| 15 November 2011
The NBA players and owners can not come to an agreement. The players want safety and the owners want safety for their money. Both sides have reason to be upset with the other, but picking sides for the average bystander would end up pointless. I, however, want to discuss who has benefited, not benefited, and stayed the same throughout the lockout which appears to have no end in sight.
I do believe that some players have benefited from this lockout. One player that stands out to me is Kobe Bryant. Kobe has had some deteriorating physical factors the last few seasons, his knee and finger to name two, but the lockout is giving him a long break that he needs to feel one hundred percent. If the season does resume with a shortened schedule a healthy Kobe could lead the Lakers into the playoffs with much more in his physical gas tank and not empty out against the Mavs again.
Obviously players are losing money, game time, and practice with new players and the owners are losing money, trading and free agent opportunities, and did I mention money, but some people have had a worse lockout than most. Chris Humphries got married on national television, and then got divorced just 72 days later. Lebron has been ridiculed for not showing up in the fourth quarter of the NBA Finals and has not had a chance to play a game since. But the person having the worst lockout experience is Derek Fisher, who has had to constantly announce the bad results of meetings and had his intelligence questioned as the player rep. Maybe Fisher is not the best man for the job, but he has stepped up to the plate for the players and done as good a job as anyone who hasn't put their name out there.
Some players could use the break, some owners and players have had some very bad times during the break, but only one group has remained unaffected. The fans have not noticed the NBA not being around because of one reason. 1. The NFL and college football have been enough to keep us, the fans, occupied without the superstars we call Lebron, Kobe, Dwight, and Durant. College basketball will also keep us in good health, but how long will it be before we actually do miss the NBA? Christmas? Post Super Bowl? The scheduled start of the NBA playoffs? I think that most fans can make it to the Super Bowl, but to be honest fans do not miss much real basketball until the playoffs.
The NBA lockout has been tough for some, but the fans will not go completely crazy for quite some time. Hopefully the deal will be made soon, but no one knows what will happen. The only thing for sure is that we are missing some NBA games.
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