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Schuster: I Want (and Need) The NBA

By: David Schuster

For weeks I continued to say that the NBA would start on time. All my peers said I was crazy but I stuck to my guns thinking the two sides would work it out. Boy was I wrong.

When Monday's meetings broke up with no resolution and David Stern announced the cancellation of the first two weeks, reality hit me between the eyes. I finally realized that the owners weren't going to settle unless they got everything they wanted.

I was forewarned about this. Insiders told me that the various owners were upset with David Stern for giving the players such a favorable deal last time. That wasn't going to be the case this time as Stern was given strict instructions to win the negotiating equivalent of a 50 point basketball victory.

The dumb part of all this was that the two sides truly were not that far apart in all the major sticking points. But, Sern had his edict and in the end the players would only cave in so far.

So now we sit back and wait and see how long this stare down will go on. The players will meet on Friday in Los Angeles to plot their next moves while the owners will likely do nothing and just wait out the players.This was probably the owners plan all along...to bleed the players and they probably will succeed.

But what about the rest of us? I admit I make some extra cash on the side during the NBA season but it's also (by far) my favorite sport and league. These are the best of the best on the planet and they do things which I consider magical. The college game will fill in some blanks but it's no where on the level of the NBA.

What happens next? I'm probably the wrong person to ask since I have been so wrong already so far. But the liklihood is a repeat of the 98/99 season when they played a 50 game schedule. Anything less then 50 is not worth playing so if we dont have an agreement by New Years then forget the NBA for 2011/12.

I'm still hoping that there are some sane people on both sides who can figure out that there is some medium point to get this resolved. But so far it looks like a typical divorce case where neither is willing to make the eventual deal and that means the only winners (again) are those damn lawyers.

 

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