What is going to happen with the NBA for the upcoming season?  Even in the midst of an exciting MLB finale between the Cardinals and the Rangers, and even nearing the halfway point of a great NFL season, we’re still blue about the very real possibility of an NBA strike.  What is the latest news to emerge from the offices and the empty locker rooms?

Things are looking downright scary, since the latest news is that there are some very hard feelings between players and owners, and racial tension, may even have something to do with it.  The latest meeting saw Derek Fisher claim that owners were lying to players, and from there name-calling began to increase.  The Reverend Jesse Jackson is actually very concerned that the situation could get ugly, perhaps evne degenerating “into names and language that’s hard to take back.”

Bryant Gumbel recently added some fodder to the fire, by suggesting NBA commissioner David Stern was a bully when it comes to negotiating with players.  Gumbel even made a racial comment in a recent interview stating that Stern was basically behaving like a “modern plantation overseer.”

Aside from racial implications, the biggest issue is most assuredly the pay cut that is destined to happy.  The league owners (which do include mostly senior-aged white men) are talking about a pay cut of almost $300 million dollars a year.  We also know that many NBA players have expressed an interest in playing basketball overseas.  Indeed, with in-demand players, and with wealthy league owners, the likely losers in this scenario will be the fans of professional basketball.

There is a nice thought in the midst of all this heated argument, and that is that the players themselves are happy to play ball–and even to do it for free.  Recently, some teammates of Michael Beasley all showed up and played an exhibition game at an Osseo High School.  What was a simple game for charity actually became a major NBA exhibition game.  The likes of Wes Johnson, Anthony Randolph and Dorell Wright showed up.

Of course, the day was not without a few conspicuous no-shows: Kevin Durant, Kevin Love, DeMarcus Cousins and John Wall did not show up to the event despite advertised appearances.

What is going to happen to the NBA in 2012?

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 22nd, 2011 at 12:59 pm and is filed under NBA. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.