The NBA has engaged in epic self-sabotage that is so pure, it defies any logical explanation. We, as frustrated die-hard, NBA basketball fans deserve better than this.
With the recent announcement on Tuesday (Oct. 4th) that the NBA will be forced to cancel the first two weeks of the NBA regular season if no deal is reached by Monday (Oct. 10th) – the fan reaction should be, well … let me keep this short and sweet.
Coming off a regular season with record breaking ratings, and NBA playoffs and finals ratings that were off the charts – the League, in it's infinite wisdom, decides that a bloody labor dispute is in order! And going about business in this manner is very reminiscent to the final scene of the movie Se7en – where Brad Pitt empties his clip into the villain after finding his wife's head in a box.
I'd like to say thank you to the NBA. Thank you for making us diehard basketball fans have to scour the internet to find feeds of European League broadcasts and rogue charity games. These other options feature a smattering of NBA players half-assing it on the basketball court. Thank you to the NBA for denying basketball fans in Denver the opportunity to drown out the highly annoying Kyle Orton vs. Tim Tebow insanity. Thank you to the NBA for raising your middle finger to everyone who cares about your product.
I'm sick and tired of the games, and I'm not talking about the ones on the court. The posturing by the owners and their figurehead, David Stern. The endless conversations about basketball related income, BRI is becoming a household name for me! I can't take this talk of insane scenarios that the owners come up with to "approximate" a hard salary cap. I'm sick of horrible owners, who signed players to ridiculous deals in the first place, asking for a free pass because they "didn't get as much return on investment as they thought". Give me a break! The Donald Sterlings, Robert Sarvers, and the Maloof Brothers of the NBA world cannot be allowed corporate welfare any more.
This whole mess is messed up! Add to that the most offensive part: they have done this to themselves.
Just. play some hoops! That's it. No more rumors of agent sabotage. No more smug arrogant press conferences from David Stern. No more pseudo "unity" speeches from the NBPA. Just cut a deal and play basketball. I understand this is important, but when you learn that both sides are mere percentage points apart – you begin to speculate just how much each party is taking the fans into consideration as they deliberate. It's insulting to both the fans AND the hard working people such as Tom Ziller, Sam Amick, Ken Berger, Howard Beck and others who have been camping out in New York for the last month waiting for crumbs of information from people determined to shoot themselves and their league in the foot with a bazooka.
Just get over the pettiness and get over the posturing. We as Nuggets fans SHOULD be talking about how we think Danilo Gallinari will develop. We should be talking about how Ty Lawson and Arron Afflalo can take their games to the next level. We should be talking about which Nuggets have been impressive in training camp and who the team signed and who they brought back in free agency. We should be talking about the excitement of new draft picks Kenneth Faried and Jordan Hamilton. THAT is what I want to talk about.
You can take your BRI and shove it. Just sign the damn CBA and play hoops! Reports indicate that the players will settle for 52% of the BRI. DONE! Do it before the people who REALLY care about NBA basketball find other things to do with their time.
Twitter: @jmorton78 https://twitter.com/#!/jmorton78
