Doc Daneeka: So on a continent so prone to work stoppages in every other line of work, how come European soccer doesn't have work stoppages?

Probably scale. You'd have to get millions and millions of players, from all corners of the globe including the less-democratic ones, to get a work stoppage going against FIFA, who really runs things. There's such a wide variety of situations going that a player who's good enough can just go find whatever situation works best for them.

Cat-herding on a mind-warping scale.

--- TINFOIL HAT ALERT ---

Is it just me, or does it seem this is one more plan to piss-off Americans even more than they already are? Particularly Americans of African genetics? And, considering everyone is already pissed off at everyone, they whole nation is balkanized, Con or Lib, Dem or Rep, Black or White, Rich or Not Rich, this adds to the whole national boiling point we are rapidly reaching.

Now really it will take just one big spark to send the USA into complete civil disorder and violent chaos. Let's say a secret service agent just happens to look the other way at the right time. Think about what would happen if the Black Kennedy suffered a similar fate. Scary, I know, and all too probable. In fact, almost perfectly planned.

--- END TINFOIL HAT ALERT ---

/ seriously, I always wonder when the secret service will knock on my door and say, "Not you again?"

I expected them to walk out. The NFL would never do it because a football star is much more likely to get injured than a basketball player. One year of missed income for a normal NFL player could be as much as a fourth of their career income, so it's hard to imagine a deal good enough to make up for a quarter of your career income. For the NBA one year of income can be made up throughout the rest of their career much more easily.

skylabdown: acella: skylabdown: Are you an NBA fan who wants to help the game of basketball?

I mean, REALLY help the GAME itself and not just the money vampires in the NBA?

As a non-NBA fan I have some serious advice:

1. Take the money you were going to spend this season on tickets, jerseys and whatever else the NBA sells and give it to your local HS program, local Rec program or just go buy 10 basketballs and take them into the neighborhood and hand them out to any group of kids you see horsing around. If you've got large amounts of cash ready to spend, sponsor a little league team. By a portable hoop and put it in front of your house on the weekends so the kids in your neighborhood can use it.

/I'm sure there are more ideas, but you get the point.

This thread is full of idiots. DURR YOU LIKE SOMETHING YOU SHOULD JUST SPEND THAT MONEY ON OTHER PEOPLE INSTEAD DURRRRR

You should sell your computer, get rid of your internet, stop watching movies, music, tv, reading, et cetera and just give your money to less fortunate people. Go ahead, give 1 dollar away.

Umm... I love Baseball and I'm an O's fan. So you know what I do? I go to minor league games instead of major league games. I also bought a bunch of wiffleball shiat and gave it away to kids. You know why? Because I love BASEBALL... no necessarily the people who play it at the major league level. If you are a fan of basketball as a sport, you would understand. Instead, it sounds like you are just a starfarker with a short attention span.

I volunteer with Angel League throughout different sports seasons of the year, because I love the kids. I don't help out just because I sports, but a combination of the two. It's a lot of fun unless we're teaching them soccer. Watching them might be more rewarding, but it certainly isn't as entertaining.

Baseball, like any other sport, is more entertaining at a professional level. Whether it be the kid leagues, high school, college, or even minor leagues, you're watching an inferior level of play. When I lived in Port Charlotte, FL. I went to several Stonecrabs (local minor league team) games. When I drove out to St. Pete to watch the Rays, I enjoyed myself because I was watching a higher level of play. You can continue pretend that's not the case if that's your bag.

On a side note if you're going to be a good samaritan, try not being so smug about it. I'll continue to do my thing without trying to impose goodwill onto others while I enjoy avoiding amateur, error laden sports.

Who gives a fark?

Total amount of time spent between Paul Pierce, Kobe Bryant, Kevin Garnett and the other representative = 3 years.

It's a wonder why they didn't bring legal representation with them or why The NBAPLA didn't seek reps who actually knew what they were talking about.

The_Original_Roxtar: Yeah, basketball blows. unable to give a fark beyond the fact that this rich assholes are costing the little people their jobs in a down economy.

fark you NBA players
fark you NBA owners
fark you union thugs

Basically this. This lockout is messing with the non-rich people who work at the stadiums overpriced stands, setup crews, sanitation, and the new/stupid players who spent the money they don't have yet. I love basketball but there is no real loss with college hoops around, its the same way I felt bout the NFL lockout.

