What Caused the NBA Lockout?

          What caused the NBA lockout? Some people believe the lockout was caused by the greed of the players and owners. Did the better players going to bigger market teams cause it? In the end who won. The lockout delayed the NBA season and reduced the number of games from 82 to 66. People made their living working in stadiums and they didn’t get the chance to work and won’t get the regular amount of money. We should have the right to know why.

Greedy Players?

The main idea of this article is to inform readers of the greed of the NBA players and owners. Espn.com author Scoop Jackson raised a very important question, “Was the almost five months of watching billionaires fight millionaires over how a multibillion dollar pie is to be split in ways that are in the best interest of self opposed to what is in the best interest of the game worth going through. There's a simple answer: For the owners, "Yes." For the players, "Yes." For the rest of us who were caught in the middle and became the lockout collateral damage, “Heck to the no”. According to Scoop Jackson, the lockout reinforced how much more the “B” in NBA stands for business instead of basketball. The money was more important and the game was the last thing on their minds. We learned the players don’t see eye to eye, but when on the court, it all seems fine. We know now that the player’s real priorities are in fact the money. Even Miami’s big 3, (Lebron, Bosh, and Wade) even after the cut in salary to play with each other were protesting after agreeing to accept the amount of money offered. Are players getting too much money? There is a relief by the way, “Thank God It’ll be another six to ten years before we have to go through it again”.  

          Did the NBA players going to bigger market teams cause the NBA lockout. The smaller market teams are losing money because the players are refusing to go where there is less money and less winning. The bigger teams are spending more money and smaller teams are losing money because of less attendance and less selling of products. The main idea of Henry Tyde’s article is to inform readers that the better players are wanting to go to the bigger market teams. Henry Tyde says smaller teams should enforce a power balance in the NBA. It is a problem when the players can decide how much money they receive to play with other superstars, for instance, Wade, Lebron, and Bosh. If the NBA does not figure out how to give smaller teams a fighting chance than the avalanche of star players going to bigger market teams will continue and teams will not be able to compete.

Who Won

Kurt Helin, an nbc author, main idea is to inform readers about who won the lockout and consequences that come with it. The article says the owners won initially but in the long run the players won. As the NBA’s revenue grows, the player’s salary will increase with it. Over a course of 5 years a player will be making more money than before. To make matters worse the better players are going to better teams, that means there will be an increase in sales and revenue, making the rich get richer and the weaker teams get weaker making the players of those teams get less money. With the decrease of better teams and the increase of teams with multiple superstars it will only be a matter of time before a huge change in the NBA will occur. Like in my previous paragraph the owners and small market teams need to take a stand and control the league before it’s too late.

After reading all these articles, my viewpoint has changed. My original viewpoint was that the money was the main problem. Certain teams weren’t getting enough money as much as the teams with more better players. Now, my viewpoint has changed to the players being selfish when the owners are putting balanced in the NBA. The players used the lockout to get more money for the future. The players knew that the deal they were going to get would be in their favor in the long run. This proves that to the players, playing was the last thing on their minds