NBA lockout: Nobody won, now league must fight for attention
David Stern's league will start during NFL playoff races. Not great timing. (AP photo)
The NBA lockout unofficially ended. Almost everybody was asleep. How’s that for irony?
The owners and players reached a tentative agreement on a new deal at about 3 a.m. So congratulations to both sides for proving once again that in all CBA talks, money generally trumps stupidity at some point.
Players lost paychecks. Owners, at least those who make money, lost revenue. The NBA, a winter league that’s constantly fighting for attention in the window between football and baseball, suffered an unnecessary shot to its image.
All of the ushers, peanut vendors, parking attendants and business owners near NBA arenas who lost a month’s worth of revenue are out of luck
Wasn’t that worth it?
It’s nonsensical to declare winners and losers. Everybody lost. Just leave it at that.
If the players approve the deal as expected, the league will resume play on Christmas. Teams will play a 66-game season. The Hawks were scheduled to play on Dec. 27 game at New Jersey on the original schedule but it’s not certain if that will hold as their opener.
Regardless, the Hawks — and most NBA teams not named the Lakers — will have struggle early to get attention. The first three weeks of the NBA season will coincide with the final two weeks of the NFL’s regular season and the first week of the playoffs.
With training camps expected to open Dec. 9, that leaves only 16 days for free agency and trades before the season opens. It will be chaotic.
And what of the Hawks? They’re like a franchise on Craigslist. A potential sale from the Atlanta Spirit to Los Angeles businessman Alex Meruelo fell through during this 149-day lockout. Unless a new buyer emerges, how seriously can we expect existing ownership to seek significant changes and improvements on the team?
The Hawks are coming off a pretty solid playoff run last season, eliminating nemesis Orlando in the first round and then losing to Chicago in six games in the second. The Hawks have some significant issues to resolve, such as the unrestricted free agency of Jamal Crawford and whether to pursue a trade involving Josh Smith, who grew tired of being the lightning rod for criticism last season.
The problem: With only 16 days to settle the the roster and ownership in flux, major moves don’t appear likely. It’s not a good situation.
But there will be a season. It just may take a while before everybody notices.
By Jeff Schultz
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104 comments Add your comment
Wutehvah
November 26th, 2011
3:39 pm
I hope the fans stay home
Braves #17 Fan
November 26th, 2011
3:43 pm
Our upcoming winter and spring will include football, Christmas/family, football, skiing, then baseball.
Vince
November 26th, 2011
3:56 pm
You couldn’t pay me enough to go to an NBA game. Who goes to see this GARBAGE anyway? I hope the NBA dies and never comes back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Email Profiling Is Wrong
November 26th, 2011
3:56 pm
@NBA Requiem
“The NBA and its players are just a mess. The league styles and markets its product to fit the tastes of one culturally edgy demographic, but prices that product as if it had an entirely different socio-economic customer base in mind. They have so marginalized themselves with their product and strategy that this fight over revenues seems about as senseless as would a fight between pro ice fishermen and their leaugue. And to make matters even worse, owners and players fight over ephemeral dollars as if they have no grounding in the economic realities facing everyone but them.”
That’s a helluva paragraph right there. It succinctly summarizes the current state/plight of the NBA.
Schultz are you ghost-posting to your own blogs?
yeller skeeters are peter eaters
November 26th, 2011
4:05 pm
Hey teckmites, you should put those unsold tickets to good use as tinder during those cold Atlanta nights. Much colder thanks to yet another loss IN YOUR HOUSE!
31-17
DEAL WITH IT, NERDS!!
Farnsworthy
November 26th, 2011
4:19 pm
Yawn…………..
DHD
November 26th, 2011
4:50 pm
Don’t care.
ahnuld
November 26th, 2011
5:25 pm
they were on strike?
mike
November 26th, 2011
6:18 pm
Can’t wait to head down to the Highlight Factory and check out the Hawks. For all of those who do not care about the NBA, its pretty simple- don’t watch. Go Hawks.
Whopper Dawg
November 26th, 2011
6:27 pm
It speaks volumes that this column only generated 60 responses. A column about the Dawgs will clock in about 400 – 500, and this is IMPORTANT for the NBA.
