The NBA has balls

The NBA has done it. They crossed a line that even the NFL didn’t dare. They cancelled games and placed themselves in the crosshairs of fans’ scorn.

Weren’t they paying attention earlier this year when the NFL was in the midst of a lockout? There was an extremely negative reaction by fans that these two groups of extremely wealthy constituents could not come to an agreement as to how to split their billions in revenue. The NFL is the most popular sports league in America and not even they could avoid the fans’ wrath. Thanks to the fortitude of Patriots’ owner Robert Kraft they were able to work out a deal and not miss any games. But apparently the NBA missed the headlines. They missed how quickly fans turned on everyone involved. And now they have done it to themselves, completely unnecessarily.

The question remains who will be the NBA’s Bob Kraft? The problem is that NBA owners lack the iridescence of NFL owners. Kraft, Jerry Jones, the late Al Davis, even Dan Snyder are well known and garner some respect. In the NBA… not so much. Mark Cuban is certainly a beacon but if he’s not up to the task you’re left with Jerry Buss and maybe Michael Jordan, who is a second-year owner. Not exactly guys you can rally behind to get an agreement in place.

Everybody should get ready for a long season. Hockey season that is, since they will likely capitalize the most from the wandering sports fans who no longer have basketball to enjoy. And the NHL is a prime example of what happens when you cancel games. Their lockout wiped out the entire 2004-2005 season and they’ve only recently started recovering some of their attendance and viewership numbers. The NBA kicked the hornets’ nest -- as Stieg Larsson might say -- now they must prepare to get stung.