NBA Lock Out not drawing many fans

First appeared on October 26th, 2011
in The Lebanon Reporter

Between Google and Yahoo News, Twitter, Facebook and MySpace (if that child predator’s playground still exists), BlinkxTV, Clusty and any of dozens of Smart Phone Apps that will instantaneously update you the second NATO tries to clean the next Muammar Gadaffi’s ear with a Q-Tip (and by Q-Tip here we mean SCUD missile) ours truly is the Information Age.

Simply put its 2011 and there are plenty of ways to get the news. No longer are we slaves to Walter Cronkrite and Tom Brokaw. On a quick side note let’s say “Job done” to Bryant Gumbel for dredging the issue of slavery up from the bowels of that insidious netherworld where horrifically controversial topics go to die. Now we can all feel free to tiptoe around its appropriate usage once more.

It’s also interesting to note that after Gumbel compared NBA Commissioner David Stern to a slavery-era plantation overseer, there was no national “Fire Bocephus Now!” movement. Perhaps it was his lack of camouflage Crimson Tide hat and truck stop shades that led people to believe Gumbel was making an educated statement.

The real point here is not to draw attention to a sports show 90% of the nation didn’t even realize was on the air, rather it’s that never before have we been better informed or connected as a human race. So how then is it possible for players in the NBA to appear so disconnected from reality? The current NBA Lockout marks the 2nd work stoppage in 13 years for “the Association”. And as each side elbows its way towards a bigger piece of a $4 billion dollar pie, many fruitless meetings have been held.

To this point however nobody is budging as the preseason and first two weeks of the regular season have already been flushed down LeBron James’ toilet (which we can only guess is constructed of Shang Period porcelain and equipped with a diamond studded flush handle).

SportsCenter isn’t leading off broadcasts with Chicken Little “Lockout” updates as they did during the recent NFL work stoppage. Just as Late Night talk show hosts have not been delivering any material constructed around basketball’s labor rift. In short, few seem to care that the 2011-12 NBA season is fighting for its life.

The public’s reaction to the player’s demands, owner’s threats and subsequent Lockout goes far beyond crickets chirping. It’s more like somebody paid the Orkin man to torch the cricket field with Napalm, or whatever the world of professional pest extermination equivalent of Napalm would be.

With $3 gas and national unemployment approaching 10%, now is not the time for millionaires to be bickering over a larger share of a $4 billion pie; especially when the players are already getting 57% of it. It’s selfish, indefensible and disgusting; and that’s why most of us don’t care.

While there may have been a time when the public would have rallied behind players and their effort to “stick it to the man”, or “take it from the man”, or “refuse to cow to the man” whichever applies here, clearly now is not that time.

Last season 22 of 30 NBA teams lost money. In 2010 the Pacers needed to coax $10 million from the CIB just to cover operating costs. These are but two of several indicators indicating the exact same thing. Of course we’re talking about the need for blowing the NBA’s current business plan up and starting over. If the players union doesn’t get it then let them all play in Europe; no doubt they’ll be amongst the few who can afford the $6 gas there.


© 2011 Eric Walker Williams