The NBA lockout...The gloves are off!

Just when the optimists thought a 72 game season was going to happen, the players decided to tell the owners to take their stinking proposal and stick it. The NBPA is taking the litigation route. They are going to decertify, with a disclaimer (whatever that means) and sue the owners on anti-trust issues. Much like the NFL players union did over the summer. The difference being that the NFLPA decertified whilst still in the off-season whereas the NBPA waited until the 11th hour.

After the NBPA announced that they turned down the owners latest proposal, Commisioner David Stern, in an interview on ESPN, basically said that the players have shot themselves in the foot and stand to lose a lot of money. He felt that they got bad advice from Billy Hunter and that the season could very well be cancelled (more or less, if you really need to see the interview go to espn.com as I'm sure its still there somewhere). Stern added that the NBPA has retained the attorneys that represented the NFL players (Kessler) & the NFL owners (Boies I think is his name or something to that effect) during that labor strife. To be honest, Mr. Stern did sound a bit condescending in his comments but that's my opinion.

I'd like to point out that I agree with sports talk radio personality Chris "Mad Dog" Russo statement that Kessler is a "litigator" not a "deal-maker." If you bring in a guy like that, the negotiations will end because Kessler gets paid to go to court. Kessler has been allegedly pushing for the players to decertify because he can't go to court unless they do so (legal mumbo-jumbo). Kessler did have success in the decertification of the NFLPA as a judge did grant an injunction lifting the lockout. Then the owner's lawyer went to another judge who overturned the injunction & the lockout was back on. As I recall it all happened in the same week. That's the thing about going to court, it never seems to go quickly and it just plods along. One NBA pundit noted that the only ones getting paid now are the lawyers (today was the 1st day players would've started receiving checks).

In all honesty the drama of the lockout has been very addictive. There's the obvious battles for good press and to have the fans believe one side over the other. The hazy definition of negotiating in "good faith." There was even talk about union president, Derrick Fisher, going behind the NBPA's back trying to secretly negotiate a deal. Michale Jordan being one of the hard-line owners who want to stick it to the players (it's interesting to note that Jordan during the last labor unrest in 1998 famously told Abe Poulin, then Washington Wizards owner, that he should sell the team if he can't make any money). Quite honestly it will start to get boring now that litigation has reared its dull head.

I've been loosely following the lockout and from what I've seen, it appears that the NBPA have been the ones doing a lot of the negotiating. The owner's negotiating tactic is more along the lines of "take this deal now or it will get worse in the foreseeable future." The NBPA went from 57% of the BRI (basketball related income if you haven't been keeping up) to 50%. The owners stance was 50% now or 47% later. It's been a long time since I've negotiated on a regular basis (used to work in auto claims in my other life) but I'm pretty sure that's not how ya do it.

Regardless of the fact that I agree with the players on a few things, I do believe they're delusional about the status. Right now, NO ONE cares that their is no NBA (I'm not a huge NBA fan anymore but I will miss NBA games once the NFL season is over & I'm in a area that doesn't care about hockey or my internet connection stinks and my NHL Gamecenter keeps breaking up). There hasn't been a bunch of players going overseas and there are no new leagues forming anytime soon. Like the NBA pundits say, the players have no leverage. I can kind of agree with both side but neither side will get my sympathy. Players want unrestricted free agency to be able to sign wherever they want when their contract is up, kind of like the rest of us. But the owners don't want the stars to form super teams (the 2010-11 Heat come to mind) with their buddies. Super teams that would most likely be the Knickerbockers, Lakers, Bulls, Celtics or Heat (the cities where players want to play) not Sacramento, Milwaukee or Toronto. The league wants to penalize teams (in the form of a luxury tax) that go over the salary cap and the players want to system similar to baseball (spend whatever you want like the Yankees, Phillies, Red Sox and let the Royals and Pirates go pound sand). What the NBPA needs to realize is that teams would fold faster than Superman on laundry if that became a reality and that would mean a loss of union jobs (as I've discussed before).

Please forgive me for being all over the place. It seems like there's no coherent thought (ya think!) and I'm all  over the place but then I'm not a writer. After reading a recent Bill Simmons article on the caeer of Eddie Murphy, I thought to myself, "this should've been me. I could've been a writer." Of course that would have meant having some modicum of creativity after the age of 12 and an iota of interest in writing at all in my life.

Since it was Vetern's Day last week I would like to thank those who have served in the US Armed Forces. Thanks for your time.

Congress afraid for their jobs?...They should be.

Came across this article in the NY Times the other day, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/02/us/politics/voter-rage-has-congress-worried-about-job-security-its-own.html?partner=rss&emc=rss. Naturally it was an online article as the only way I'm getting the NYT is a t a Starbucks & I'm not a big newspaper reader unless its the sports section (like most people sadly).

