Of all the things that are frustrating about the NBA lockout — and one could write 95 theses on what is frustrating and tack it to a locker room door — this may be the thing that gets under my skin most:
We all knew it was coming. For years. Yet there has been no real effort even yet by the two sides to find a middle ground. My brain understands that all negotiations drag out until the pressure builds on one or both sides to compromise and we are not there yet with the NBA. My guy wants to throw Billy Hunter and David Stern in a room and have Jon Jones start kicking a-- until they reach a deal.
Also, we all pretty much know games will be lost. Yet, still no talks. Stern can’t meet for a couple weeks, which seems fine with the union.
Lest you think everyone didn’t know what was coming and that games will be lost, here is a quote from David West in the USA Today.At the very least, West expects the NBA to lose games for the first time since the 1998-99 strike, when it ended with a 50-game season.
“We’ve been preparing for this since we signed the (collective bargaining) extension in ’05,” West says. “As rookies have been coming in, we were telling guys, ‘Save your money.’”
West, who took the gutsy course of becoming a free agent (opting out of his Hornets deal) when he didn’t know what the new Collective Bargaining Agreement would look like, will be fine. He’s got his money and not spent it on a third Bentley. For his dog. Like he is on the court, off the court he is solid and fundamentally sound. He is going to get paid and whatever he gets will work for him.
But man, this whole lockout thing is frustrating.