Out of Hibernation: The Closer weighs in on the NBA Lockout of 2011

I just want to start this of by saying that I've been quiet for a while now, and those who visit the site knows that The Closer has been in hibernation and hasn't said much since the lockout began, but I am tired of the fucking,  fake ass, bandwagon fans coming out and talking shit about the players of the NBA.  Please excuse my French but I had a big headed ass dude come up to me and ask "What do you think about the lockout?"  He then said "those players are so greedy and I wish I made a percentage of what they make. I wouldn’t complain about anything."  This usually isn't a big deal for me but the problem is this is a continuing issue with people and I came out of hibernation just to say that I am sick, I repeat I AM SICK OF THIS SHIT!  

During the conversation he spoke about how we the workers have no when it comes to the salaries that we earn from our employers and for the most part he is right. we don’t but this is the deal; as an employee of a large retail company, I can't go up to my boss and ask for a raise that will entitle me and all the other employees in the company to get half of the revenue that is earned.  I understand that will never happen, they might fire me or tell me to fuck off but the key difference between me as an employee and NBA players is very simple; If I take all the merchandise out of the retail store aka the product and I open doors for business once customers walk in and realize that the store is empty they will walk out and go down the street to our competition and shop there and we will very soon go out of business.  The key word in the prior sentence is product.  When you look at the NBA players they are that same product, that is who people pay top dollar to see.  So this answers the question of why the players have the right to ask for 50% or more because they are the product and they're the main event in the business of basketball, without the players there is no NBA and I'm not spending my money to go see David Stern's bitchass or the owners, I go to watch Kobe, Dwyane Wade and Allen Iverson, ye I said it, Allen Iverson and god dammit and he is still one of my favorite players and someone needs to call him.......your welcome Allen!  Anyways to get back to my rant, David Stern and his goons are trying to play this david versus Goliath game and we all know in that event who won (the little man) which is the NBA players not the little evil elf by the name of David Stern.  

I see Stern all the time on television using his resources "the media" to make the players look bad and they are playing the game of convincing the audience that the players are the bad guys in this fight.  The owners in the NBA are nothing more than business men that want to turn a profit and some of them don’t HAVE RESPECT FOR THE GAME, THEY'RE JUST SOME RICH DORK that had enough money to invest into a team.  To a point I understand their pain, I am a business major that has worked a  few years in banking and I know how investors think but all smart investors know when you invest it is a win or lose situation.  If you are in a low budget city with a consistent losing team, what you think the out come would be? Loser.  You will be a losing owner just like your bad losing team and with any business to grow and prosper you have to invest in the company meaning the cheap owners out there needs to invest in their team /investment to make it more profitable.  I'm not a Mark Cuban fan by any means but he spent the money and invested in the Dallas Mavericks and it finally paid off for him not just financially but with the ultimate prize the NBA championship and they'll have all year to brag about and perhaps two.  The same thing happen with the Miami Heat in 2006 and the Lakers and Celtics for many years.  To all the business owners out there this is a very easy formula to calculate, when you invest and put the time and hard work in you company and it still doesn't succeed, what do smart business men do?  

More than often the owners shut their businesses down and move on to next best thing, they don’t try to take their employees pay check because doing that will not make their business run any better.  At that point if one has a bad low budget city, then one would need to shut that factory down and move into a city that's more live, more prosperous, a city that is hungry and ready for one's business and what that business has to offer.  That is how successful businesses succeed and if these NBA owners or David Stern were smart, that’s what they would choose to do.  Another thing I would like to throw out there is that I know some players have gotten used to an extravagant life and perhaps haven't saved much money.  This has a created a situation where some of them maybe growing desperate and would be willing accept a bad deal just to have income again.  To all of the players in that situation, you can't be selfish and only look out for yourselves.  You have to understand that these negotiations are for the next 10 years and if you don’t get a fair deal out of this in the end you'll lose.  Please keep in mind that Billy Hunter is trying to get the best deal that he can for you and there's no I in team.  

My advice to all the NBA owners that don’t have a real interest in their team and whom only wants to walk around smoking Cuban cigars dressed in cheap leisure suits all the while sporting receding hairlines upstairs in their office's.......sell the fucking team!  To the NBA players, I ask that you keep hope alive and Billy Hunter does care about you and is trying his best to make the most practical deal for you.  Finally to all the fake fans out there that don’t know what the hell is going on, your opinion doesn't count and please try to do what has been very hard for you to do now and that is shut the fuck up.

