Dear NBA Lockout
Comparisons are the backbone of sports analysis. You can't give a fair estimation of any player, team, era or anything related to sports without something prior to measure it up to. LeBron vs. Kobe vs. Michael. Dwight Howard vs. Shaq. Showtime Lakers vs. Kobe & Shaq Lakers. Detroit Bad Boys vs. Detroit Bad Boys v2.0. Comparisons have a way of shortening the time capsule known as sports history, so that even the least knowledgeable basketball fans can join in the discussion. The dearth of information on NBA.com, basketball-reference.com and Wikipedia give us an archive of the happenings that make the NBA great. That said, one comparison that I'd rather not even have the chance to make is that concerning you, NBA Lockout.
In 1998, after Michael Jordan willed another 3 titles out of his beleaguered limbs, the NBA was at an impasse similar to that of today. The league had seen unparalleled levels of success, notoriety and viewership. An influx of young talent, namely from the 1996 Draft had restocked the rosters with stars that still play today. Yet, no one was happy with the league. Players and teams argued about player salaries. Team owners argued with the NBA offices about how little money they were making. Fans argued with fans about who was to blame for all of the arguing. Arguments, arguments and arguments. Sounds familiar, doesn't it?
NBA Lockout, in 1998 you brought my worst fears to fruition: a half-assed season; 50 games clearly devoid of the spark that made the NBA great during the early-to-mid 90s. It was painful to watch. No All-Star Game. A virtual vacuous shell of a season, that in retrospect, may as well have not even happened. An exciting, yet wary NBA Finals. These are the shadows that haunt me today, NBA Lockout. If you happen, that's all I can see. Months of deliberation and sitting in front of SportsCenter hoping for good news. Interviews with superstars and owners all blaming one another for losing money, when everyone should be bearing the onus.
At this point in NBA history, you would be absolutely destructive. Not as much from a monetary standpoint, but in terms of momentum. After your last inception, the amount of knocks that the NBA took was detestable. From waning viewership because no one could relate to stars or cared enough, to basketbrawls that painted the NBA in a thuggish light, to a vacuum of talent, it took the NBA another 8 years to regain its fire. Lockout, you would bring the NBA back into the dark ages of basketball. Those years from 1999 to around 2004 were boring by today's standards, no matter how many times teams tried to reignite themselves. Guys like Michael Olowokandi, Darius Miles, Trajon Langdon were cast into spotlights devoid of substance simply because you forced teams to look elsewhere for talent. And it's going to happen again. Just look at this past draft, all of the players that stayed in college, and it's obvious.
They say that those who don't learn from their history are doomed to repeat it. What makes your impending reappearance so sad is that you'll probably happen again next decade. In this age where the players clearly have more pull than management (just ask Carmelo), there's little reason to have a Collective Bargaining Agreement that lasts more than 6 or 7 years. Last year's free agent frenzy makes it so that every player averaging over 17 points a game thinks they can swindle their way into a $10M/year contract, and owners thinking they can buy a championship a la the Heat. Players see the dollar signs from million dollar endorsements on behalf of the league. At the same time, owners still see shrinking pockets, with 22 of the 30 franchises losing money. Owners see the balooning player egos and believe the only way to reign them in is to jump into you. Rather than have a real discussion about where the money is going, everyone wants to discuss why the money isn't going to them. Lockout, you bring the green-eyed monsters in every NBA personality out so that nobody wins. You did it in 1998 and if the NFL bears any similarity, you seem poised to do it again.
Do me a favor, lockout. Stay in the annals of NBA history. Keep all of your salary arbitration, endless meetings, arguments and debates in the past. Do me this favor and keep yourself from tainting what was a miraculous run of NBA growth with your money-hungry ideology. Do me this favor and keep the NBA from reverting back to a business. You can't decry the need for better sportsmanship and increased engagement while fighting over dollars. Do me this favor so that we don't have to go through an entire fall and winter of baseball talk. Long live the complete, unadulterated NBA, and death to a Wikipedia entry with 2011-2012 listed as a lockout season. That's a comparison or conversation I never want to have...