What the hell else should I talk about? The Yankees getting eliminated? The craptacular Cardinals/Rangers World Series that starts on Wednesday? I'm not gonna talk about football while the Packers sit at 6-0, I'm just gonna let them do their thing. (Although I'm still disappointed in how terrible the defense is compared to last year.) Let's talk lockout. I want to start ranting and swearing, so hit the jump ASAP.
Dear David Stern,
I don't give a fuck.
That's it. Plain and simple. I do not give a fuck. I've been expecting a season-long lockout for 3 years, praying with every goddamn fiber of my being that it wouldn't happen, and it did. And when it did, I quit giving a shit. My Spurs gear isn't going anywhere. I still love my team...but why contribute to the greed of these selfish asshole players and owners?
The league has done a great job of generating new fans and peaking the interest of the existing fan base. And then they slammed the door in our fucking faces and told us, "Nah...you can't have basketball because we can't agree on how to divide up 2 BILLION DOLLARS."
The NBA owners are worthless. The NBA players are well below worthless. Want a little bit of comparison? NFL quarterback and Super Bowl MVP, Aaron Rodgers, is making a little over $7.25 million in 2011. That Sideshow Bob looking motherfucker, Anderson Varejao, is supposed to be making $7.7 million this season, with a hefty pay raise the last 3 years of his contract that have him making close to $10 million in 2014. And that's just the most extreme example of the disparity in pay between football and basketball players. There are so many others (Jahvid Best's 2011 salary to Samuel Dalembert's 2010 salary).
Now, I know what you're thinking. "Well the owners shouldn't be giving out those huge contracts." Well yeah, no shit. But the system is designed for these guys to get paid that much. The system is designed for a Corey Maggette to get paid $50 million over 5 seasons just to be the 3rd best guy on his team. The players are making way too much, and they know that. So of course they're not about to take a massive pay cut.
On the other side you have the owners, some of which who are struggling to break even, who are now pocketing any and all profits they can, just so they'll stop losing money. You don't have to be a genius to figure it out. They pocket their earnings, they stop investing in the team, the team begins to suck, the fans quit going, the team starts losing more money, repeat. The NBA has essentially eliminated the middle class of the league. There's no competitive balance. Bigger teams and markets have more money and can afford to go over the salary cap to make their teams better and make more money.
The system is fucked. The players know it, the owners know it. But neither will budge from their demands. It's billionaires fighting millionaires. And any NBA fan with common sense will stop supporting this nonsense. I don't care how much you love basketball. You shouldn't encourage either side. Let them both lose money. Let the league fold, who cares? Casual fans have already moved on, hardcore fans should do the same. Stop tweeting, Facebooking, commenting on articles, everything.
Let the National Basketball Association die.
If the NBA doesn't care about its fans, who have been buying outrageous amounts of merchandise and have supported their teams in every way possible without even blinking an eye on how much the cost of tickets, parking, concessions and apparel have skyrocketed, then the fans shouldn't care if there is ever another professional basketball season.
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