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The Lockout is Called Greed

The Lockout is here, the beginning of a tug of war between NBA players and owners.  As fans we sit and watch this fight go on and it's irritating to know that this is even happening.  At this very moment we have   two major sports, the NBA and NFL being devastated by Greed.  For the record, I am not biased to either the player or the owners, but as a fan of the NBA I don’t like the fact that we could potentially lose an entire season over money bickering when I know the players are earning more than enough money; in fact, much more than the average Joe in the real world.  Just the idea of the players and the owners sitting back and arguing over money issues does not make any sense to me. 

First, as far as the player go, Fans support the players because they are drawn to the many talents of the players and the love for the game, and I do not wish to take that support away, but if one were to look at their lifestyles they would come to the conclusion that the players earn more than enough money as is. Now this is my opinion and I feel this way because we all see what professional athletes make, we see the cars, the houses, and the girls.  The so called baller lifestyle supports a large amount of money being wasted on living way beyond the means of an average person.  When we have a chance to see up close and personal player interviews, we hear similar life stories of growing up in single parent homes and not having much.  Like the saying goes “if you don’t know how to make a million dollars you will not know how to keep it”, which is very accurate and that's the reason some players don’t understand how to handle the millions being thrown at them.

Some players often become the next victim to the vultures out there waiting for them to sign the dotted line so they can move in and attack their prey...the players.  I pity the players that don't know what they're getting themselves into but at the end of the day each individual has to take ownership and control of their own lives and be aware of the dangers out there.  The players need to be responsible enough to take a more in depth look to what they are getting into. We often hear of players that go broke and while others keep their statuses, I often ask myself  "with the amount of money given to them, why are there players who are financially responsible and then others who are not?" and I don’t think many of these players even think about that.  Maybe they are too busy thinking about the number of cars they will drive, how many homes they are going to be able to afford, or the sizes of those homes to make sure they have plenty of closets for their colossal wardrobes ad for the many parties they are going to host.  Shall I continue?  It seems as if they have lost the true feeling of “Love for the game” and that they are more concerned about being a celebrity rather than an appreciated player.  Have they lost touch of all the things they all thought about when they didn't have money?  That's why they become very easy targets, because at the moment they’re only thinking of what they want to do with the money rather than how to keep it.  It’s like taking candy from a baby and I think the baby will give a bigger fight than the players. In reality bad financial decisions not only afflicts the players but it happens to many Americans that don’t know how to handle their money in the modern world as we call it a (ponzi scheme).  Let’s get back to point, the problem is the players earn too much money whenever they buy themselves too many things that they really don’t need.  Take vehicles for example, we all need some type of transportation to get around and back and forth but does one really need 15 exotic cars or one the cost as much as a house, a large house.  They say you’re not a baller unless you have a Bentley, well I say you're not a baller unless you can buy a Bentley and afford to keep it well after your 15 year pro career.  My advice to the players would be to stop spending money on the unnecessary and then you wouldn't have to earn so much money to support the baller lifestyle.  If the players can minimize the baller lifestlye then they can play the game they say they love for the fans (the ones that make your paycheck possible) and your legacy, the same game they played for long hours in their youth and by the way ( for FREEEEE). 

Joe Johnson's Truck

Secondly, the owners are very greedy as well and they have the same issues the players have with the spending of money but the difference is that they are the boss, and most of you them didn't depend on a 10-20 year athletic careers.  The owners are the bosses for a reason and that’s because they have money and many owners understand how to make more; in fact even in a lockout many owners are still earning large sums of money through other investments and many of them will own the Bentley a lot longer than the players but that’s why they are more Greedy than the players because like many corporations, anytime the company says they're losing money the first thing they do is cut the payroll and they're still paying out big bonuses to the CEO (OWNER).  The owners brought these issues on themselves because they started giving out crazy max contracts to players and to get the best they feel they have to pay top dollar.  Once one crazy owner decides to go AWOL, the others follow and then they get a league full of overpaid athletes that don’t know how to spend their money but want to keep getting paid top dollars to support their extravagant life styles and angry owners because they have over paid players and bad team results, like the Gilbert Arenas, Grant Hill on crutches, and my new favorite joke of the decade the Joe Johnson contracts, WTF!  Did you have the chance to see the big 200 gallon truck Johnson has?  It's another example of bad spending.  The owners have created Frankenstein's Monster and now they are having a hard time taming it, and that’s they're problem.  I don't feel as a fan that I have to suffer because of they're ignorant decisions; this makes me feel like it's Wall Street all over again....we pay for rich people's bad decision making. I say enough of the foolishness and both parties needs to get their acts together and let’s make the upcoming season a reality.  Don't lose a season over the bickering, give the fans basketball and stop being greedy.

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