the casual fans that have long since moved on to baseball, football, and soon college basketball. Will there be games in April and May and into June to lure them back? Will this all be a distant memory by then, only relevant for the odd schedules and odder playoff seeds?
Or will this truly be the winter of our discontent? 10 months of court battles, delays, posturing, charity games, failed spinoff league attempts, and then back to the negotiating table to do it all over?
Make it stop. For the love of Red and all that is Green, make it end!
Thanks, I feel a little better now. Breathe in, breathe out. Repeat. Find your happy place.
At the end of it all, it really does have to be all put into perspective. Sure, this is our hobby, err, obsession, but it isn't the end of the world. Whatever doors close on us, we will always have windows open elsewhere. It's still just a silly game. We have jobs to do, lives to live, loved ones to love.
I hope against all hope that we'll have basketball back soon. But if not, we'll move on with the rest of our lives and leave the players and owners to pick up the pieces of their own mess.
"And in the end the love you take is equal to the love you make." - The Beatles
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- Dirk van Boxtel, the wandering Celtic fan.
Twitter: @4Hoopz
by Kiorrik on Nov 8, 2011 9:57 PM EST reply actions 3 recs
very nice
those work too
man, I could have done a whole Beatles post on this
oh well, maybe next time
Faith and Sports - an essay by Jeff Clark
I'm sure you'll get another shot at this.
… sigh.
- Dirk van Boxtel, the wandering Celtic fan.
Twitter: @4Hoopz
That's fitting for NBA talk
(“Paul is dead” rumor )is no different than any other NBA rumor sometimes.
My site celticstitletown.com
I think we've got time for one more question
And in the end the love you take is equal to the love you make
Is…that true?
http://www.myvideo.de/watch/3412362/Chris_Farley_Interview_Paul_Mc_Cartney_SNL
www.welcometoloudcity.com
the whole lockout thing is just sad at this point
depressing almost ,if players decertify season over if they dont maybe we’ll get a 50 season but i just want basketball back
Child Support payments must be paid or else....
Just wait another few days.
It will be the “baby mamas” who will finally end this lockout!
In the meantime enjoy the simple things.............like Pooh
""When you wake up in the morning, Pooh," said Piglet at last, “what’s the first thing you say to yourself?”
“What’s for breakfast?” said Pooh. “What do you say, Piglet?”
“I say, I wonder what’s going to happen exciting today?” said Piglet.
Pooh nodded thoughtfully.
“It’s the same thing,” he said."
Is it Soup Yet?
Why can't they all just "Let it Be"?
I mean, “I’m So Tired” of this crap, with both sides acting like “Piggies.” I mean seriously, sometimes it seems like these negotiations are nothing more than “The Long and WInding Road” to nowhere. But, as Jeff notes, we have to keep this all in perspective, and tomorrow will just be another “Day in the Life.”
And in the end
The love you take
Is equal to the love You make
He’s a real nowhere Man, Sitting in his Nowhere Land, Making all his nowhere plans For Nobody
Get Back Get Back Get Back to where you once belong
We were talking – about the space between us all. And the people – who hide themselves behind a wall of illusion. -
Tomorrow Never Knows
by bbeingphilled on Nov 9, 2011 5:26 AM EST via mobile up reply actions
Can someone please explain.....
Why the players are forcing their postion in this mess, say for example there is no deal and Stern and the owners are true to their word that they will reset the split to 53-47. Then the union and its players de-certify and all hell breaks lose and the season lost in oblivion and all…..
Whatt bothers me is so then what happens, they would obviously go to the courts, but then what if the Players still lose and won’t get a single penny as compensation…and so they would begin talks again but the Owners would still insist on the 53-47 and we are all back to square one….What then???? Will this permanantly kill the NBA as we know it?, There ain’t no Lockout anymore since there isn’t any Union…so what on earth happens…JUST Curious as to what REALLY IS THE WORST CASE SCENARIO???
"No I’m not KG. Not at all, but I’m Big Baby Glen Davis from LSU, Baton Rouge, Louisiana. I’m not the Big Ticket. I’m the Ticket Stub. Don’t count the Ticket Stub out. You might need the ticket to get in the game, but you leave with the ticket stub, because you’ll never forget this game."
Love and Mercy
Please-for the good of the game
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIaVXikLjxU&feature=youtube_gdata_player
by bbeingphilled on Nov 9, 2011 5:39 AM EST via mobile reply actions
We need someone that has some Heart to produce some Good Vibrations
by bbeingphilled on Nov 9, 2011 5:48 AM EST via mobile reply actions
didn't the nbpa file a complaint somewhere because of negotiating in bad faith (or some equal random thing)?
not that we would have a season when that decision is finally announced, but what happened to that? 3 or 4 months should be enough to declare some kind of decision
The two legal fights:
The NBPA filed a charge with the National Labor Relations Board on May 24 (and another charge on August 2) arguing that the NBA is guilty of unfair labor practices in their dealings with the Union.
Next, the NBA filed a complaint in the federal district court which argued that the lockout was legal and that the players should always be considered a part of a professional union, regardless of whether they choose to decertify.
The two basic legal positions were:
1) Players – you owners are violating the tenets of good faith bargaining as defined by collective bargaining labor law;
2) Owners – you players have to deal with this lockout, because even if you “decertify,” you’re still acting like a union and that’s what matters
Since both fall under the jurisdiction of the notoriously slow federal government, both are still in process and nothing has been resolved legally. If you want to try and follow along:
NLRB case:
https://www.nlrb.gov/case/02-CB-061954
US District Court Southern District of NY
Civil Docket #: 1:11-cv-05369-PGG
www.welcometoloudcity.com
I can live without....
Herman Cain and Joe Paterno. But I would really like to have an NBA season and I think we will starting tonight.
Everyone loses, of course, in a cancelled season but the Players Association looks to me to be cornered on the BRI issue. Today, probably, the owners will give a little love via the salary cap issue and Billy Hunter/Derek Fisher will have some kind of face saving press conference and the standoff ends tonight. 50/50 BRI and a higher salary cap or lower luxury tax than the owners have on table now. My guess!
It’s wrong to say Billy Hunter played some good bargaining chips here. He was bad beginning to end. David Stern did well but, remember, he was up against Billy Hunter. Billy was too lazy to look into whether the owners were REALLY losing money. That was important to know and I don’t believe impossible to learn. So he went into this with “Union Strategy 101” when the owners were really dug in. He missed that the last CBA was built on owner’s confidence that they could make money in the end despite a bad 43/57 BRI. They didn’t, now the world’s economy is on its ass, particularly in Europe (the players’ bluff alternative employer), and decertification got the NFL players nothing. These are all pro-owner factors. Billy Hiunter was to NBA Players as Dr. Conrad Murray was to Michael Jackson.
So, you did well, keeping the topics going. Congrats for that. I think basketball will be back in a month and we can get down to why Doc doesn’t play rookies etc. .
How much money is Jeff Clark losing with this lockout? Are your advertisers still paying? Just curious
not really something I’m comfortable discussing but overall I’m fine, thanks
Faith and Sports - an essay by Jeff Clark
End of NBA as we know it.
If there is no movement and the players decertify the season is gone and the owner’s offer will be worse next fall. There will be two seasons of free agents and two draft classes and teams with very few signed players. How do you spell DISASTER ? Both teams & players will have lost financially and teams will be unrecognizable. Only Miami, Chicago, & Oklahoma City will have anything that resembles an NBA team and many who sat out this year will be jobless.
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