The leaves have changed, baseball season is over, and Connecticut has seen its first freak snowstorm. Make no mistake—winter is coming. In other (more noteworthy) news, basketball season is officially underway. That is, unless you are one of the 450 players lucky enough to be considered the best in the world.
The National Basketball Association, as you may or may not have heard, is locking out its players until they accept a new collective bargaining agreement that dramatically reduces their pay.
NBA fans everywhere are lamenting the second lockout in league history to delay the start of the regular season, and rightfully so. The league is coming off one of its most exciting and buzzworthy seasons. Reigning league MVP LeBron James drummed up unprecedented fan interest last summer by taking his talents to South Beach, leaving the entire state of Ohio to wallow in misery and tear-soaked handkerchiefs (they still use those in Ohio). TV ratings during this past spring’s playoffs were as high as they had been in almost a decade, and a number of young stars made themselves known to the world.
But the system was broken. A number of teams were hemorrhaging money, certain players (I’m looking at you, Rashard Lewis) were guaranteed hundreds of millions of dollars over six years and then drastically under-performing, and only the teams who could afford to have payrolls above the luxury tax line (and pay the ensuing fines) could compete for a championship. The team owners decided they could not go on the same way, and made a pact to lock out the players until they got their way.
Those who say they are disgusted by the notion of billionaires and millionaires squabbling over millions have a fair point. I don’t disagree that it is fairly greedy of the owners, who only buy NBA teams if they have already achieved financial wealth, to try to ensure that they make a profit, especially considering that it would just be so cool to own an NBA team. If you owned the Heat, you could tell LeBron to do whatever you wanted! “Hey, Bron-Bron, I challenge you to a dunk contest. Only I get to use a trampoline and you have to wear lead shorts.”
But I digress. The fact is, the owners appear ready to keep the players off the court for as long as it takes, and negotiations have been plodding along slower than Eddy Curry on a treadmill. We as basketball fans have to figure out what we are going to do on those lonely winter nights when we would normally be watching a thrilling Raptors-Grizzlies game on ESPN.
Luckily, there is a solution!
The college game, bolstered by a number of returning stars who, in a non-lockout situation, would have gone pro, is poised for its most compelling season in a long time. Every college game is played with a passion rarely approached by the professionals, and the rabid, face-painting, snow-camping fans of the nation’s top college teams would be terribly out of place at the red-carpet events that some NBA games have become. Now there will be no NBA games to distract from the unbridled intensity of the college game, and a number of top-flight players, including UNC’s Harrison Barnes, Ohio State’s Jared Sullinger, and Kentucky’s Terrence Jones, will provide more than enough star power.
Full disclosure: I am a die-hard UNC fan and an enthusiastic Charlotte Bobcats fan, so it is easy to see why I might be much more excited about the college season. UNC received all but one of the 31 first place votes in the preseason coaches’ poll and have a great shot to win their third national title in eight years, while the Bobcats are one of the NBA’s five worst teams. The Bobcats are one of those teams that is hemorrhaging cash, and they can only benefit from the new collective bargaining agreement, so I’d much rather see the owners get a better deal than the Bobcats stumble through another losing season.
Either way, true basketball fans will be able to appreciate the college game, and it will provide more than enough entertainment for us while we wait for the NBA to figure itself out. But we certainly shouldn’t hold our breath.