The Side Line

At the forefront of our economy’s problems are monetary issues from low class to high class.

Bloomberg Businessweek reported on Oct. 11 that the odds of America slipping into another contraction are 60 percent likely. Since the recession, I’ve seen professional sports as a huge factor in reducing our nation’s struggles by decreasing salaries and reworking travel plans. When NBA Commissioner David Sterns announced that the league would enter a lockout, I was excited that maybe Sterns and the player’s union director Billy Hunter would fix some problems. I wanted both sides to sit down with the fans in mind, since professional sports were created as spectator entertainment, and finalize a deal. We are over 100 days into the lockout and the league can’t decide what to do with $4.3 billion.

On day 106, Sterns told ESPN he did not think they would be playing on Christmas Day. The scheduled Christmas day triple-header has the Mavericks and Heat rematch, Celtics at Knicks and the Bulls in Los Angeles against Kobe. It’s not a good sign for the season when one of the biggest days in the sport is cancelled almost two months out.

Basketball needs to return to the 80s when stadiums weren’t named after massive companies, ticket prices were accessible to middle-class fans and a player jersey wasn’t $65.00. In 1985 the NBA Salary Cap has risen from $3.6 million to $58.044 million in 2011, two years after our nation entered the recession.

Unlike the NFL and NHL, the NBA has a soft cap feature where teams can exceed their salary cap. The idea is so that teams can keep their own players and thus build fan support. Fan support comes from rival games, playoff births and exciting players. The lockout hinders every chance of fan support, because we don’t have a season right now.

As we further plummet into the modern age depression, the multimillionaire players and owners can’t settle for less cash. Free agency will see Tim Duncan, Jamal Crawford, Tyson Chandler, Dwight Howard, Kevin Garnett, Deron Williams and Steve Nash hit the market. The 2008 draftees Derrick Rose, Russell Westbrook, Brook Lopez and Kevin Love can also enter as restricted free agents. Tell me why all these twenty-year-old recent rookies need more millions.

I am an advocate of playing for your worth and proving yourself. But the reoccurring theme in the NBA shows that players up for free agency boost their performance and desire for the game; except it’s not for the game. In their minds if their statistics increase than so will their next salary offer.

That right there is what’s wrong with the National Basketball Association and most pro sports. I want to come home from a busy day and be entertained by my favorite teams, and the best players in the world play basketball. Now watch them hop out of Mercedes in three-piece-suits to meet with mediators over money.

Posted by Taylor Lamb on Oct 20 2011. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.