Thanksgiving. Some think of it as a break from the daily bustle to sit down and spend time with family and friends. NBA fans may now think of Thanksgiving as a time when NBA players and owners came together to settle on the 2011-12 season.
While frantic pepper spray wielding consumers rushed Wal-marts, Best Buys, and other retailers in hopes for mega markdowns, the NBA came together to finalize a deal on Black Friday. After maintaining a seemingly constant feud for the last five months, the NBA players and owners have agreed to begin the 2011-12 season on Christmas day.
Just as soon as I was beginning to believe there would be no sign of an NBA labor agreement by the end of this year and the thought of absolutely no NBA season was becoming more and more possible, the deal was struck.
Millionaires fighting over money seems petty to the significantly poorer class that the “99 percent” of us belong to. Unfortunately, greed runs the United States and money was the only thing that kept the possibility of an NBA season alive.
The players wanted to play and the league felt responsible for providing entertainment to their fan base. But in the end, money was the only thing each party cared most about.
The lawyers of the players union who filed a lawsuit against the league, most likely informed their clientele that litigation would take several months – possibly years. With their minds on their wallets, the players and owners began realizing it was time to find a common ground.
The legal process would have completely absorbed the 2011-12 season, flushing away billions of dollars in revenue. And with the loss of the NBA season, the million dollar salaries of every player would have never been seen again.
The idea of losing that kind of money would have made any person realize it was time to stop bickering. The amount of money on the line was what changed the minds of every member of the negotiations.
The children who idolize their basketball star role models, the custodians of the stadiums, and each and every other member who helps a basketball team or basketball game operate had nothing to do with the negotiations. But every bit of their lives was affected in some way by the lockout.
Both the owners and players should feel remorse for hurting these people’s lives for so long. But instead, their selfish greed was far superior to the lives they affected.
As bitter as I am knowing that finishing the deal wasn’t honestly for the fans, or the people who have been laid off that work in the arenas, or the numerous lives ill-affected by the NBA Lockout, there’s still one thing to be thankful for: The greatest gift of all this Christmas will be the joy of professional basketball making its much-needed return to the hardwood.