Greed and selfishness

It looks like the NBA will hibernate for the 2011-2012 season. The scheduled meeting between the owners and the players’ union a few days ago still resulted in conflicting views. Both sides presented their options and counter-options and the same results happened as in their previous exercises in futility.

No matter what point of argument will be projected and highlighted in the on-again, off-again drama, two things dominate in living color – selfishness and greed.   Both parties insist on their different proposals with both sides contradicting, reasoning disadvantages to whatever they think is disadvantageous to their perceived advantages.   Huh?

The specifics are as convoluted as their bloated egos so might as well let you seek the details for your individual analysis.

As to my understanding, NBA team owners really don’t care if the season begins as scheduled, will be shortened or there won’t be none at all. It’s more on economics. By November 15, they cease to have any obligations on their basketball-related employees. This means money stays inside their vaults until the on-going issues are solved.

These multi-millionaire team owners do not rely on their sporting franchises as their financial granary, rather, they formed and created a professional athletic team to overhaul an excess of resources coming from their Forbes’ Top 500 corporations.

These are mostly self-made men who were instrumental in corporate America’s financial landscape, people who don’t exactly need teams to prop their image, to prop their businesses.

They had become ridiculously wealthy that they can afford to pamper athletes who can barely spell their names, offer them atrocious contracts and then have little or no qualms discovering that their prized jock have ‘Mediocre’ as their middle name.

The season being cancelled will be to the owners’ boon. For a year at least, they save on multi-million dollar salaries to their players, coaches and team personnel. They save on travels, hotels and other related incidentals. They save on broadcasting, promotions and merchandise. Best of all, the gripes and whines of their resident superstars will be unheard of. At least for this moment.

The National Basketball Players Association (NBPA), about 450-strong, stays put on their demands as to the sharing of the league’s basketball related income. The owners have offered a sensible 50-50 share but the NBPA wants 53%. This, and issues about their contracts.

In a saner and logical environment, a 50-50 revenue share from sales of NBA merchandise, global promotions and exhibitions is already a generous offer. Why they want more already constitutes insatiable greed.

The union, they say, is prepared for a longer battle should the owners won’t budge to their demands.   Let’s see what happens after November 15 when players cease to receive their paychecks. With the lifestyles associated with these high-priced and high-maintenance athletes, chances are they would be begging for the owners to hear them out and just maybe accept the deal spread on the table.

Millionaire athletes asking for more millions while majority of the ordinary fan works long and hard hours just so they can purchase tickets and watch their favorite teams play. What disadvantages are they taking about? It’s not the players, and dammit, it’s not the freakin’ owners who are on the receiving end. We fans, are the disadvantaged lot. All because of selfishness and greed of the people we look up to for entertainment and leisure.

Let’s cut all this crap and let the games go on. 

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