After no official agreement was met on Monday, the possibility of the entire 2011-12 NBA season being locked out grew even stronger. David Stern, NBA commissioner, officially cancelled the 1st 2 weeks of the NBA regular season.
The reason for the lockout is over the revenue sharing. The NBAPA is after a 57 percent share, but the owners only want to give up a 50 percent share. The players may be willing to go to a 53% revenue share. While this does not seem to be a huge difference, in the world of sports lockouts it can be huge. The NFL was in a lockout all summer, but came to an agreement. Just a few years ago, the NHL locked out a whole season, and looks like the same might happen in the NBA. The league last lost games to a work stoppage in the 1998-99 season, which was reduced to 50 games. The owners want to reduce the annual mid-level salary cap exception for free agents from $5.8 million to $3 million, and limit the maximum length of contracts. But while Stern claimed that owners have moved away from their stance of establishing a hard salary cap, Lakers guard Derek Fisher claimed that the league would create a system that provides a large enough luxury tax penalty to serve as a deterrent. “It’s still as close as you can get, if not a hard cap,” Fisher said.
While I am not a huge fan of the NBA, I do not want to see the season locked out. I would rather watch highlights of basketball games on Sportscenter and weekly games on TNT rather than analysts talking about luxury taxes and watching reruns of Law and Order. Hopefully something will be worked out soon.
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