Pyrate News

By: Martin Rand, III
Date: July 31, 2011

Before the NFL lockout began, I heard a lot of NFL analyst on ESPN saying things like, "the whole NFL season could be lost" or "if not the whole season, then a few games" and "the earliest the season may start is mid-October." Now, after over 120 days of business being shut down, the NFL season is back on schedule, without a single game being missed.

The NBA owners have locked out the players and, unlike the NFL, games will be missed.

So because of this, I'm hearing a lot NBA fans saying the same thing will happen with this NBA lockout. All the NBA analyst are saying the same thing the NFL analyst said; but they were wrong, so the NBA analyst are going to be wrong too, right? Wrong!

The NBA lockout is nothing like what transpired in the NFL. In fact, the NBA lockout will be worse than the NFL; and here's why.

First, the main reasons for each of the lockouts are completely different. The NFL owners and NFLPA were arguing over how they should split up the revenue that the league was generating. The NBA owners are claiming they are losing millions of dollars a year and they want to radically change the way business is handled in the NBA. The owners want to begin using a hard salary cap system, reduce contract lengths from 5-6 years to 3-4 years in length and get rid of sign-and-trades. These are just three major features the NBA wants to change; and the NBAPA is not on board with any of the proposals.

*Second, there hasn't even been a meeting to negotiate a new CBA. This lockout has been going on for a month and there still has yet to be a real bargaining session. The NFL lockout lasted over four months; and the only NFL activities that were missed were free agency, a few off-season workouts, ability to make trades and renegotiating contracts. Nothing that attracted big revenue was lost. In contrast to the NBA, if their lockout lasted four months, they would miss training camp, preseason and the beginning of the season (they already missed free agency so that would have to be resolved first when the lockout is over). Of course, this is only if negotiations began today, which they have not.

Lastly, the NBA has been through a REAL work stoppage more recently than the NFL. The last NFL work stoppage was in 1987, but the NFL didn't miss any games. The owners hired replacements players to play in the games and some real players played alongside them. Also, the replacements only lasted for three weeks, then the players came back and everything was good. The NBA last went through a work stoppage in 1998. There was no replacement players and the league missed the first 32 games of the season. The owners know what to expect to and how to handle a work stoppage. In their mind, they're losing money with the games, so it would be worth it to not have any games in order to make more money in the future.

The NBA lockout will be long and hard on a lot of fans. If you're hoping that the NBA lockout will play out the same way as the NFL, then you will be very disappointed. I don't think that the whole season will lost, but this could be the longest work stoppage in the NBA history.

*Update October 11, 2011: Since this article, the NBA and NBAPA have had numerous meetings but have not come to an agreement on a new CBA. On Oct. 10, Commissioner David Stern cancelled the first two weeks of the 2011-2012 season.