Day 104 - and counting

Just a quick (in the loosest sense of the word) post on the NBA and it's lockout.
    I think that both the players and the owners are to blame. The players are to blame for thinking it would sort itself out. They knew it was coming on July 1st, yet it took about 6 weeks after that date for the players to think "Hang on. We should probably do something about this lockout. I suppose we'll set up some meetings. But we'll just give it a week, in case it all blows over". How did that one work out for ya? Exactly. They should have taken a leaf out of the NFL's book; sure they took 130 days to sort it out, but they have a longer off-season, so they could afford to take longer.

NBA players only have 4 months (123 days) off from the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) expiring to the new season starting (not counting pre-season). NFL players were off from March to August. 5 months. The time between the CBA expiring and the new season starting was 181 days. 71% of their off-season was used to agree a new CBA. So far, NBA players have used 85% of their off-season to attempt to agree a new CBA. The other thing about the NFL was that they only lost 1 game, which was the Pro Football Hall of Fame game, which isn't important in terms of the actual season. The NBA so far has lost all of the pre-season games and the opening 2 weeks of the season. Sort it out, guys.

The players also recently made a stand on Twitter. It was arranged by NBPA (National Basketball Players Association) president Derek Fisher, who tweeted "LET US PLAY". A lot of other NBA players on Twitter, LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, Steve Nash and Pau Gasol, amongst others, soon followed with the same or a similar version of the tweet. They all used the hashtag #StandUnited.

Obviously the owners are also to blame. They refused to meet the players halfway during the initial meeting, and want ridiculous amounts of money to be cut from things like the Salary Cap. The owners were fully aware that they will gain money whether or not the NBA happens, so they can be excused for thinking it wasn't up to them to sort it out. But they really should attempt to do something about it and compromise slightly more than they have been.

Some of the players, who aren't involved with the NBPA and thus the meetings, have opted to play abroad. Many foreigners are playing in their native country, including Nicolas Batum (France), Leandro Barbosa (Brazil), Patrick Mills (Australia), Mehmet Okur (Turkey), Danilo Gallinari (Italy), Rudy Fernandez (Spain), Andrei Kirilenko (Russia), Tony Parker (France) and Yi Jianlian (China). Some other big names, mostly Americans, have also gone to play in other countries. These include Sonny Weems (Lithuania), Sasha Vujacic (Turkey), Deron Williams (Turkey), Ty Lawson (Lithuania), Alonzo Gee (Poland), Wilson Chandler (China), DeJuan Blair (Russia) and Thabo Sefolosha (Turkey). Kobe Bryant was also trying to negotiate a contract with Turkish club Besiktas Milangaz, but has now switched to negotiations with Italian club Virtus Bologna. He has not agreed to anything, but the contract in Italy must be awfully tempting. He will gain somewhere between $1,000,000 and $2,000,000 (depending on which report you believe) to play a single exhibition game.Or maybe there is a 10-game contract worth $3 million.

I hate to say it, but LeBron James is showing all the other players up during this lockout (except maybe Dwayne Wade). He has organised

The majority of the players have an opt-out clause, stating that they players can return to the NBA when/if the lockout ends.

The point is, they have to get a new CBA sorted. And soon. If they don't get one sorted by the end of the month, you can pretty much wave goodbye to the 2011-12 season.