NBA could lose big if Lockout ends season

The first two weeks of the NBA season were cancelled last tonight, and it is a footnote.  Reasoning it became a footnote was because there were MLB playoff games and a NFL Monday night game.  Now the cancellation had been expected since late last week, but think if the NFL cancelled it first two weeks at some point, any other game would have been interrupted. 

The NBA lockout is much different than the NFL lockout that happened this past summer.   The biggest difference is that NBA teams are actually losing money, much of the doing of team owners.  The NFL made claims that they were losing money, but it was just a ploy that the NFL owners were trying to use to get a better deal.   The NBA has a full list of problems much of which will not be quick fixes, but if they want to keep the casual fan around they must get a deal done without losing any more games.  NBA does not have everything going for them like the NFL does.  Football is the biggest sport in this country because as a country we love violence.  We also have short attention spans, games on three days a week at most is much easier to follow then having games every day of the week. 

Personally I am not a really big NBA fan but I will watch it, but I won’t watch a bad basketball game.  I also won’t go out of my way to watch the Bulls play, if I miss a game I miss a game no big deal.  However I can’t remember the last time I missed more than a quarter of a Bears game, also will watch any game that is on. Growing up in Chicago, I was able to witness six NBA championships, the first three I really don’t remember, as I was too young.  But then the Bulls went through more than a decade of bad play and knew there was no chance of them doing anything.  That is one of the biggest differences between the NFL and NBA, with the NFL there is always hope for the team one roots for at the beginning of the season too come out of not where and make the playoffs.  In the NBA thought for the most part at the being of the season people know what to expect from the their team.  NBA is all about stars and the NFL is all about teams.  In the NBA a team needs two star players or a star and a bunch of good role players.  In the NFL a team needs no stars to compete; they just need guys who play.

In Chicago there is a sense of pride now in the Bulls that has been there since the championship teams.  The Bulls are good again and are a very young team.  They also have an elite player in Derrick Rose, but I fear that the Bulls will lose everything they have built if the season is cancelled much more than a few weeks.  People will need to rediscover the team, same thing happened with hockey after they came back from their lockout after missing the entire 2004-2005 season. Same thing happened with baseball after their strike in 1994-1995.  If the NBA doesn’t want to lose fans the need to come to an agreement by the end of the week at the latest.  Even if it is just a year deal and they continue talks on a longer deal.

Owners and Players get warped up in talks that they forget the people who they really affect and that is the people that work in the stadiums.  These people are the ones who are going to miss the money they would have earn during the season.  Most players are still getting checks from their team and will continue to receive a check until the end of October.  Owners are not living off money they receive from the teams many own other teams and or business, so yes they will lose money but it will not make them have to find another job.   

I hope i get to see more highlights like these ones sooner than later