Locking Out

11/04/2011 11:04 AM

Photo from Basketball Forever

Lockout issues are at it in the NBA again. What is this lockout thing? That is a business term used by the sports league(s) that is (are) suffering from its financial difficulties.

I’m not a financial expert to explain the hell problem. All I know is that it may also be a dispute between the parties of the league and players association. Thanks to an article by Ed Tolentino on an issue of Tower Sports magazine dated March 2011, now I understand even a bit of it. I want to get back on that dispute.

The NBA is like a typical company; it has management, departments, and laborers. But to be simple, employer and employee are pretty much applicable. A contract governs their relationship, a legal, written agreement that defines the conditions, rules, and regulations (or, let’s say it in general, RESPONSIBILITES) between them. Similar to the NBA, it is what you call the Collective Bargaining Agreement. The league’s CBA consists of trade rules, contract lengths, salary caps, etc., about financial matters that can run the league for a long time. If one expires, they have to make a new one in place. From then, a lockout ensues in response to its disagreement between the league, its team owners, and the players.

If you remember, 12 years ago, the NBA had its first lockout during the 1998-99 season, or after more than five decades of operating. And the result of it? The league has shortened the usual team schedule of eighty-two regular-season games to 50 due to the late agreement made on February 5, 1999.

Let’s move to fast-forward. As the US had recently been in its recession mode, the NBA had gone into lockout itself. As of press time, no agreement has been made between the league and the players association after numerous meetings. This incident resulted in cancellation of practices, summer leagues operated by the league, and the entire pre-season and the games on the early goings of the regular season. Now, what are their impacts aside from that? No live airing of NBA games, but the leagues around the world may take advantage of such. Like players traveling abroad to play a game and paid after on an agreement basis. Just like the NBA itself, sign and play and pay was the main game.

Guaranteed it is.

Now the figures? I can’t give you any updates as of this point. I’ll research more on that hopefully soon when it has been resolved.

Author: slick master | © 2011 The SlickMaster's Files