in NHL Betting Trends

League and Players are battling it out off court

As we approach July 1st, the NBA and their players have one thing on their minds and it isn’t Canada’s birthday. The current Collective Bargaining Agreement expires on June 30 and both sides say they are not close to a new deal. If July 1st rolls around and there’s no new deal in place, Commissioner David Stern says he will lockout the players. Stern has been steadfast in the league’s plans if no deal is reached and there’s no reason to doubt his sincerity. In 1998, the NBA locked out the players for approximately seven and a half months, before playing an abbreviated season.

Can the players really be this stupid? We are talking about a few secondary issues here that they’re squabbling about. The league wants to raise the minimum age from 19 to 20 and wants to limit the length of contracts. Other than that, everything else is just details. This isn’t a case like the NHL, where a fundamental change to the system is being negotiated. The NBA already has a cap system. In fact, one of the league proposals included a provision to increase the players’ piece of the revenue-sharing pie.

When the lockout hit in 1998, the NBA was struggling for an identity. Michael Jordan had just retired and the Bulls’ dynasty was dismantled. No one knew who would next carry the torch and players like Tim Duncan Dirk Nowitzki hadn’t even played their first NBA game. NBC’s coverage reign of NBA basketball was winding down and fans didn’t really miss the game when it was gone. Moronic statements like Patrick Ewing’s “We make a lot money, but we spend a lot of money too,” were being uttered in a flipped manner. It was not a good time.

Fast forward to June, 2005, and you have a solid matchup of the league’s last two champions. You also had several talents asserting themselves in the playoffs this spring such as Nash, McGrady and Wade. In fact, game seven’s Eastern Conference final drew the biggest cable television ratings in the history of the sport. Things should be looking up. Yet, here we are reading about another labor strife in another sport. These two sides should take a look at the irreparable damage the lockout has done to the game hockey, where ABC/ESPN have bailed on the NHL, as have the casual hockey fans. Does the NBA really want to go through anything remotely similar?