The other day, there was an eyebrow-raising report by former ESPN NBA analyst Chris Sheridan suggesting that the NBA and the players weren’t $7-8 billion apart, as had been widely reported. Instead, Sheridan, who is just running his own Go Daddy basic level website, suggested that both sides are only less than $3 billion apart, which would be good news if anyone cared right now. Hell, even the NBA’s advertisers are walking away and putting their $1 billion in Comedy Central and FX now.
Hey, that last part sounds important. I wonder if anything is being done about that.
The sides were far apart on economic issues and implementation of a hard salary cap, but NBA Commissioner David Stern has said there is time to reach a deal before postponement of training camps (set to open in early October) and cancellation of preseason games.
“There is clearly enough time,” Stern said, adding there are no deadlines to make decisions about training camps and preseason games. (Via USA Today)
Clearly! I mean, it’s not like there’s a deadline of September 15 before the preseason is completely scratched. Sure, the league denied ever setting a deadline like that, real or hypothetical, but why would anyone admit to having that deadline when they’re being so incredibly half-assed about meeting at this point?
Oh, but back to those advertising dollars, suddenly the NBA is feisty to have some meetings, with officials and players meeting today, tomorrow, and Friday. Again, the Lockout started on July 1 and the league and players have met twice since then. I’m all for effort, and I would love to see them prove me wrong and start the season on time. But if I’m an advertiser with a few million to spend, the NHL is looking pretty sexy to me right now.