I write this as I am listening to a podcast of Real Time which aired on 10/21/11. In the panel discussion they talk about possible backlash against the Republicans for all their stonewalling against the President. I for one agree, but it shouldn't be against just the Republicans, there should be backlash against all of them. The Republicans for opposing the President (they hated Clinton back in the day make no mistake but man they REALLY hate Obama) & not even be willing to work with him to get the country back on track. Also the Democrats who sat around and watched or did very little. Democrats wrested control of the House & Senate in 2006 & did very little, at least I don't remember anything on the "liberal media" about them making radical change. When Obama became President, they all had a chance to do something or at least appear that they were going to do something but they decided to rest on their laurels and then proceeded to lose control in the 2010 elections. More power to the Republicans who saw an opportunity and seized it. The same thing happened when Clinton became President. The Democrats were in control & decided to savor their victory while doing nothing. This allowed the Republicans to take back a lot of what they lost during the 1994 elections. They got what they deserved.

I say vote them all out! This is the only way politicians get fired. If you or I did our jobs so incompetently (or not at all in some cases) we'd be out on our butts. Personally I feel we need politicians who want to get together and put the country back on the path. Granted that may be a bit naive on my part but it has happened in the past (Reagan worked with a Democrat controlled House & Senate, Republicans worked with Clinton, when they weren't trying to get him convicted) so it can be done.


Thanks for your time.

Big East Basketball is dead.

The Big East started as a basketball conference in 1979 when Syracuse, Georgetown, Seton Hall, Connecticut, St. John's, Providence & Boston College got together. Villanova joined in 1980 and Pittsburgh rounded it out in 1982. 1982 saw the emergence of Georgetown, Patrick Ewing's freshman year, as the dominant team. The Hoyas would make 3 Championship appearances during Ewing's tenure (1982, 1984 & 1985). The Hoyas won in 1984 by defeating an Akeem (later Hakeem) Olajuwan led Houston team but their losses were 2 of the most classic finals in NCAA history, 1982 to a last second shit by Michael Jordan, losing to UNC 63-62 and the  Villanova game on April Fools Day 1985, 66-64.

For those who didn't go to high school in the 80's, the Big East was arguably the premier college basketball conference. It reached it's apex in 1985 when 3 teams; Georgetown, St. John's & Villanova made it to the Final Four. If I'm not mistaken it was the 1st time a conference put 3 teams into the Final Four. As we all know Villanova completed an improbable run by defeating an almost invincible Georgetown Hoya team led by Patrick Ewing. In 1987, 2 more Big East teams made the FInal Four; Syracuse (losing to eventual champions Indiana) & a plucky Providence team coached by Rick Pitino & led by Billy Donovan (whose coached Florida to back to back NCAA titles, how's that for pedigree!). 

 As the conference went into the 90's it started it's 1st wave of expansion by adding traditional football schools; Virginia Tech, Miami & West Virginia along with Rutgers & Temple. Miami enjoyed great football success in the 80's as an independent and opted for the Big East because it brought back it's basketball program and wanted to mop the floor with the less powerful football programs in the Big East (at least that's my theory). Other expansions included Notre Dame in 1995, hoops no football, and the the poaching of Conference USA (most of the old Metro Conference) in 2005. In 2004 Virginia Tech & Miami bolted for the ACC (2 of the schools that were going to bring football prominence) and in 2005 Boston College would leave for the ACC as well. That's when the cracks started to show and that seems that football became more important that basketball. Connecticut started pouring money into it's football program (Coach Calhoun won hoops titles in 1999, 2004 & recently in 2011) in an attempt to gain national football prominence.

At present time, Syracuse & Pittsburgh are leaving after the 2014 season & West Virginia is suing the conference for the right to leave for the ACC after next season. To combat this the Big East has raised it's exit fee to $10 million and it's made to bones about trying to poach several schools into the conference (they offered TCU as spot for the 2012 season but TCU has opted for greener pastures in another bloating conference).

Football rules what's left of the Big East. Football and the landslide of money it brings (that's a topic for another time). The great tradition of Big East hoops is dead & gone. It is now a bastardized, Frankensteinian creation looking to create its own cable channel (a la the Big 10). Suffice to say I am sad to see it go but that's all in the past. Big East Basketball gave us hall of fame coaches like John Thompson & Lou Carnasecca, future legends; Calhoun, Pitino (he wasn't a PC very long but now he's got Louisville) and Jim Boeheim. It's in the past like the glory days of 1985 & 1987. To paraphrase the last line from The Road Warrior, those days exist only in my memories.

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After I wrote all that, the Big East is now counter-suing West Virginia on breach of contract in bolting for the Big 12. Make no mistake, money rules college football. That's why there's no playoff, why Boise St will NOT get a crack at a BCS title game and why players will soon be paid for play, http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/7177921/the-beginning-end-ncaa. Thanks to my old friend Scott Goodrich for bringing the article to my attention.