Things have taken an expected unexpected turn for the nasty in the ongoing debacle that is the NBA labor dispute. What had been postured as maybe the final throes of debate has now turned into an out-and-out siege, and the likelihood that we’ll see at least some part of 2011-12 is growing smaller by the minute.

So, as if you haven’t already had enough, I thought I’d throw out some links to pieces that have come out in the last couple of days that every Blazer fan, and NBAer in general should take a look at.

First there’s this.

Saying Adrian Wojnarowski is a sensationalist is a bit of an understatement. This piece set fire to Portland talk radio all Friday afternoon (so much so that I actually sat through an hour and a half of The Bald Face Truth while at work). Granted it is entirely speculation that Blazers’ owner Paul Allen did what he did because he wants to sell the team and escape north to the basketball-less Emerald City–Canzano made a cocked-eyed attempt at making sense of Woj’s argument by saying Allen is interested in a new CBA that makes small market teams more viable to inflate the value of the Blazers and dupe the team’s potential next owner, an argument that makes little to no sense since only somebody super rich would buy the team in the first place, and this city doesn’t care a wit about the dude running the team as long as the TEAM IS PLAYING, meaning it’s the team itself that’s valuable.

Whatever. At least the Blazers are in the news. And remember there’s no such thing as bad publicity.

After that, try this.

Chris Sheridan has been seemingly the lone positive voice in the leading voices that have spit out daily coverage of the lockout (and there have been many that deserve the highest praise. Two stand out above most: CBS’s Ken Berger and Howard Beck of The New York Times). Sheridan still seems to think that an 82-game season is possible. I’d love to get my hands on the drugs he’s on.

This piece is a sober, straight-forward look at some of the finer points of what is actually being negotiated. Seriously, some sobriety is needed in all this madness. And if you’re like me, there is no better sedative than an article full of percentage breakdowns and financial projections.

And finally, if you read one article about the hardships of arena employees, make sure it’s this.

The plight of the working man has taken center stage in discussions of all types in the last few years, seeing as unemployment is basically as bad as it has been in everybody’s lifetime. This lockout is no different. True, there has been a bit of pandering when it comes to the topic of players and owners settling their differences for the good of the people who need gyms to be open to cash paychecks, and there has also been some overall backlash to the whole angle of the struggle of the arena employee.

This piece is none of that. Here we have an extremely well written and lucid take on what it means to ACTUAL people to lose NBA games. Writers can argue objectively about this issue until they’re blue in the face. At the end of the day, among the ranks of those that draw paychecks to write about basketball (which, in case you were wondering does NOT include this writer) most will still get paid for their work–it’s not a coincidence that the coverage of Oregon high school football has gotten so much better this year. Those that work games for a living need there to be games to work. Hearing about it from the source makes that even more clear.

Ok. Read that stuff, then ignore everything you hear after that. I’m starting to think that the best thing we can do as fans is stop paying attention to what’s going on. If we can take the NBA labor dispute off the front page, then maybe all the boisterous fronting will stop, this thing can get resolved, and we can all get back to something that really matters. Hating on LeBron.

Email me: mike@ripcityproject.com

Twitter: @mikeacker | @ripcityproject

As of right now, the first two weeks of the season are toast. It's probably just the beginning.

Unless you live under a rock, you’ve clearly seen that the NBA has now officially cancelled the first two weeks of the season. For Portland, that means vacated games against Andre Miller and the Denver Nuggets, Blake Griffin and the LA Clippers, and league MVP Derrick Rose and the Chicago Bulls. And that’s just the beginning.

It’s apparent now that the owners are willing to let the season go down in flames before they’ll budge on the money they want the players to give up. And can you blame them? I for one can’t. It’s their league, it’s their billions, and they have every right to want every last penny available.

In the 25th hour the NBPA put together a half-baked plan to drum up support for their cause, but trust me it will take more than that. Rich people want to stay rich; that goes double or triple for the super-duper rich. The unfortunate thing for the players is that the owners have the means to last for a LONG TIME without the league, and likely have the know how to play super hardball if it should come down to that. If we’ve learned anything about big business in this country it’s that people with money call the shots, and 10 times out of 10 they get what they want. That’s capitalism, or at least that’s the American version of capitalism. Why should the NBA be any different?

Sure owners and GMs made plenty of stupid decisions that they’re now trying to get bailed out of, but once again, there is a precedent for that fully established in this country. I’m not saying that the owners are right in what they’re doing, I’m just saying that at this point right and wrong is irrelevant. The owners OWN THE LEAGUE. With ownership comes certain privileges. One of those privileges is deciding how much they want to pay their employees. If the players wanted to have a league in which they made the rules about payments they definitely could. Just because a player owned and operated league has never existed doesn’t mean it wouldn’t be a fun experiment. It wouldn’t be the NBA–my guess of what it would be like is a lot of branstorming, playing in high school gyms, and maybe WWE style storyline building to create a narrative that fans could follow–but it might be where were headed.

Of course it’s not all the way over yet. Just the first two weeks are gone. According to commissioner David Stern they’ll take it two weeks at a time, piecemeal-ing the season to death, so there’s still hope will get some part of what’s left of 2011-12′s 82 games. I wouldn’t count on it though. Stern also said the NBPA is going to have to account for lost revenue when they come back to the bargaining table. Long story short: the players missed their chance to settle this thing in a clean and friendly manner.

They’ll be plenty of chatter on meetings, or on the fact that the sides might not be meeting, as things continue on. As we all know, once the season starts it’s over in the blink of an eye. Make no mistake, the lockout is very real, and has been real from the day it was first announced. There’s no doubt in my mind that the season will get cancelled if the owners don’t want to concede to the players’ demands.

And that’s where we are right now. The players believe that they’ll benefit from holding out a little longer, which it won’t, and the owners are steadfast in their plan to not blink. It’s a game of chicken, except that the players have nothing in their pocket that will make their bosses swerve off their chosen path. Their up against it now. The best they can do is realize that, bite the bullet, and get back to work.

They may be millionaires, but at this point they’re like every other employed person in this country. They work at the pleasure of those that sign their paychecks. I know it sounds harsh, and like I’m taking the side of management, but these guys should be happy they have a job, they’re are plenty of people right now that don’t.

Email me: mike@ripcityproject.com

Twitter: @mikeacker | @ripcityproject 

The President of the NBAPA (Billy Hunter on the left) and the Commissioner of the NBA (David Stern) are locked in a seemingly never ending labor battle, which has now failed to end for going on three months. Photo courtesy of Peachtreehoops.com.

Yesterday, I found myself talking to one of my co-workers who also happens to be a big-time Blazer fan. We were talking about the meeting that was scheduled to take place between the owners and members of the NBPA. From news we’d both gleaned from reputable sources it was beginning to look like progress was being made towards ending the lockout.

My co-Blazer fan and I allowed ourselves a little bit of optimism. For a moment it looked like there was an end in sight, and that the 2011-12 season might actually be saved.

Of course we all know what happened—if you don’t, here’s a brief summation: NOTHING—and here we are. A single day later, and it feels like the possibility of a season has managed to slide further into the distance.

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