The sad truth is, no one cares.
jeffrey d
November 26th, 2011
7:17 pm
All of the ushers, peanut vendors, parking attendants and business owners near NBA arenas who lost a month’s worth of revenue are out of luck
I know this is partially in jest, but this is who I really feel for in this lockout. Blue collar workers are losing a lot of money because the millionaires can’t decide who should make that extra $1 million
jennifer hank
November 26th, 2011
7:34 pm
What do you mean everybody lost, including the players of the NBA? How can you compare the salary of an usher, vendor, security, etc… To the salary of a NBA player. Nothing would be possible without the people behind the scenes….Who cares about the NBA they should give all the people that were left without work because of their greediness, a ” BIG RAISE”. How inconsiderate, people actually lost their homes. But the NBA doesn’t care right? They are the ones that are over paid, and make the millions!
JSS
November 26th, 2011
7:36 pm
No it show how delusional that people are to put all of their hopes and dreams in the games played by 18-22 year old boys (and pump billions of dollars in the coffers of university athletic associations with no real accountability)… A cartel, and college sport fans try to keep fooling them self, Yeah Right!
scarietta
November 26th, 2011
9:46 pm
The NBA is just a bunch of thug gangster blacks.
Nugent, Ted Nugent
November 26th, 2011
10:12 pm
Jeff,
You think this will be an * year for the NBA champ?
billy bob
November 26th, 2011
10:28 pm
NBA basketball sucks! Who cares!!!!!
Blahblahblah
November 26th, 2011
10:54 pm
Jeff would have written this article even if no games had been missed. Only instead of talking about the NFL playoffs as the reason no one cares, he would have cited the NFL regular season and college football as the reasons.
Must have been a few hundred words short on his quota for November, so he had to pump out this drivel on short notice.
Blahblahblah
November 26th, 2011
10:55 pm
jeffrey d – when a blue collar worker ties his fortune to the talents of others, he/she has to deal with the consequences. No pity for the vendors from me. Stuff happens.
BooBoo
November 26th, 2011
11:05 pm
When I realized the NBA season would not start on time, I found something much more productive to do. I now own a farm on an island and I shoot turkeys that run in and sell them. No time for real tall turkeys anymore.
MitchC
November 27th, 2011
12:19 am
I think that this was a much more dangerous work stoppage than baseball’s strike in 1994, the whole season lost by the hockey lockout, and even the NBA lockout in 1999.
Bottom line, Jeff, as we all know, people are still suffering in this country, and the economy seems to be getting worse. The real attention in the media in December, is going to be the economic impact of the holiday shopping season. Few people will care about a bunch of millionaires preparing for a shorterned season.
Due to when the season will srart, I expect season and individual ticket sales to be down, both because of the economy, people tapped out from the holiday shopping season, and general disinterest and anger, that a bunch or rich guys couldnt agree about millions and billions.
2011-12 will be a rough season for the NBA. It will be interesting to see how soon, if at all, the fans forgive for this mess.
Sargent Carter
November 27th, 2011
3:45 am
From Sargent Carter to Gomer Pyle and all you other knuckleheads accross the USA, our great country, I am calling on all the sports patriots of this country to not watch NBA on christmas day….let the spoiled brats play before an empty audience…in their coliseums, in their sports palaces, lets us show them who are the owners…screw those pampered babies, we are mad as hell and we don’t give a dunk who dwayne wade or kobe the 5 mill diamond is…we turn our backs to your arrogance and ignorance…eat our gritz, stupidos…it is happy holidays for the people, aka peeps…nja(no jerks allowed)
Michael
November 27th, 2011
6:49 am
It beats the hell out of all your girlie dancing, cooking and fake reality shows on TV. Or as someone else stated, you can continue to live your pitiful lives by proxy through the exploits of exploited 18-22 year old boys who wear your team’s favorite colors.
Crimson Crush
November 27th, 2011
7:16 am
Some NBA fans keep complaining that so many comments are negative towards the NBA and ask “why are you reading/commenting ? I can explain it for you .
I quit watching the garbage product the NBA puts out years ago . My attitude wasn’t always negative towards professional basketball ( or professional sports period ) . It took decades of steady degradation to finally drive me away .
So the question becomes … Why bother reading or commenting about this lockout ? Real simple … I LOVE watching a league OF idiots ran by a group OF idiots self destruct . THAT is the only real pleasure left in the extremely sub par product that masquerades as “professional” basketball in the US today .
