THE NBA LOCKOUT: MAKING SENSE OF THIS MESS

By Dave Shepard, OTSL Analyst

When truly examining this lockout situation, where does the blame lie? As fans, who should we side with? The players or owners? When Jermaine O’Neal is making more money than Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, James Harden, Serge Ibaka, Eric Maynor, Thabo Sefolosha and the former Thunder forward Jeff Green combined, you are going to have problems. Great teams are also being hurt with luxury tax costs when they are paying guys like Rasheed Wallace over $7 million dollars to run to each three point line every single game.

The NBA is not having a lockout because of the lack of fan interest. Since the Jordan era, based on the finals ratings, they are the highest they have been. It is about the hyperbole when considering borderline good NBA players and paying them like they are franchise saviors. Tracy McGrady, once a high riser, is more of a high fiver, making more then $20 million dollars per year.

Rip Hamilton, Charlie Villaneueva and Ben Gordon are getting a combined $143 million. Has anyone heard anything about these three in the past two years? I am not asking that to be sarcastic. The most you have heard about these former UConn greats is a player-coach dispute involving Hamilton.

Here is how owners and franchises can make it work. Yes the Thunder flamed out against the Mavericks. Lack of experience coupled with an immature point guard in Westbrook hindered their chances of playing the Heat in the finals. However, they are well under the salary cap and there is not any player on that team who is over valued when it comes to their salary. They are a blue print for how teams can flourish and sell out, but do it where the owner can make profit, the fans are confident and excited consumers and the players can make a very good living to say the least.

I’m as big an NBA fan as it gets, but we can’t fool ourselves into feeling bad for the owners. They are the ones shelling out this money like it’s grilled chicken samples at the mall. The owners complain about over 2/3rds of the teams not reporting a profit, yet they have no one to blame but themselves. I’ve always been in favor of a “You Earn What You Get System”. I have never been a proponent of a system where the Greg Oden’s of the world (nice guy that he is) get hurt in layup lines, but in the process take over $30 million dollars from their team despite being, at best, nothing more than a solid bench player.

The players, like any other employee, need incentives and clearly there is no incentive when owners over pay, over value and truly under deliver. This lockout is a result of the the incompetency of the owners and if there is no basketball this season the blame falls squarely on their shoulders.