NBA Lockout puts season in danger

Mike Patterson

The NBA lockout is taking place right now. A lockout is when the team owners and Player’s Association cannot make an agreement on how much the players and organizations will each get paid. The basketball related income is very important; a team makes money from tickets, souvenir sales, and concession, etc. and must share this income with its players. The owners want more money, but so do the players. The agreement last year was 57% of the basketball related income for the players and 43% for the owners. Now that the owners and players cannot come to an agreement no one gets paid, therefore the players will not play.

hoopspeak.com

The NBA is currently under a lockout that began on July 1, 2011 and has resulted in the cancellation of regular season games. The previous collective bargaining agreement, negotiated in 2005, expired after June 30. The players and owners attempted to negotiate a new deal prior to the expiration of the old one, and have held a series of meetings during the lockout, but they remain far apart on two key issues. The main issues are the salary cap structure and the split of basketball-related income. This is the third major work stoppage in NBA history, and the second one that has resulted in the cancellation of regular-season games

brotherlylovesports.com

NBA commissioner David Stern had already cancelled the first two weeks of the 2011-2012 season. The season was initially supposed to begin on November 1st, but all games through November 14th have been cancelled, costing the players a total of $170 million in player salary. Stern also stated that all games up to Christmas may be in jeopardy, possibly the entire season.


Three days and 30 hours of talking ended October 20th on a bad note. After much negotiation before a federal mediator, the players and owners still remain split on two main issues: the division of team revenues and the salary cap system. "We've spent the last few days making our best effort to try and find a resolution here. Not one that was necessarily a win-win. It wouldn't be a win for us. It wouldn't be a win for them. But one that we felt like would get our game back ... and get our guys back on the court, get our vendors back to work, get the arenas open, get these communities revitalized," said Derrick Fisher, Lakers guard.

As these negotiations move further into the season, more games are at risk of being cancelled. Now the players are not getting paid, and the unrestricted free agents are being negatively affected the most. More NBA players are going overseas to play basketball in European leagues. Hopefully the players and owners can come to an agreement and get the season back on track