OKLHOMA CITY, November 6, 2011—NBA players and owners reportedly met for eight hours on Saturday for labor meetings, and they seem more apart than ever with a deadline set by Commissioner David Stern. Stern's ultimatum put the upcoming season in more jeopardy then ever of being cancelled if the players do not agree to the owners' demands by Wednesday.
The big hold up in negotiations has been the split of basketball related income. Going into the lockout it was a 57/43 split in favor of the players. The players have come down to as low as 52 percent. The latest proposal from the owners is 50/50 by Wednesday, and if the players don’t take it then it goes down to 47/53 in favor of the owners.
There are no plans as of right now for any meetings prior to Wednesday’s magic deadline.
Things looked good a week ago and now they look worse than ever. The fans had been bracing for a lost season. Now it’s time to not only plan for no NBA, but to plan for some events that can take its place.
The players have had the right idea by playing in pick-up and charity games across the globe. Kevin Durant has even played flag football with a fraternity who invited him via Twitter. A few weeks before that, Durant hosted his own charity game in Oklahoma City that was billed as “Kevin Durant vs. Blake Griffin.”
Griffin had to pull out because of an injury, but this is the right idea. We need some more match-ups with this kind of billing. Players from rival schools need to get a game together, or even rival NBA players.
Remember this?
In 1995 this was a pay-per-view set up by Taco Bell. It ended up not happening because Hakeem hurt his back, but we need more of this.
One-on-ones would be hard to pull off, so how about a real life NBA Jams tournament like the video game by EA Sports? We could have a two-on-two tournament on a smaller than regulation court. It would be a dunk-fest. We could get the guy that does the announcing on the game do the PA for the tournament: “He’s on fire!”
These ideas are gold. How about it EA Sports?
Don’t worry fans, I’m on it. I am tweeting Durant right now.
Jason Black is a regular sports contributor on America's Morning News and America's Radio News. Coincidently, or not, he also does movie reviews for KJ103 and102.1 Kissin' Country. You can also follow Jason on Twitter @jasonblack23.
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