If its for the whole season its gonna suck because baseball isn't ineresting till Late-August-September timeframe and by then NFL/NCAA FB is up and going.... time to catch up on the WWE then...

NBA Player Rep: Yo David Stern can I axe you something?

David Stern: What the?! Call security! This guy wants to axe me! and on that note no more negotiations. Don't people use guns anymore.

I don't think there's a "thug" image problem, I do think there is a fixing image problem though(But that will always exist in any sport, period).

My problem with the NBA is 16 out of 30 teams make the playoffs. This leads to things like last year's Pacers making the playoffs with a record of farking 37-45. Only .451. Not close to .500!

The 76ers also only made it with a 41-41 record. The year before that, the Bulls with a 41-41 record, the year before that the Pistons, Bulls, 76ers all made the playoffs with a .500 or worse record...

My issue is just that teams with such shiatty records should not be going to the playoffs consistantly. I'm fine with the ocassional fluke getting in there(7-9 Seahawks, I'm sure a baseball team will someday make it into the playoffs with an 81-81 or worse record), but it should not be happening so often.

82 regular season games is fine if you keep the number of teams that make the playoffs smaller, which causes games to be worth more and playoffs races to both exist and be interesting. Baseball has the right idea: It has a long regular season, but very few teams get into the playoffs.

I actually wish that basketball would adopt a similar playoff scheme: The winner of each division in a conference + one wildcard from each conference. Granted, this might be TOO small, but I think it's a good starting point. (Only somewhat unrelatedly, I sometimes wonder if people get why the baseball season is so wrong aside from money...)

Also, the amount of people who blame the players when it's a lock-out and not a strike is amusing. Both sides are stupid because losing the season loses more money than either, but the owners are usually multi-millionaires with a seperate source of income who won't be hit hard by this in the pockets.

/Basketball was actually not bad last year
//Still hate the playoff system
///Ironic since most of the teams I like would have to slip in to the spots I would cut

In case you forgot, the first weekend of Seire A (Italian league soccer) was delayed due to a players' strike.
Link (new window)

Repo and foreclosure men are going to be waayyyy busy.

Also, all those hangers on, or NBA player's posse guys, guess they will be on the streets

mitchcumstein1: History and an MBA. Sorry I didn't proofread. :-)

Just teasing you.

THIS is a tragedy of Biblical proportions, I tells ya.

/Biblical

So rich people aren't going to get paid? I sense a 1% "Occupy NBA"

mitchcumstein1: puffy999: Remember, folks: the NBA is also the only league where contact is essentially forbidden by rule.

Contact is not forbidden, collision is. If you actually watch an NBA or NCAA game you will see all kinds of contact, it just has to be controlled. Most every team in the NBA and NCAA runs some sort of pick and roll, hell Karl Malone and John Stockton are in the hall of fame because of it.

Exactly. Controlled contact has been a part of basketball since Naismith. It creates a more skill-based game, which you need to succeed on defense without pushing and shoving.

Conversely, between basketball, football, and hockey (people are fine with baseball being an essentially non-contact sport) basketball is the only sport where a defender is allowed to stand his ground to impede the progress of a player who doesn't have the ball/puck. That's interference in any other sport.

Of course, this is all silly. The beauty of every sport is in its rules.

The Great EZE: Conversely, between basketball, football, and hockey (people are fine with baseball being an essentially non-contact sport) basketball is the only sport where a defender player is allowed to stand his ground to impede the progress of a player who doesn't have the ball/puck. That's interference in any other sport.

FTFM...I think. Basically pick plays are allowed. My mind is having a hard time visualizing at this late hour.

puffy999: I have to chuckle at the asinine notion that NBA players, of ANY of the professional athletic leagues in the United States, shouldn't consider taking any sort of pay cut.

They've already agreed to take a pay cut. The players have given and given and given from what their current deal is. Why shouldn't crappy owners be forced to deal with their own Joe Johnson/Rashard Lewis idiocy? The owners want the players to protect them from themselves with their wallets. If the teams aren't making money, that's not the players' fault. They don't hire marketers, set the roster, negotiate TV contracts or set prices on concessions. Their job is to play basketball.

