The NBA owners locked out the players at 12:01am ET Friday after the CBA expired, and "if this thing drags into October or beyond, say goodbye to the short-lived new golden era of the NBA," according to Chris Sheridan of ESPN.com. The fans will "only grow increasingly frustrated and angry with both sides, and eventually they might just keep their heads turned away." Why the owners and players would "let things get to that point is beyond reasonable comprehension, but this is the slippery slope the owners have chosen" (ESPN.com, 6/30). In Toronto, Doug Smith writes, "The damage could be catastrophic. ... The league will take a huge public relations hit if the lockout extends until the scheduled start of training camps near the end of September" (TORONTO STAR, 7/1). USA TODAY's Jeff Zillgitt writes, "A lengthy lockout threatens to spoil goodwill created by a captivating season" (USA TODAY, 7/1). In Houston, Jonathan Feigen writes an "immediate cost will be to the momentum built in a greatly successful season and to the good will among those directly impacted." NBA Commissioner David Stern said that league operations "will be evaluated, but that furloughs or layoffs have not been planned." Teams are "expected to take similar measures" (HOUSTON CHRONICLE, 7/1). Stern Thursday said, "There will be collateral damage as we go through the summer. I'm not scared. I'm more resigned to the potential damage it causes to the league" (N.Y. POST, 7/1). SI.com's Ian Thomsen wrote, "Of all the outcomes that created and captivated large mainstream audiences over the past 12 months, this result was most predictable and least welcome" (SI.com, 6/30).
BETTER GET COMFORTABLE: ESPN.com's Michael Wilbon writes the NBA is "about to show the NFL how to conduct a truly contentious labor war and stage a lockout likely to do real damage in terms of dollars, goodwill and reputation." The NFL "was never going to miss anything meaningful," but the NBA "might miss the entire 2011-12 season." Wilbon: "The two sides ain't close. They're not even close to close. They're further apart, actually, than they were in 1998-99 when the entire season came within 24 hours of being canceled. The NBA is going to miss games, and the smart money is on the league missing lots of games" (ESPN.com, 7/1). ESPN's Tom Penn was asked whether the lockout will be long or short, and he replied, "Is there a third choice -- long and painful?" He said there is a 75% chance the NBA misses the entire '11-12 season. Wilbon said, "I don't see a whole season being lost ... but this is contentious. This is not like the NFL, and they are going to miss games" ("PTI," ESPN, 6/30). In Salt Lake City, Steve Luhm writes, "This labor battle could make the one that led to a bastardized 50-game season 13 years ago look like a summer stroll" (SALT LAKE TRIBUNE, 7/1). ESPN's Michael Smith: "I do think they're going to miss games, but eventually they'll play this year" ("Around The Horn," ESPN, 6/30). Turner Sports NBA analyst David Aldridge said, "I am not optimistic that they will get a deal done anytime soon. ... The pressure doesn't start until people start missing paychecks" (WASHINGTON TIMES, 7/1).
LEAGUE ON THEIR OWN: CBSSPORTS.com's Ken Berger wrote, "This is where this sham of a negotiation has been headed for months, if not years. This is what the owners want. This is not what you want. But they don't care what you want. The owners don't and the players don't. They want what they want, and that's why we're here." The "only cause for panic is among the worker bees in arenas and practice facilities all over the country that will be shut down for NBA business -- possibly for months, and potentially causing furloughs, pay cuts and job losses" (CBSSPORTS.com, 6/30). FOXSPORTS.com's Jason Whitlock writes, "Whatever happens, blame the owners. ... The owners are hoping the players are shortsighted, immature and stupid. They’re hoping the superstars are distracted and disinterested and satisfied with their shoe contracts. And they’re hoping the rank-and-file decision-makers just want to get a deal done that puts $10 million to $20 million in their pockets over the next four or five years" (FOXSPORTS.com, 7/1). YAHOO SPORTS' Adrian Wojnarowski wrote the owners "have delivered Stern an unmistakable marching order: Break these players; crush them once and for all." There is a "real chance the NBA is gone for a full year now." Wojnarowski: "This has the makings of the NHL’s labor war of 2004-05, where the cost of instituting a hard salary cap cost the sport a complete season. ... The NBA goes away for the summer now, and nothing will get serious again until September when Stern will have to start cancelling games in the 2011-12 season" (SPORTS.YAHOO.com, 6/30).
ALL EYES ON DAVID STERN: ESPN.com's Ian O'Connor wrote under the header, "David Stern's Legacy At Stake This Time." If Stern "allows a second round of NBA games to get slashed and gashed on his watch, or if he follows the lead of his old lieutenant, Gary Bettman, who once delivered the eulogy for an entire NHL season, then his legacy will look about as orderly as the Palace of Auburn Hills looked the night Ron Artest jumped into the stands." A friend of Stern's said, "That legacy is something David cares a tremendous amount about." O'Connor added, "If the NBA shuts down for business at a time when the sport is more interesting than it's been since Michael Jordan retired, then Stern will surrender history's benefit of the doubt. He will always have the game's globalization on his résumé, the Dream Team and the exploding mass appeal of a league once so troubled. ... But every commissioner has his or her Waterloos" (ESPN.com, 6/30). YAHOO SPORTS' Wojnarowski wrote the NBA's "old dictatorship is getting dictated to now, and everything changes with this lockout." Stern "cares deeply about his legacy." But unless he can convince owners "to back down, unless the players cave come autumn, say goodbye to the NBA for a full year." Wojnarowski: "And say goodbye to David Stern’s legacy, which will look like that of one more star player who stayed too long in the game, who was the last to know when it all passed him by" (SPORTS.YAHOO.com, 6/30).
THINGS NEED TO CHANGE: In Boston, Ron Borges writes the "major difference" between the NBA and NFL lockouts "is a significant one." Borges: "The NFL concedes everyone is making money. Those jokers just want to make more. The NBA, on the other hand, claims 22 of its 30 teams are losing money with one, the Hornets, so under water it is subsidized by the league. If this is true, the NBA may have a point trying to impose a hard cap" (BOSTON HERALD, 7/1). In Indianapolis, Bob Kravitz writes fans of smaller-market NBA franchises "need to see a fundamental change in the NBA's business model" or those teams are "likely to continue to struggle" (INDIANAPOLIS STAR, 7/1). In San Jose, Monte Poole writes, "A majority of NBA owners say they are losing money. Not all are exaggerating. Whereas the NFL is like Teflon in its amazing capacity to withstand assault, even when self-inflicted, the NBA is more like silk, ever vulnerable to anything less than optimum conditions" (SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS, 7/1). Meanwhile, in Boston, Charles Pierce wrote, "The plutocrats who own NBA teams have decided that the path trod by the plutocrats who run NFL teams is the one that they want to be on. Terrific. Some day in the dim future, historians are going to remember this time in history as the time when the people controlling the money and power in this country decided en masse that they were the only living people who counted" (BOSTON.com, 6/30).
