NBA Lockout and Collective Bargaining Agreement Discussion

[Dice]

Quote: Originally Posted by The 24th Letter

Seriously. Whats funny is thr small market owners are the ones at the top of the Forbes list, lol Reggie on their lockout: apparently, wanting the owners to be responsible for their actions didnt start in 2011.... MJ was selfish, greedy, no love for the game too eh? or does he get the GOAT pass?

OH NO! You can’t talk about Michael Jordan like that! He’s an old school player and you know those guys would have played the game for free…*end sarcasms*

I’ve watched basketball long enough to know that those guys as well as the current stars wants to get paid. PERIOD. There is no difference in attitude. Just because the old school players were better ball players doesn’t mean their attitude towards the business side of the game was any different. Yes, when Jordan won is first MVP in 1988, he was making about $800K. While Patrick Ewing, a second year center at that time, was making about $1.5 million. BUT at the same time, Jordan was making a boat load of money from Nike that was making his playing contract look like chump change. I’m willing to bet that Jordan would have been yelling to the high heavens if he was making $800K and not making that much in endorsements. And the fans would have rightfully so backed him up. How many of these quotes we would have heard: “Aw, your making $800K to play basketball! Most of us regular folks don’t make half of that and we work harder jobs! Just shut up and play!” NONE.

Then we got Magic who signed a $25 million/25 year deal! Come on now! I guess when Magic saw that back in 1982, he just saw $25 million and his eyes lit up! Yeah, that’s not a greedy person. That’s someone who would play the game for free, right? And then, some years later when Kareem got his new deal when he was 38 years old, Magic gets pissed. For what?

The you got Scottie Pippen. A guys who was severely under-paid by the Bulls for years. Right after the second championship, he ask the Bulls for a new deal. They suggest that he wait because he only has two more years on his deal. Scottie tells them, NO, I WANT MY MONEY NOW! So the Bulls give him his money. So what happens afterwards? Larry Johnson gets not only the largest deal by a rookie BUT the biggest contract in NBA history at that time. And if Scottie would have played out his contract he would have been a free agent after the 1994 season. You remember, the first year he played without Jordan and was an MVP candidate that year. You don’t think a team would have thrown him a boat load of money for a HOF player that was in the prime of his career? Scottie got greedy and wanted the money now instead of seeing the big picture. That’s one of the reasons why the Bulls had severely under-paid him.

So in the end, whether you feel today’s players attitudes towards the business side of basketball has changed, think again. We glorify the old school guys as guys who’d play the game despite money. Old school guys wanted to get paid just as much as current guys. Most of this stuff we don’t know about because back then we didn’t have Twitter, Facebook nor the Internet as a whole. Media has been more information on players lives now-a-days. Most of the stuff that I had to know about back then I had to read in the Chicago Suntimes or Chicago Tribune. Or wait for SportsCenter which only came on at 8:00am or 5:00pm.

I’m pretty sure someone could come up with a billion more ‘I want to get paid’ stories by some modern day players. Probably even worst. BUT old school players weren’t angles themselves.

[OSUFan_88]

Saying we should pity any side is ridiculous. It's all about being reasonable so that everyone can get paid in the end, and then after that, it's all semantics. At this point, for some reason, the players or owners cannot agree to a 50-50 split. Both sides are being greedy and both sides are to blame.

BTW, why should anyone be shocked that Jordan wanted money and was an *******? I thought that was established a long time ago.

[Dice]

Quote: Originally Posted by OSUFan_88

BTW, why should anyone be shocked that Jordan wanted money and was an *******? I thought that was established a long time ago.

You'd be surprised. Most people still could not distinguish between a great player and a great person. Jordan was the greatest basketball player I've seen play in the NBA. BUT from things that I read and from people that I know from personal encounters with Jordan, he was kind of a dick. And this is coming from a long time Bulls fan.

[Altimus]

Oh you guys...

[djep]

Quote: Originally Posted by aholbert32

I actually like that. There was a mediator involved with the NFL lockout final negotiations.

I like this too but is this like binding arbitration? It would be great if both sides can lay out their position and the mediator comes back with terms of a deal in a couple of weeks or so.

[Court_vision]

But don't tell that to Ben Gordon(notes), who thinks the lockout could last two whole seasons. From Vince Ellis for the Detroit Free Press (via EOB):

He sat in on labor negotiations late last month that Gordon on Tuesday described as a "waste of time."
And the Pistons' shooting guard thinks it's only a matter of time before more games are canceled.
"I think there will be more games missed," Gordon said when reached by phone as he was driving to Chicago. "I expect it might be a year or two. I realized that when I was listening to both sides during the negotiations. I think there will be a lot of games missed and more money is going to go down the drain.
"I'm preparing for the worst, but hoping for the best."

[Dice]

Quote: Originally Posted by Altimus

Oh you guys...

HA!

Now I'm waiting for the first post to say that I'm blaming Michael Jordan for the lockout.

[ProfessaPackMan]

What's up with all the "Oh, the Owners are the victims" posts when nobody is/has even said that at all? Goodness gracious man...