Dan
November 27th, 2011
7:29 am
How can one be exited about league play (hockey, football) that lasts nine months with players going at 75%, only eliminating 1/ 2 or 1/3 the teams? Basketball at the pro level is no longer played as a team game by most teams…it’s just one-on-one with little involvement with others as the ballhandler makes plays. It’s a cure for insomnia. Haven’t watched and haven’t cared for years. Too much money and the coaches don’t run the teams…the prima dona, rich, spoiled and pampered players. Who cares if they never play again.
Dan
November 27th, 2011
7:35 am
Hey, “Whopper Dog”, that sums it up perfectly. “Who cares?”
I had a job that I got so apathetic and detached from that I went through the motions for years and didn’t even realize I was in a stupor and I was making a pittance. Guess when your job is secondary to your lifestyle like many of these B ball players lives are the result is “Who cares?”
Jeff Schultz
November 27th, 2011
9:34 am
Nugent, Ted Nugent — I’m sure some folks will look back and say it was a shortened season but 66 games is legit so the champion will be legit.
Jeff Schultz
November 27th, 2011
9:35 am
Blahblahblah — True that most folks don’t focus on NBA until football ends but there is a better window in October/November before NFL playoff races heat up.
GTT
November 27th, 2011
9:54 am
JSS never enters a room without a shot at someone who’s already there. Pompous twit.
j
November 27th, 2011
10:32 am
once again, the a-holes who say they don’t care about the NBA find their way to the blog … get a life and go cry somewhere else. Us basketball fans could give two sh%$s about what you have to say. let’s see you bring that crap anywhere near my ears …
j
November 27th, 2011
10:34 am
<~~~~ watching basketball on Christmas Day
Game Time
November 27th, 2011
10:35 am
Could care less about the NBA and what it represents. Wouldn’t have bothered me if they had never reached a deal and never played again. Worst professional league of them all.
j
November 27th, 2011
10:44 am
i just read on another blog (obviously somebody who doesn’t attend games) that the average cost for a family of 4 is $200 to attend an NBA game? Unless you’re sitting in the 100 level, that is false. Tickets for decent seats to a B level or C level game will run you about $23 per person, or $92 for a Family of 4. Add in parking at $10, you’re looking at $102. If you’re dumb enough to eat in the Arena instead of CNN, then you’ll pay an extra $12 per person. You can eat in the CNN center for $6 per person, and get a tall beer for $5. You’re looking more at around $136 with decent seats and food/beverages. You can find better deals for seats though. I’ve been to many games and $200 is not average UNLESS you want to pay to see Miami or LA.
j
November 27th, 2011
10:45 am
Game Time, good riddance to you then!
reality
November 27th, 2011
10:50 am
Theres a problem here. This blog is filled with SPORTS fans. they wouldn’t be here if they didn’t like sports and they are the potential customer base for the NBA. But there is a lot of anger and resentment from them. Sure you can say “go away and don’t watch” but that would be like Walmart telling an unhappy customer, “F-off – take your business to Target!” That’s not how business should operate. For the Hawks fan you should truly consider what these potential customers are saying or soon enough you will have another extinct sports bird in the atlanta area.
Demand Accountability
November 27th, 2011
11:36 am
Boycott Philips Arena and the Spirit Group until 100 per cent of the team is sold.
PD
November 27th, 2011
12:03 pm
All of the NBA haters must really be envious or something. If you hate it so much don’t post here butt holes. Oh and most players of the player in the league are from the college programs you guys used to love. These guys are not thugs. Maybe young and reckless at times but who isn’t when you make tons of money. Overall, this is the best collection of players the NBA has seen in almost 10 years. Every team has an identifiable star. NBA Haters give it a rest!!!!!!
PD
November 27th, 2011
12:08 pm
Jeff don’t you think The Hawks and most small market teams should drop ticket price across the board or do a flex pricing based on demand? The Sixers new management stepped in and dropped all ticket prices. I thought that was interesting especially since Philly is such a sports town.
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Payday!!
November 27th, 2011
5:02 pm
the players scored big and got all the money they wanted!! The owners caved in when they union filed the lawsuit. The players will be making more money than ever with this new deal!!! Prices will go up, but fans will pay whatever it takes to see the players on the court!!!
iamme73
November 27th, 2011
11:37 pm
I see many are asking the same question,”why do people who don’t like the NBA come into articles about the NBA to disparage the league and usually it’s players”?
