Basketball fans may find themselves very disappointed when opening day comes this year. That’s because there likely will not be any basketball played. As we get deeper into autumn, we have already seen all games from the first two weeks of the season canceled, and unless the owners and players can come to a new collective bargaining agreement soon, there could be an even more shortened regular season or no season at all.
The owners and the players seem to still be far apart on many issues. For example, the owners and Commissioner David Stern want the players to only receive 50 percent of basketball related income, while the players will not settle for anything less than 53 percent of basketball related income.) Even federal mediator George Cohen, was not able to bring the two side closer. Another issue is the owner’s want to reduce player’s contract lengths and salaries. They want more of a competitive balance, so the smaller market teams are able to compete, and their owners will not continue to lose money.
This news is especially disappointing to New York basketball fans. The New York Knicks have just come off their first winning season in years. They made the playoffs, brought in big name stars like Amare Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony, and for the first time in a long time got New Yorkers interested in basketball again.
Mike, a sophomore student at SUNY College at Old Westbury and a diehard Knicks fan said, “Last season was the first season since I was in elementary school, that the Knicks were actually entertaining to watch.” And he was not the only Knicks fan who felt this way. For the first time since the days of Patrick Ewing, there were people wearing Knicks jerseys and t-shirts all over the place. Sports radio talk shows were flooded by calls from excited Knicks fans.
This season the Knicks had a chance to make a deep playoff run, and possibly win the championship for the first time since 1973. “Not being able to watch basketball, because rich owners and players are fighting over more money, makes me sick,” said Mike.
The lockout does not only affect Knicks fans, as the NBA as a whole is coming off one of its most successful and most watched seasons ever. Millions of fans tuned in to see Miami’s Big Three, or Derrick Rose and the Bulls, or other exciting teams like the Lakers and the Celtics.
While almost all fans are upset, some understand what the owners and players are dealing with. Mansoor Hassan, a freshman student at Suffolk Community College, and a big NBA fan say, “Although I’m not happy that there might not be basketball this year, I get where the players and owners are coming from. While we may not like it, the NBA is a business, and these guys are trying to be compensated in the best way possible.” This bargaining agreement is crucial to certain parties. For example a number of NBA teams have been losing money over the past few years, putting certain owners in a tough position. And while players desperately want to play basketball this season, giving in to the owner’s demands would mostly like mean reduced salaries and a lack of long term security in their contracts.
While the NBA owners and players may sympathize with the fans, neither side is willing to give in on their demands, and possibly be stuck with a collective bargaining agreement that they are unhappy with for a long period of time. So in all likelihood there will be more games missed, and there may possibly be no basketball until the fall of 2012. Most basketball fans find this extremely devastating, since the 2011-2012 NBA season looks like it had the makings of a special one.