On July 1, as the league’s collective bargaining agreement expired, the NBA’s owners locked out the players. Between that day and September 1, the two sides met for negotiations one time. They barely even spoke during July before they finally scheduled three meetings for August, and even then they only honored one of those meetings. The reason I am re-hashing this garbage is because the players have had three and a half months to do one simple thing – remain loyal to the fans. They failed, as did the owners.
Instead of reaching out to the fans to side with them, the players showed indifference, as many of them shifted their attention to Europe and China to get their big paychecks, a far-fetched yet complete slap in the face of the American NBA fans who have long lined the pockets of the owners and players. Instead of asking us to flex our muscles against the owners, the players, led by players union rep Derek Fisher and executive director Billy Hunter, just said, “Screw it, we’re willing to sit this one out.”
Until now. Because now, as yet another deadline has passed, the players finally went to their fan arsenal for some crucial ammunition. Too bad the chambers are empty.
