Lockout Madness

Normally, as of the writing of this post, we’d all be about 10 days or so till the start of the 2011-2012 NBA season – a glorious day for children and adults, men and women, Conservative and Democrat, living and dead, cat and dog alike.

Normally.

But the big ugly head of a collective bargaining agreements (hold your gasps, please) has reared once more. And it’s not looking good.

Now, in my experience, usually this type of stuff gets hammered out and everything goes back to normal, but barring some eleventh hour miracle…we’re gonna miss some basketball, people. Hopefully not the whole season, but I doubt we’re getting some till the new year. That’s how far apart the owners and players are.

Who loses in all of this? The fan(atics). People like you, and me, and other well-adjusted folks who want to see their favorite game at the highest level.

That said, my lockout madness is no excuse for any lockout rudeness on my part (extra respect point for you if you get that Futurama reference).

While I do want a fair deal for the players (it is a player’s league, after all – nobody goes to watch coaches), and I don’t want owners to be completely screwed over (although, most of the mess is their own fault), at the end of the day, this credo is in the back of my head:

I. Want. Basketball.

Selfish? Sure. But everybody needs a release or two or eight. Basketball is one of my eight. Gimme.

I, for one, hope both sides can work out an amicable deal for each other, and get back to doing what they do best: putting on the most entertaining league in the world despite having the worst refs.

Hope to see you soon, 2011-2012 NBA season. We hardly (re: didn’t) knew ye.

Ciao.

– Mike

P.S. After they take care of this collective bargaining, maybe the new deal will accommodate building and using robot refs so awful calls aren’t made anymore.