I am completely dumbfounded.  The NBA lockout could not have come at a worse time for fans. After having one of the best seasons in history, the owners and players cannot agree on how to officially start the next season.

The main dispute is over how much money the players and owners should receive. The players believe they are what the owners sell and make the profit while the owners believe they are in debt because of the unfair demands of the athletes.  Even though the players are stubborn in letting money go, the owners main issue is responsibility with finances paying players ridiculous, undeserved salaries.  The problem is that neither side is right or wrong; this current situation is the result of years of stubbornness and bad decisions by both sides.  I truly cannot be rooting for one side because everyone is mutually at fault.  There are too many issues they have to settle.

The league has stopped beingprofitable for owners and now they are asking the players to give some of the revenue back.  This is ridiculous because they are the ones who caused the problems in the first place by offering absurd contracts to players of little worth. (For instance, take DeSagana Diop, who is payed $32 million for six years, or Rashard Lewis,  – four years and $80.4m).  The owners need to take some responsibility for paying players what they are worth. Can you imagine getting a great contract from your boss, but then your boss asking for his money back after signing? The owners need to own up to the fact that they turned their league into this, but it really isn’t their entire fault.

Its not just the owners either, another problem is that the players are too stubborn to give up some of the profit.  NBA players must be payed 57
percent of all basketball-related revenue.  This only creates a league of imbalance.  For example: the Lakers last year spent $110 million on players while the Sacramento Kings spent $45 million. How can small market teams like the Kings compete with that?  If players were to give up 7 percent of their salaries, it would create a 50/50 split solving some of the owners’ issues.

The league is most entertaining when the teams are separated either being great or terrible, no in between but it does not have to be like that.  The owners are at fault for putting teams into cities that cannot support them.  This is why I cannot stand small market teams. The Lakers should be allowed to spend much more than Sacramento; they have the market to support it.

There are much better cities for a basketball franchise than Charlotte, Memphis, and Orlando.  These franchises are better somewhere else
like Las Vegas or San Diego.  Owners need to understand that part of the reason the NBA is so top heavy and bottom heavy
is because the markets they put franchises in can never compete with big market teams.  Why else do teams like New York, Boston, and Chicago roll past teams like Sacramento, Charlotte, and Toronto as though they are speed bumps to their escalades? The owners of the big-market teams can turn a profit; it’s the smaller teams that have to be much more financially responsible, and only hurt the league when they are not.

The big issue here is responsibility; both the players and owners need to make amends with each other.  If the players were to agree on letting the
owners have more revenue along with owners being much for fiscally responsible in offering contracts, then they would in turn create a more profitable league.

With all the storylines, plots, and excitement that the NBA brings, it would truly be a shame for the league to cancel a season over this disagreement.  Both sides need each other to work; players’ play and the owners take care of the rest.   This should be a mutual relationship between both.

I really want to find out what happens to Lebron, D-Wade, and the Heat; will the villain of the NBA ever win a title?  Taking out one year is robbing the fans of the experience of watching all-stars like Kobe Bryant and Steve Nash who may not have another year before their talents fade away completely.  Without an NBA season, fans are being robbed of much more then just the game, but the opportunity of experience.