The last meeting between NBA owners and players to try to reach a new collective bargaining agreement produced no results. Unfortunately this outcome was predictable and as a consequence the NBA owners have announced the start of the lock out.
The NBA joins the NFL, whose owners have begun the lock out in March, but the situation is different from football. The NBA currently has financial problems, especially in small markets. While in the NFL there are few differences in terms of revenue among the New York teams and those of smaller cities in the NBA the differences are far greater.
Right now the NBA owns the New Orleans Hornets because their former owner couldn’t find a buyer and they risked it being shut down. Other teams in small markets such as Sacramento and Memphis have serious problems and according to the owners most teams are losing more or less money. The players however don’t agree with the figures.
In this situation the owners want to lower the percentage of profits to be allocated to the players salaries but on this point the positions of the two sides are far apart. Other disputed points concern the flexibility of the salary cup and guarantees on contracts but these are proposals made by the owners to have an edge in the negotiations. The true battle that unites NBA and NFL is on the division of profits between owners and players.
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At this point the two parties must first agree to meet again, in the meantime all the activities of the League have ceased so players can’t work with their teams’ coaches and trainers.
FIBA has decided that during the lock out players who have a contract with an NBA team will have to get an authorization to play with a team of a nation that is part of FIBA. From this point of view free agents may have an advantage however we need to see exactly what rules will be created by FIBA to handle NBA players if the lock out should go on.
Fans can only wait and hope for an agreement. In 1999 a reduced season was played after a lock out that lasted a few months. This time it’s possible that the NBA owners and players will watch what’s happening in the NFL to assess the damage that can come from not beginning the regular season but also the possible solutions that could be found in football. Unfortunately the situation is complicated and it will be a very hot summer.
