In the NBA there are the well-paid, the underpaid and the overpaid. And all of them want more money. That's what this fuss is really all about. The almighty dollar. The players want to get more of it, and the owners want to give less out. The decision on what is a happy medium is the problem that the fans are dying to find out. If it isn't done soon, the NBA is going to suffer the same consequences as Major League Baseball, maybe even worse. When Major League Baseball had its big labour dispute, they didn't come out of it missing the best sportsman to ever lace up a pair of shoes. All reports are that Michael Jordan is not coming back to basketball. It has been supposedly confirmed by a couple of sources. One from Australia, Luc Longley, has confirmed that Michael said he wouldn't be back at a team meeting. Don't quote me on that, it's just what I have heard around the journalism circles. :) I remember the last time that Michael retired. I was at a mate's place, and it was about 10 a.m. I had a mouthful of toast which nearly ended up on the TV screen. We stood there stunned. We hadn't heard any rumours about him retiring, even though the strain of his fathers death had obviously taken its toll. To overdramatise the situation, it was our generation's sport version of the Kennedy assassination. "Where were you when you heard Jordan retired?" "I was cleaning my teeth...," "I was making the bed," "I was channel surfing," "Who's Michael Jordan?" (There is always someone who has just gotten out from under a rock in situations like this.)
But back to more pressing matters. Is there going to be an NBA season this year? I know a lot of you are saying that that is a bit of an overreaction, but look at the signs. The two parties involved aren't even speaking to each other, let alone trying to work it all out. The NBA has already said they will be refunding season tickets with 6% on top of it. PLUS, they are now talking about missing exhibition games. To me, this just sounds ridiculous. It actually sounds a lot worse, but I am restraining my language. Hopefully, this will be over in a couple of weeks, when the decision is made about whether the NBA players will be paid while locked out. Either way, this should get resolved, and the side with the favourable result will be in a HUGE bargaining position. If the players get awarded the decision to be paid while the lockout resumes, they will be able to sit back and wait for their demands to be met. And why should they cave in? They're getting paid for sitting on their butts, and the owners are going to have to pay them and not get anything in return. I think the owners will give way. It's the same for the opposite. If the decision goes the way of the owners, the players aren't gonna want to sit around not getting paid, especially when a lot of them are looking for new contracts. Of course, some of them already have outrageous new contracts.
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