#NerdsUnite: Play on playa! (Breaking down the world of sports so you don't have to!)
<editorsnote> Nerds, meet my buddy Derek - I met him when I was professor for a day at CSUF. Really rad dude, and he wants to come on board to help explain to us nerdy folk the wild world of sports. Smart dude, and knows his shizzy shiznat. I only have one more thing left to say ... HIT IT DEREK!!! </editorsnote>
#TalkNerdyToMeLover's @DerekJ_AllDay
Hey everyone, hope all of you had a great thanksgiving break and had time to tune in to all the legit football games. Always remember, it’s tradition to get trashed and embarrass yourself in front of your family. Just ask Ndamukong Suh!
As always if you have any questions about my post, tweet me @DerekJ_AllDay and I will respond to you as quickly as I can. I was very recently inspired because the NBA lockout was finally resolved! This means that I can start watching my Lakers again, rather than staring at depressed owners and players whining because they don’t already have enough money. Because of the recent news many of you might be hearing things about the lockout that are a bit difficult to understand. The reason a lockout begins is because of the CBA, or Collective Bargaining Agreement, which is required for all major leagues in America. It is an agreement between the Player’s Association and the Owner’s association on all the details of the league. Essentially, the CBA is a loophole to get around the laws of our country, because monopolies are illegal and by definition the NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL are all illegal.
There were many factors going into the lockout, the most of which was greed, but there was also business at hand. The two most important topics were splitting BRI (Basketball Related Income) between owners and players, and managing details of the salary cap (max payroll on a team). The part that is often forgotten in this situation is that the Owners backed out of the CBA contract before it was actually going to expire. Depending upon the terms of the CBA either the players or the owners are able to “back out” of their agreement after a certain amount of time before the actual contract expires, and that is precisely what the owners did. They had a choice to allow the season to go on without any interruption OR back out of the current CBA and cause the work stoppage/lockout. They chose the latter.
As a basketball fan, this genuinely has me very pissed off. These owners actually could have prevented the entire lockout, and we could have been watching our teams for weeks now! Instead, we have to wait until Christmas to see the first game of a shortened 66-game season. I’ll be honest here, I feel cheated. On one hand I am excited that the NBA is back in business, but on the other I really feel like taking a swing at the owners of the NBA.
The owners were losing money, granted, but instead of making their product more profitable, they essentially just took all the money they were losing directly from the players. The previous deal that recently ended guaranteed the players 57% of the BRI. The CBA contract that was agreed upon days ago only guarantees the players 51% of BRI. 6% is A LOT in the business world, especially when franchises in the NBA are worth something in the hundreds of millions. I couldn’t be more disappointed in the greed shown by the owners.
Don’t get me wrong I’m not worried about Lebron or Kobe not being able to pay off their backup mansion or anything. It’s about the ethics. In the end the players were almost forced to accept the deal, because they wanted to get back to playing basketball so badly, and they knew that was NOT going to happen without making the owners rich and taking money away from themselves.
IMHO, the players deserve all the respect in the world for this. What the players did was extremely noble, especially in a time of low economic wealth, professional athletes are often picked on and people ask why they make SO much money. Well they DON’T in this case. Here they are losing 6% of their total income that is received from BRI. All of them! They made a choice as a group to lose money for the sake of the game, and I am so stoked about that! These players deserve all of our respect and support, but those owners deserve to be “BOO-ed” out of their own arenas. Let’s not forget that this most recent agreement is for 10 years, but the owners/players have an option to “back out” after just 6 years. In just 6 years we could lose the season all over again! I can almost guarantee the owner’s greed will drive them to backing out in 6 years, and committing their sins all over again.
The question I pose to you all is do the owners or do the players deserve the blame for all of this, or was it just part of a business decision that had to be done? Are you pissed about the season being shortened and in the past potentially cancelled? Or are you willing to forgive and forget? Give me your thoughts @DerekJ_AllDay along with any other topics on your mind. Peace out!