It came to this Panda's attention through LeBron's leaving of the Cleveland Cavaliers and again throughout the last NBA lockout, that NBA owner's were under the impression that they owned a bit more than we as sports fans would consider they had ownership of. For me the idea was simple the players were under contract and beyond that they had every right to jump from team to team searching for better contracts, be it for money, or a better chance to win. What first broke my calm was Dan Gilbert's disgraceful verbage directed towards LeBron James, and it was also unnerving when fans jumped on this disrespectful bandwagon. Don't get me wrong I understand the emotion of losing your best chance of winning an NBA title, but acting out on it without having a bit of empathy for a player who had NO help for his entire first stay in Cleveland is to me shallow and not at all the way people should present themselves to the media. The fans I guess get a pass, but an owner of an NBA team? Childish acts seem to be expected in this day an age in sports I suppose but I for one expect it to come from young players not old men who should have the wisdom and if not the personnel to keep them from acting like spurned lovers cast aside for greener grasses.
Next was the Collective Bargaining Agreement, if a Panda ever had a doubt that billioners had no end to the depths of their greed this was when it was burnt to a crisp with some Superman heat vision. Yet all fans I talked to again had sided with the uber rich, funny that their arguement was that the players made enough money, strange when you do the actual math, 30 owners in the NBA, and I'm not even going to try to figure out how many players are in the NBA. So if I ever thought that 30 people combined should make more than give or take 500 people combined I would need a psycological examination more than I thought. Though the players are the greedy ones trying to maintain the 55% to 45% share of the profits, where the owners got slighltly less of the cut, seems strange when one side of the pie is cut into alot more parts. It's all for not as with the power to lockout, the owners got a 50/50 cut of said pie and us fans lost a portion of an NBA season due to unnecessary greed, but why should any of us really be shocked, they are quite childish and apparently racist as well, the owners ofcourse.
Fastforward to the present as we have the second owner forced to sell due to public racist comments, makes it all come together so well for my mind, if they actually believe they own these players than it is all too crystal clear to understand why they would have no ability to care for these brilliant athelete's future monetary security.
In the end we can only hope that the media can atleast help a bit, though that has me more in doubt than any other possible solution to this very pressing problem in one of the most successful professional sports association in the world.
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