What is NBA?
NBA stands for National Basketball Association and is the biggest and most famous Basketball league in the world. The championship is only played by 29 American teams and 1 Canadian. This league is probably the most difficult to reach for young players because the game level is very high. Everybody knows some of the past and current superstars such as Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O’Neal or even Tony Parker.
What is a lock-out?
A comprehensive and accurate definition for the term “lock-out” would be “a work stoppage in which an employer prevents employees from working. This is diverse from a strike, in which employees refuse to work”. Generally speaking, a lock-out happens when the different parties cannot find an agreement on several points inside a company. It could deal with working conditions, safety or salaries and both of the parties can trigger a lock-out.
Who?
Since July 1st, 2011, NBA has decreed a lock-out. The NBA owners and players have been in a total deadlock in their negotiations. During the lockout, teams cannot trade, sign or contact players besides players cannot access NBA team facilities, trainers or staff members and are not paid. But the most important thing is that still negotiations are going on, there are no NBA games and the season is at a standstill.
Lakers’ point guard Derek Fisher speaking as the president of the NBA Players union
Why?
The NBA players earn yearly 57% of the NBA income, through their contracts. This means that the team owners earn 43% of the income. Every 5 years, there are agreements concerning this share. The NBA players threatened to go on strike if the team owners would ask for a 50-50 share this year - summer 2011 was a negotiation time - After several meetings between the NBA Players union and the NBA representatives, no agreements were found, despite several proposals. Thus, a lock-out was decreed, meaning that the season should be cancelled.
Inside Impacts
The first and most dramatic result of the NBA lock-out is the cancellation of NBA games. The NBA season is planned to last 82 games, plus play-offs and finals games for the 16 lucky teams which may win the title. These games are a bunch of organization and there are several jobs, infrastructure, and economies linked with the NBA. We could talk about the hotels, the planes that teams are renting yearly, the NBA staffs for the games, the physical and coaching staff without forgetting the players’ salaries. A recent report revealed that NBA players are losing around $220,000 per month and for some of them like Lakers’ superstar Kobe Bryant, the amount is near $3 million. Hopefully, they still have sponsors and are paid – well, almost all, NBA rookies don’t have sponsors as they have never played so far as professionals - but they do not have NBA contracts anymore.
American TV channels are also stressed and begin to complain about it. The three majors NBA broadcasters – TNT, ESPN and ABC – spend a lot of money for the NBA games and more about the Finals. As a major sport, there are millions of Americans watching Basketball on television. The contracts signed by both the NBA and the TV channels is a problem as the scheduled was already planned and the contract signed – meaning the NBA received money from the channels - One can wonder if the NBA paid back the channels for the games cancelled. Furthermore, the NBA is also broadcast on worldwide televisions and the same problems are raised.
Outside Impacts
Surprisingly, the lock-out will have positive effects on the other basketball leagues – particularly Chinese and European – because more than 80 players have decided to sign with foreign teams during the lockout. The New York Times called this trend "one of the most overblown stories of the lockout" with most of them classified as "rookies, middling veterans and fringe players." Among them, Tony Parker, Ronny Turiaf, Nicolas Batum, Deron Williams and Andrei Kirilenko decided to make the leap overseas and still play Basketball, as this game is also their jobs. The attraction is not money but just the desire to play and bring notoriety to smaller championships. As a consequence, sport arenas are sold-out and the national teams merchandising skyrockets.
Anyway, for many Basketball fans, the lock-out is a complete mess and the image of NBA players is completely broken. Some don’t hesitate to call them “spoilt children” whereas others blame the team owners and the NBA for not taking into account the players’ demands.
Will NBA be as popular as it was in the past if the season starts again? Wait and see.
GIRERD - CHANET Romain
This conflict is just a shame. A shame for both the NBA and Basketball. I wonder if there will be a NBA season this year. On one hand, it is positive for us, NBA superstars come to Europe. But on the other side, the most attractive championship in the world is stuck into stupid financial problems. According to the NBA website, there are still some rays of hope concerning labor talks but the negotiations won't bring anything - my point of view.
ReplyDeleteWhatever, as you explained and thus the Nike poster, Basketball never stops and I'll try to buy ASVEL tickets to see Tony Parker and Rony Turiaf playing. Anyone interested?
Romain BALDUCCI
Nowadays, everything is about money in the highest spheres of our society: basketball, football, politic. I’m not shocked anymore by what I see today, I was, but not anymore because this is how the world turns. End up like this is a shame but I’m not really surprised and neither when I see that Samuel Eto’o signed a 3-year, 20-million euro per season contract with a Russian football club. Nor this morning with Nicolas Anelka which is going to leave Chelsea for a Chinese club for 225000 euros a week. That’s just crazy but it has just become usual for them. They’ve been living in that special sphere that we can’t really understand.
ReplyDeleteBut the good news is - because yes, there has been a good news since your article - the end of the lock-out and the beginning of the season in December 25th with a two month delay. ^^
Sarah Bencheikh