NBA Lockout leaves Sports Geek crying in rain

As I’ve been reading multiple blog posts from one of my roommates I decided to incorporate his idea of having readers listen to different songs while reading my blog posts.

With the NBA Lockout now in full effect I will give you my two cents of sadness. The theme song for the NBA Lockout is Michael Jackson’s “Beat It.” That’s what I’m listening to as I’m writing this post, and I feel that it sends the message of what the NBA Lockout is all about.

“Beat It! Beat It! No one wants to be defeated!”

That’s the slogan of the NBA owners with the lockout now in place. They do not want to be defeated by the players any longer. All three sides of this triangle are at fault—and no, the fans are not third side of this pyramid of shame.

The NBA owners created a system 12 years ago that allowed for big contracts to be signed. It also created a system where players would be forced to stay with the teams that drafted them—they could make the most money by staying with those teams. That didn’t matter after last year’s circus called NBA Free Agency highlighted by LeBron James’ “Decision” to kick it in South Beach with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh.

Now the owners find themselves in a situation where they’re paying ridiculous sums of money to the likes of Darko Milicic. That was pillar one to fall.

Pillar two was the sliminess of player agents. The agents knew the system put in place. They’re purpose in life is to sell the players they represent at the highest price. They taught the players to take advantage of the system.

Players are naïve and greedy, so they were the third pillar to fall. They allowed the agents to teach them how to take advantage of the system, and we now have the problem we have.

The fans are the fourth pillar, and without the other three pillars it doesn’t matter that the fourth pillar is strong.

So now the NBA is in lockout mode with the NFL. Unlike the NFL, progress doesn’t seem possible in the NBA. It’s a very clouded future. Obviously the situation will be fixed one day and we’ll have basketball again, but when will that day be?

I love the NBA so I know I’ll be back to support the sport, but I fear that this lockout is going to hurt the popularity. The NBA has been the best it’s been in years. This lockout could set the sport back 10 years.