NBA (No Basketball Action)

The world’s biggest basketball superstars appear to be without work for the foreseeable future. Following the expiration of the collective bargaining agreement between the owners and the players, the NBA has enforced what is termed a ‘lockout’ effective immediately.

With no contract governing the economic conditions of the league, the long-expected lockout puts the 2011-12 season in jeopardy and comes after intense negotiations failed to bring to fruition a new deal. It has been on the cards since the beginning of negotiations in early 2010, when league officials certified that 22 of the 30 franchises involved would lose money. Owners took this knowledge and issued a hard-line stance insisting on a salary-cap system that would ensure superstars such as Kobe Bryant and Lebron James would have to take a pay cut. Whilst annually, throughout the league player costs would be cut by $750 million.

Whilst the news was expected, the reaction from the NBA’s fans has been unprecedented. In fact, it is the lack of reaction from the American public, which is most revealing. The NBA’s reputation is still in tatters following the backlash and aftermath of “The Decision” last summer, when the league’s highest rated luminary – the self-proclaimed ‘King James’ – chose which team to move to after his contract with the Cleveland Cavaliers expired. The lengthy process became something of a mockery, as team and supporters alike, clamoured for his signature. President Obama no less, even made mention of the move, urging James to sign for his beloved Chicago Bulls. The furore culminated in an excruciatingly sycophantic 90-minute interview with ESPN titled “The Decision” in which the player detailed the hardship and troubles he’d endured deciding which multi-million dollar contract to sign. The lockout seems to establish the perceived wisdom amongst basketball fans that the teams and in particular their owners care about little more than the money that can be made from the sport.

With previous strikes and lockouts the fans were always in the background keeping a constant, steady pressure for a resolution to take place. Both owners and players realized the money they were each leaving on the table by not getting along with one another, as well as the fear each experienced thinking about the possibility of losing their audience in substantial numbers. This time, however, neither seems to be the case.

With the prospect of no professional basketball being played this season in the NBA, The Journal wonders whether each side might not benefit from a measure of perspective. The concept which the owners crave - that of a league which guarantees profitability - doesn’t match up with the reality of a modern world in which no business is assured economic success. However, no group of professional athletes has ever, collectively, made as much money as the NBA superstars make today. A pay-cut is not preferable obviously, but not even Michael Jordan made the average salary that today’s superstar takes home - and the average superstar is no Michael Jordan.