I don't understand from where the perception that labor should consider the position and needs of ownership came. The only extent to which labor should care about ownership is making sure ownership has just enough to maintain the league because I'll bet you dimes to donuts that ownership is operating from a similar perspective when considering their position.

The Great EZE: The Great EZE: Conversely, between basketball, football, and hockey (people are fine with baseball being an essentially non-contact sport) basketball is the only sport where a defender player is allowed to stand his ground to impede the progress of a player who doesn't have the ball/puck. That's interference in any other sport.

FTFM...I think. Basically pick plays are allowed. My mind is having a hard time visualizing at this late hour.

You can take a charge away from the ball too.

Couldn't care less about the players, the owners, or the sport of professional basketball, but this whole thing really sucks for arena employees and other regular folks who rely on the income from the season, especially to lose that income right before the holidays.

Do the posters who write essays as posts expect us to actually read them? I mean come on we're talking about the NBA. You think those players actually read their contracts? That's what the white agents and lawyers are for.

These 'nilla's are crazy in herrrre.

What a bunch of conceited a**holes. ON BOTH SIDES OF THIS FIASCO. I will never watch another game, buy merchandise, or otherwise acknowledge NBA basketball. Just like I don't watch the MLB for the same reason they almost ended the season back in 2003. Why the hell do players even need to be unionized anyway?? Do they feel jipped because they only make 7 figures and not 8 figures??? Well f*** you you f***ing f***ers.

I love watching millionaires and billionaires fight for cash while we complain about how greedy the f*ckers in tent cities a couple miles from their stadiums are.

The Great EZE: mitchcumstein1: puffy999: Remember, folks: the NBA is also the only league where contact is essentially forbidden by rule.

Contact is not forbidden, collision is. If you actually watch an NBA or NCAA game you will see all kinds of contact, it just has to be controlled. Most every team in the NBA and NCAA runs some sort of pick and roll, hell Karl Malone and John Stockton are in the hall of fame because of it.

Exactly. Controlled contact has been a part of basketball since Naismith. It creates a more skill-based game, which you need to succeed on defense without pushing and shoving.

Conversely, between basketball, football, and hockey (people are fine with baseball being an essentially non-contact sport) basketball is the only sport where a defender is allowed to stand his ground to impede the progress of a player who doesn't have the ball/puck. That's interference in any other sport.

Of course, this is all silly. The beauty of every sport is in its rules.

I'm sorry, as a hockey lover, I just cant get over what passes for a foul in basketball, if they took any more dives, they'd have to rename it soccer.

Mike_LowELL: Pratty: My issue is just that teams with such shiatty records should not be going to the playoffs consistantly. I'm fine with the ocassional fluke getting in there(7-9 Seahawks, I'm sure a baseball team will someday make it into the playoffs with an 81-81 or worse record), but it should not be happening so often.

The problem is that there is too little volatility. Back when the first round of the playoffs were three and later five games, the chance of an upset always loomed and both teams had to play their asses off. The upsets involving the Warriors and the Grizzlies only happened because they would have happened in any format (horrible matchups for the Mavericks and Spurs) and the best-of-seven first round comes to a crawl because of it.

puffy999: NFL players had a legitimate gripe in their grievances with the league: highest risk of serious (life-changing) injuries, lowest levels of pay, worst post-sport benefits/insurance programs, and they didn't get "enough of their fair share" given they are part of the biggest sport in the country (with the wealthiest athletic franchises, generally).

NBA players have a grievance as well, in that the owners repeatedly issued horrible contracts to mid-tier players (while claiming the player salaries are breaking the system) and now refuse to open their books and reveal their actual finances, in that the owners essentially claim it is impossible to make money in the league while continuing to hold onto their investments (their teams), in that David Stern repeatedly claims the league lost hundreds of millions of dollars last season and doesn't see it in his interest to step down for the financial failure he supposedly oversaw. The owners counted on the average American to know very little about the situation and immediately assume that the workers were in the wrong and that they would instinctively support management, as most Americans do. They were right.

