Something's Missing

I woke up this morning and felt like there was something missing in my life. I knew it wasn't baseball because we've been enveloped with the boys of Summer since April. It wasn't the NFL but it nearly could have been. It wasn't the NHL because frankly, I don't follow it (no offense). And it definitely wasn't the PGA Tour, which returns to action this Thursday at Atlanta Athletic Club for the 4th and the final major of the season, the PGA Championship. After much deliberation, I realized what was missing. On this day last year, the New York Knicks signed Roger Mason to a free agent contract. Sure, it's not such big news since it's only Roger Mason who would play just 26 games last season. But one word stuck out to me. Season. Something the NBA had last year but now is void of until further notice. Fast forward one year since Roger Mason signed and look at what the Knicks are doing today. Well actually, they are legally not even allowed to speak to Roger Mason, or they will be fined a substantial amount of money. Wait. So you're telling me that players and teams cannot associate at all? Yep. In fact, the NBA under David Stern, filed two claims against the NBAPA, the players association, in a New York federal district court last Tuesday. How the hell did that happen? Well, as everyone knows, the NBA last locked out during the 1999-2000 season, shortening the standard 82-game schedule to 50 games. Back then the issue was mostly due to contracts and such and even though the season was shortened, the two sides (NBA and NBAPA) came out feeling much better about the future. The same cannot be said today. Since the lockout was instituted on July 1st, the two sides have barely spoken. The big dispute this time around includes ballooned player contracts but the biggest issue is league revenue. Last season, 22 of 30 teams lost money and the NBA lost over $300 million. Here's a disgusting statistic. The NFL splits team revenues 60/40 which means that a visiting team makes 40% of total revenue for a regular season game while the home team makes the other 60% of that revenue. You know what the split is for NBA games? 100/0. That's right. The home team takes all the earnings while the away team gets nothing. We're already seeing players contract to other leagues since no contact is allowed and players simply want to work. A number of players have already signed contracts to play overseas including Deron Williams while a number of others are in serious consideration to soon sign contracts including superstars like Dwayne Wade, Kobe Bryant and Dirk Nowitzki. Some players like Andre Iguodala believe the season is lost while others like Lebron James are still holding out hope for the upcoming season. In truth, the season does not start until Late October/Early November but we have already seen the Las Vegas Summer League cancelled and all rookie camps delayed which are invaluable to incoming draftees from this past year's class. As the NFL has shown us, the lack of off-season workouts can have deleterious effects on its players. A number of draftees including Giants rookie cornerback Prince Amukamara and Lions rookie running back Mikel Leshoure are both lost for the season due to training camp injuries. So this all sounds pretty bad right? Well, at this rate the NBA is sure to lose its season. Neither side has really been talking and most of the talks have been more negative than positive. Sure, it's all hunky dory that we get to see the rest of the boys of Summer, preseason NFL action tomorrow and the PGA's final major of the season this weekend but there's still something missing.