It is akin to people who don’t like hip-hop/rap music proclaiming as much in articles about hip-hop music. Such people are really saying they don’t like the type of people who they perceive to make hip-hop/rap music.
It is the same with the NBA. People who don’t like the NBA and who feel the need to make it known in articles about the NBA, are really saying they don’t like the type of people who they perceive to be NBA players.
Even though the demographics of NBA and NFL players are nearly identical, the NFL by and large is spared this condemnation of the league due to dislike of the players because NFL players are less famous, less visible, and more interchangeable than NBA players.
The two most famous NFL players are Tom Brady and Peyton Manning. After those two, there is a big drop off to the next most famous player.
In the NBA, you have Lebron, Dwight Howard, Kobe, Dirk, Yao, Dwayne, Carmelo, Nash, Tim Duncan, Blake Griffin, etc who are fairly well known. Adrian Peterson is the best running back in the whole NFL and has been for 3 years at least, but I bet most NFL fans couldn’t pick him out of a line up.
I bet most NFL fans couldn’t name a large percentage of the starters or top reserve players on their favorite teams. Let alone on other teams. This lack of visibility of NFL players allows sports fans not to focus on the fact that many NFL players just like NBA players represent a demographic of people they don’t like, and instead focus on coaching strategy, the schemes, the hits, the QB’s, etc.
Fans of NBA teams get to know the names of all of the starters and top reserve players. It is much more difficult to ignore the players in the NBA, and again for many sports fans the visibility of NBA players makes it impossible for many to ignore the fact that the demographics of the NBA represents a group of people they don’t like.
Crimson Crush
November 28th, 2011
4:03 am
Complete and utter twaddle written by iamme73 . A fairly typical tactic though … can’t really defend the garbage product that the NBA produces in 2010 ? Why then … blame it the rebellion of sports enthusiast implied racism !!! So predictable … and so weak .
I watched professional basketball for decades … knew EXACTLY who the players of ALL colors were … and loved it . Of course even at the end of that dying age you could still put a Dream Team together that wasn’t in danger of getting knocked off in the first round by a team of Uzbekistan goat herders in the Olympics .
Even more amazing back in those days they used to have a quaint old fashioned rule called … wait for it …. traveling . Yeah I know that is just “old stuff” … doesn’t really fit in with today’s “cool” “style” . I mean … if players actually had to worry about learning to dribble it might cut into their “look at me” slam dunk practice .
The next thing you know people would be asking them to play as a team … practice defense … All sorts of “racist” ideas would follow . Things like stop turning the ball over in their hands ( another old and outdated rule never heard of by modern NBA players , refs or apparently some fans ) .
That would be blatant discrimination !!! (according to people like iamme 73 ) We know who “they” want to see targeted . “Those” people who grew up thinking holding the ball while traveling four steps and doing a triple spin pirouette then acting like a complete idiot because you made a “dunk” when your team is losing by 42 is the pinnacle of basketball “greatness” . How obvious can it be ? ( to people like iamme73 ? )
You keep thinking you are enlightened iamme73 and the rest of us are just closet racist who “just don’t get it” . The NBA made a decision a long time ago to pander to fools like you … and they have steadily degraded their product ever since . THAT is why you see so many who recognize the NBA as a joke not worth watching …. Try googling “NBA clarifies update — not change — to traveling rule” . Educate yourself instead of looking for weak excuses . It is one of MANY not so subtle “changes” in the game that has so many now actively despising the professional equivalent of Jersey Shore
JSS
November 28th, 2011
8:23 am
GTT
November 27th, 2011
9:54 am
“JSS never enters a room without a shot at someone who’s already there. Pompous twit.”
Personally, just be glad I didn’t take a shot at you… Oh I forgot, you must have been one of those who was bitterly disappointed in the results from Saturday? Well, you can join all of those silly folks still kicking them self, calling for college coaches jobs, and being otherwise college fans… Thanks, but no thanks, if I want to experience serfs, I read Tolstoy… Why? Because I’m pompous! Ha, ha, ha, ha!!!
