Bye-bye Basketball?

You know, when I was growing up, basketball was absolutely my favorite sport.  I played for hours everyday, watched every game that I could catch, collected posters, trading cards, and dreamed of playing in the NBA.  I was the world's biggest basketball fan, down to being able to tell you who the water boy was for each team (ok, so maybe I am exaggerating a bit here).  Today, however, I had a disheartening realization:  I no longer care about the NBA.

The players may not realize it, but this long drawn out lockout in combination with whining over how much a salary is going to be (minimum six digits) as just gotten on my nerves, and caused me to lose complete interest in the sport.  Truth be told, I am not sure why the players are even arguing at this point.  The NBA guys have one of the best deals in professional sports.  Not only are their number of games limited (roughly 82 in a normal season), their amount of practices limited, and their minimum salaries nice, they also have something that all NFL players would absolutely love - guaranteed contracts.

So, pardon me if I find it difficult to find sympathy for anyone who is playing basketball for a living in the NBA.  I suppose it is difficult for me to understand how 49-50% of the entire revenue generated from basketball operations just is not enough for you to exist on, especially when I compare it those working for minimum wage (or even below) in American society.  If I were to go outside the bounds of the United States, I suppose I would have even less sympathy.

I have a feeling that the lockout is a bit out of the players hands, and that they are being led around by the noses a bit by those who think they know better.  However, I suspect that many of these players have not done a very good job of saving, controlling living expenses, and certainly never expected that they wouldn't be playing basketball by now.

Better check those cupboards NBA players, because while some people are talking about adding an extra can of beans to your stock, I suspect that most of you are going to be sitting around with a can opener and a hungry belly wishing you had taken the deal.