Yesterday, Phillip wrote about how an 82 game season, compressed into a shorter time period, could potentially affect the Lakers. This was a topic of interest because going into Friday morning, both the owners and the players were optimistic about a deal being made to end the lockout. And with that optimism, came the prospect […]
Lockout News
The Lakers and Compressed Schedules
While watching some of the lockout coverage, the idea of still having an 82-game schedule should the lockout end by this weekend or early next week crept into my mind. I thought about the Lakers roster, and more importantly, the collective age of the members on their roster as it currently stands. I wondered how […]
Having Your Cake And Eating It Too
This seems to be the owners position in these CBA talks. Thursday night, after the third consecutive day of bargaining talks under the watchful eye of Federal mediator George Cohen, the sessions ended without a deal in place to bring the NBA back. The rhetoric was strong from both sides as the owners (represented by […]
Out In The Cold
The first two weeks of the NBA season are gone. David Stern and the owners – the ones that possess the power to make such a decision – decreed it so last night after another bargaining session that did nothing to bridge the gulf that exists between the players and the owners. Those who’ve followed my […]
Welcome To The Slaughterhouse
As you’ve likely heard by now, yesterday’s meetings between players and owners did not yield even a tentative agreement. Both sides described the talks as productive but not impactful enough to provide the needed breakthrough. “Today was not the day to get this done. We were not able to get close enough to close the […]
Raising The Floor
Competitive balance is the new buzzword of the lockout. It’s so important, it’s become a sticking point in the CBA negotiations. The owners want to limit team by team spending in order to preserve it. Whether through a hard cap or through a luxury tax system so punitive to curb spending, the thought is that if […]
Sharing The Revenue Pie
As the Collective Bargaining talks continue today, one of the ongoing topics of discussion is how to make teams profitable for the greater health of the league. This subject isn’t without controversy as there are many angles to view this from… Is owning an NBA team a business or something entirely different? What of the […]
Kobe’s Overseas Option Part III: The Italian Job?
Turkey. China. Italy. Kobe Bryant has been courted by the world during the NBA’s labor unrest and the latest offer from Italian Club Virtus Bologna is a doozy: Kobe Bryant has been offered a $6.7 million, one-season contract to play for the Italian team Virtus Bologna, appealing to his childhood memories of growing up in […]
Lockout Reading: Seeking A Compromise
Like any of you that visit this site to read up on the Lakers and the NBA in general, I’m tired of the lockout. Tired of the back and forth from both sides, from the divisive rhetoric, from the threat that games will be missed. Every additional day that passess without a resolution leads me to […]
Reading The Lockout Tea Leaves
Since the lockout began I’ve been optimistic that the owners and players would reach an agreement in a timely manner and that the NBA season would start on time. I had a variety of reasons for thinking this but the main one is that both sides understand the importance of building on the momentum of […]