The NBA Lockout: EXPLAINED

After a season filled with drama of epic proportions captured the attention of sports fans worldwide last year, the NBA is back for another season in full force.....or maybe not. Correction: the NBA lockout is here in full force to ruin our already miserable lives full of heartless politicians and ego-driven celebrities. The collective bargaining agreement, which is a legal contract that the players and the league sign to set up that rules in which they operate under, has expired after being re-done in 2005. In the previous collective bargaining agreement, otherwise known as the CBA, an agreement was reached for 57 percent of Basketball Related Income (BRI) to go to the players with the remaining 43% going to the owners. This includes any income that the NBA receives such as ticket sales, TV rights agreements, parking and concession sales, arena club revenues etc. The agreement also established a salary cap which is the limit to the total amount of money NBA teams are allowed to spend on their roster. A soft salary cap was enacted on which meant teams could exceed their salary cap through different exceptions such as the Larry Bird Rule, which allows teams to re-sign their own players. Are you confused already? I hope not because we just got started.

With the previous CBA expiring after last season, the owners and the players had to come to a new agreement to re-establish what the rules and regulations of operation in the NBA were, but owners and players were unable to come to an agreement which caused the players to essentially “lockout” meaning that they wouldn’t report to camp or play in games unless a set of rules for the finances of the league were decided on. The owners argued that they have lost as much as $370 million combined last season, but the players argue that it’s not their fault that the owners have lost money when they pay players more money than they are worth such as Eddy Curry who made $11 million even though he missed over 60 games just two seasons ago. The players have also questioned the accusations by the owners when the Warriors were recently sold for a record $450 million last summer. Deadspin recently exposed the Nets using accounting tricks to make a $7 million profit look like a $28 million loss. The owners have proposed to split up BRI 50 percent a piece but the players are not budging and have said they will go as low as 52 percent. Who do you think will blink first? Stay tuned to this developing story.

Check out my other blogs from today:
Random Ramblings: http://bit.ly/pmkIFQ
College Experience, so far: http://bit.ly/pPVHTZ 

Random Ramblings

Steve Jobs

Very sad how an American hero so young died so soon. He's had a lot of stress throughout his life from not knowing his biological parents were nor even having a relationship with them, to being kicked out of his own company to having a child out of wedlock and abandoning the kid. He's made a lot of mistakes in his lives but I'm glad he's been hailed as a hero and he's been compared to some of the greatest humans to ever walk this earth such as Thomas Edison. I wish he would have initiated conversation with his birth parents and tried to forgive them no matter how wrong they may have been in giving him up for adoption. In a way, they can thank him because would he have been who he was had he not been given up for adoption and raised by the people he was raised by. I guess we'll never know. I also find it kind of funny, interesting and weird at the same time how Americans are so willing to accept an Arab-American who looks just like them in Steve Jobs but they can't stand to see Muslims in traditional wear or Muslims trying to have a place of worship that coincidentally is near Ground Zero. Interesting how our world works, but R.I.P. Steve Jobs.

Occupy Wall Street
I'm so glad to see Americans finally becoming politically-active during a non-election year and standing up for what they believe in. These people that you see on your TV stand for something that majority of us stand for: ending corporate greed. People seem to forget that before corporations took over the funding for the Tea Party and started to bash Obama, the Tea Party stood for the same thing. Most Americans on both sides of the spectrum believe that the people who caused this catastrophic mess deserve to pay for their actions. I applaud the actions of this group and I applaud the initial actions of the Tea Party to try and stop corporate greed but sadly we already know it's not going to happen. Why would President Obama, the Dems or Repubs vie to jail people that end up funding their election campaigns? I'm sure it would be a much needed political win for the President should he pursue something like that, but is he willing to "put country first" as he always loves to say to bring justice to those who are benefiting from the economic crisis? Hell no, and it shouldn't be a shocker to anyone. It's just the way our system works, there are positives to democracy and capitalism and there are just as many flaws to the system as well. Can those flaws be fixed? Yes. Will they be fixed? Probably not. But I want to thank all those protesters around the world for at least trying to fix those flaws, it's better than just sitting and doing nothing. Right?


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Kim Kardashian
I'm hella salty by girlfriend Kim K. is getting married to Nets forward Kris Humphries tonight on part 2 of their 2-night special on E! but it's cool. I watched part 1 yesterday and I honestly don't see how and why they got together, either it's A. to one-up Khloe or B. to make Reggie feel jealous, because honestly those two don't seem to have any chemistry but that's just me. I also hate this guy's sarcastic tone, there's moments for joking and fooling around and being sarcastic but sometimes you've gotta chill with all of that. I wish nothing but the best for them and I love the show and the family. It makes you almost want to be apart of that family and appreciate the family that you do have at the same time, doesn't it?

This is my jam right now! Bye!


Check out my other blogs: 
College Experience, so far: http://bit.ly/pPVHTZ 
NBA Lockout Explained:http://bit.ly/odcj1a