Hockey has the same thing going on, they (for the first time) audited teams for the revenue sharing part of the contract and found nearly a hundred million bucks that owners didn't report. Fortunately, I think hockey learned about not having a season cancelled again... it hurt the sport terribly and still isn't where it was before the strike.

Maybe they need to get Keanu Reeves and Gene Hackman to create the Replacebros.

my lip balm addiction: Dude, what are you talking about? There are no black people in the NHL or NBA! Well maybe 3 black guys in the NHL, and a couple in the MLB, but most blacks in the MLB are foreigners who don;t count.
Yep, the thugs....errr...black people are all in the NBA. This the hate.
/Glad to help

I'm not trying to argue that there aren't black players in the other major sports. Nor am I trying to argue that the NBA is filled with wrongly accused boy scouts.

However, there is a distinct line of argument on Fark that glosses over the bad present in the other major sports while the NBA is admonished for being a big group of thugs. And, it is done for a very specific reason that people bristle at and raise holy hell at the thought of it.

I never did much care for pro ball after watching Larry Bird, Dr. J, the Iceman, and the Lakers v. Celtics series. Wasn't all that into pro b-ball even then but at least it was watchable. Since MJ left I couldn't have cared less about pro basketball.

College football, final run at Homestead with the closest Cup race ever in place (and I'm a Stewart fan), hockey (go Bolts!) and finally pro football abound. Hell, if you like basketball, college hoops just started with nearly 100% less whiny douchbaginess.

The NBA can go eat a bowl of dicks. Couldn't care less that both sides are choking one another as they fall into the volcano.

Just sorry to hear about the associated job losses. Those people won't recover and get back on track after this.

*Sits sadly, and disappointed.*

/Knicks fan
//this was the year...

Don't worry commish...Fisher will flop

Lets not forget this NBA attention whore:

The Great EZE: Anybody wanna take a shot at defining what NBA players "not playing hard" means? People tend to mistake "not struggling with the basic fundamentals" (like the underdeveloped college kids) with a lack of effort.

I'm merely complaining that the effort difference between the regular season and the playoffs is stark in basketball, as compared to football, hockey, and baseball.

IAmRight: craig328: Since MJ left I couldn't have cared less about pro basketball.

So you liked watching probably the biggest asshole to ever play but you hate it ever since he left. Yet I bet you think the current generation are "thugs"

Nah. I thought I was pretty clear with my opening statement: "I never did much care for pro ball". I just said that any interest I had left when MJ did. I didn't and don't follow athletes per their personalities. Unlike some, I don't regard them as role models...just people who have an athletic talent superior to almost everyone else. So if he was an asshole or not I couldn't, didn't and don't care...he was a hell of a basketball talent.

So, I don't "hate it ever since he left" because I never cared enough about the game to hate it. Your attempt to try and peg me as one of those who think of the current crop as "thugs" fails just as spectacularly as your reading comprehension attempt. I simply couldn't care less about professional basketball and your attempt to personalize my apathy into something else says way more about you than it does me.

Enjoy the grinding hatred of those who don't clasp pro basketball to their bosom to validate their existence like you apparently do. They're athletes...not role models or deities. I'm sorry their absence makes you bitter and lashing out at people. Perhaps you should consider this unexpected down time as an opportunity to look inward and ask why you've cultivated such a repellent personality. People around you would probably appreciate it.

Methinks Fark's emo supernerds can't stand watching athletes that can create the magic that NBA players do, while they themselves were probably picked last for every athletic gathering in their lives (and probably would lose a game of H-O-R-S-E to their baby sister).

It's as if the Fark Supernerds think they represent a large segment of the population, even though their opinions are actually representing the minority of sports fans, as NBA ratings are the highest in sports compared to NFL. I am not a fan of NASCAR. If NASCAR canceled racing for a season, I wouldn't care at all. Would I bother going to a NASCAR thread just to blare on how much I don't give a crap? No. What purpose does that serve except to blare loudly how much of a dorky douchebag you are.

Nobody cares about your inferiority complex, and racist tendencies. Go post about a niche sport and work on that self-esteem a little so that posting on an NBA board with a bunch of other outcasts doesn't brighten your day so much.