NBA Lockout Poised to Last a Long Time

The NBA lockout of 2011 is barely a week old and already looks like it is here to stay for quite some time. Today ESPN's Howard Bryant compared the NBA's approach to negotiations with players to the Major League Baseball labor disputes in 1994, disputes that cost the league a season and stopped several players' seasons who were on pace to break records.

Key to the arguments in the NBA negotiations are why some franchises finances are in shambles. The owners say that they have lost money because of extravagant guaranteed player salaries and the lack of a hard salary cap. The players retort that there is no evidence that shows their contracts are to blame. The franchises that are having trouble could very well be a result of mismanagement and overspending on other operations.

David Stern and the NBA owners have positioned themselves much like the NHL did in 2004 and 2005, ready to cancel an entire season to force players into a deal that favors the league. The NHL players recently hired a major player in baseball's negotiations, Donald Fehr, to represent their union, showing that they are unhappy with the deal.

It is impossible to speculate on when the lockout will end. The players are unwilling to give up the contracts that they feel they have earned and the owners are unwilling to provide the financial information that shows why they are losing money. The loss of any playing time would certainly impact the league. Casual fans are unlikely to return to the league as quickly when money is hard to come by and prices keep rising.