JSS
November 28th, 2011
8:43 am
Is that the same Alabama program that can’t the make the watered down NCAA Tournament but cried like babies about how “SEC superior” they are? And somehow he can’t comprehend all of the purely racist statements that were made throughout the lockout on any (and I mean any) blog that was posted by Schultz, Bradley, or the beat writer Cunningham. It is neither a myth, nor a lie… Look, if you want to go back to 1960s NBA, there is a website dedicated to that period. They travel in the college game more than they do in the NBA… Duke runs a whole offense built on it… Flopping all of the place masquerading as great defense… Go watch another 20-3 run with about 10 turnovers and illegal picks being set… The carry (palming rule) is the same everywhere… Either make the men’s ball bigger to fit the growth in players hands, that means changing the rim… The high dribble ain’t coming back… It (the low dribble) has been around for 70 years and the kids have perfected it. See the problem? You’re gonna have to fiddle with the game in ways that won’t really help, instead it will make it unwatchable, kinda like SEC basketball…
LawDawg
November 28th, 2011
11:47 am
They kept arguing over what percentage of the pie each side would get, not realizing that they wasted all the goodwill and excitement they had from last season, guaranteeing that no matter what percentage each side gets, the pie would be much smaller than if they had reached a quick deal. Good job, NBA. Fade back to irrelevance.
J
November 28th, 2011
1:00 pm
uh reality, it’s obvious these posters are not fans of the NBA at ALL and are here to bash it. That is the reality of it. They need to go away as they don’t represent the people that do attend. i’ve listened to these bloggers call the nba players thugs, say it’s not safe around Philips Arena, say it’s too expensive … every excuse in the book. The only excuse i can agree with is traffic on a weekday. The rest of the excuses are just profiling or race baiters … idiots with the handle of DAWG somewhere in their name who are low class UGA bulldog fans. Don’t believe me? Read every single blog out there in regards to the Hawks and you’ll find at minimum 5-10 idiotic dawg fans commenting on something they don’t watch. You know the real reason they don’t watch? B/c it’s not white enough for them … nobody says it but it’s true.
J
November 28th, 2011
1:09 pm
crimson crush, so the reason you don’t watch NBA basketball is b/c the players travel and it doesn’t get called all the time? OHHHHH, SO I GUESS YOU DON’T WATCH BASEBALL EITHER B/C THE STRIKES AREN’T ALWAYS CALLED? every professional sports league has some things that aren’t always called. And, if my team is down by 42 points, i would LOVE to see an awesome dunk by my team to at least give me some entertainment. It’s the same effect as being down 4 touchdowns in a football game and seeing my team finally score a touchdown. It’s part of the game and part of the entertainment. Don’t give me this washed down excuse, it’s pathetic.
SportsGirl
November 28th, 2011
1:47 pm
All of these people who say they “hate” watching the NBA will be the very first ones to jump on the bandwagon if the Hawks get in the playoffs. Just you watch, it’s what Atlanta sports fans do. Stop hating on our basketball team, it brings the city revenue and gives those of us who just enjoy watching sports something to do or talk about. If you really hate the Hawks so much then stop reading articles about it simply to bash something you “don’t care about.”
HUH?
November 28th, 2011
3:04 pm
The NBA was in a lockout??? Who knew? LOL!!!!
Won’t be watching or missing it.
Crimson Crush
November 29th, 2011
2:44 am
“if my team is down by 42 points, i would LOVE to see an awesome dunk by my team to at least give me some entertainment.”
_______________________________________________________________________________
After posting my last comment several incoherent attempts to rebut followed . Each was the product of an easily distracted mind so there wasn’t anything of substance to answer . Like the inferior product of the NBA itself , there is apparently no substance to whatever mental processes that shorted out trying to produce a response .
Occasionally though … even a scattered mind can accidentally find the truth . In the sentence I copied from one response above we have the mentality of the weak minded and easily distracted encapsulated in a nutshell .
The game itself is irrelevant . Team … irrelevant . Hard work and competition … irrelevant . Results …. irrelevant . All that matters for the easily distracted is constant smack talking , showboating without results and the out of game antics of a trashy ( and usually temporarily) nouveau riche . Like I said … Jersey Shore played out on hardwood .
In the end it will play itself out . The one bad thing about building gearing your product towards the easily distracted as the NBA has done is that one day something newer , flashier and trashier comes along … and your “fans” … they either get distracted and leave… or they grow up and lose interest ….
Either way one day you end up like Hockey fighting for air time on some off the grid channel like Versus