NBA lockout is officially on

[Panthers128]

in other news, crime just went up

I laughed out loud.

[SOJA]

I'm beginning to loathe the word lockout

[bes628]

I'm beginning to loathe the word lockout

just beginning ?

[Mvp2014]

the end is near

[pantherfan49]

Wait till Nascar drivers lock out. Rampage breaks out across NC.

[HeatCheck]

I'm glad Bob Johnson is no longer owner.

He would be freaking out right now. He went into this whole basketball ownership thing with the wrong mindset. He wanted to make money. And if that's an owner's top priority, then you know you can't be successful as a team. I wonder how he would have handled the lockout.

[mr beauxjangles]

There hasn't been a work stoppage like this in the NBA since LeBron took the floor in the fourth quarter.

[CarolinaPride5]

Sucks... I don't know what to do with myself now. NFL lockout sucks, but the NBA is a lot bigger part of my life.

No... Lakers... Basketball... :(

[King Taharqa]

I'm glad Bob Johnson is no longer owner.

He would be freaking out right now. He went into this whole basketball ownership thing with the wrong mindset. He wanted to make money. And if that's an owner's top priority, then you know you can't be successful as a team. I wonder how he would have handled the lockout.

My dude, every NBA owner out there gets in it to make money. Nobody goes in with the mindset "I want to lose money". If you think Jerry Buss, Cuban, Krause, etc arent interested in making money, I got some land out in the Outer Banks I could sell you. Speaking of which, Bob Johnson in his tenure as our owner spent more money than MJ has as our owner. In fact, MJ is doing the opposite of what Bob was pressured into doing, slashing payroll, and purposely making our team worse to build thru the draft. Because of the environment here at the time, Bob Johnson's regime had no chance of even entertaining tanking seasons or going into "total rebuild" mode. It was playoffs or else. Gerald Wallace, Emeka Okafor, Chandler, etc these are all HUGE contracts that were either given out or picked up with a "WIN NOW" mentality. Do tell what big name FA or which of our own players has Jordan re-signed or spent money on? NONE. I dont understand why people cant just say "I didnt like Bob Johnson" rather than portray him as something he wasnt. To this point, Jordan hasnt proven to be as good or better owner than Bob. Thats not to say Bob was great or that Jordan cant be better, but at this point, he's taken the torch and hasnt done much with it yet. I dont think Bob would've handled this lockout any different than the other owners are. In fact, he probably would've been on board 110% since he lost money every year he held the team here.

[King Taharqa]

This lockout will suck worse than the NFL one. The main reason why is because the issues being used to justify it arent the real problem. Player salaries are not the NBA's problem. Overexpansion and shitty GMing are. Doesnt matter how much cap space you give a team like the Cavs, they're still gonna be the Cavs (as their draft this year shows). Shitty GMs are the ones who give out those HUGE contracts to the Joe Johnsons and Rashard Lewis' of the world, no one put a gun to their heads and made them do it. Now the owners want to take away from the players because they cant even self police themselves to maintain order with the payscale. I guarantee you when the smoke clears from this lockout, Stern and the NBA will continue to show favoritism to certain teams like they have since the league's inception. A TV driven league like the NBA will never have true "parity" and cutting player's salaries isnt gonna make GMs magically figure out how to build contenders. There's a reason certain teams like the Clips, Warriors, etc LIVE in the lottery every year no matter how much talent they bring in. Telling Blake Griffin he can only make 60 mill instead of 80 mill isnt gonna fix that.

[pantherfan49]

This lockout will suck worse than the NFL one. The main reason why is because the issues being used to justify it arent the real problem. Player salaries are not the NBA's problem. Overexpansion and pooty GMing are. Doesnt matter how much cap space you give a team like the Cavs, they're still gonna be the Cavs (as their draft this year shows). pooty GMs are the ones who give out those HUGE contracts to the Joe Johnsons and Rashard Lewis' of the world, no one put a gun to their heads and made them do it. Now the owners want to take away from the players because they cant even self police themselves to maintain order with the payscale. I guarantee you when the smoke clears from this lockout, Stern and the NBA will continue to show favoritism to certain teams like they have since the league's inception. A TV driven league like the NBA will never have true "parity" and cutting player's salaries isnt gonna make GMs magically figure out how to build contenders. There's a reason certain teams like the Clips, Warriors, etc LIVE in the lottery every year no matter how much talent they bring in. Telling Blake Griffin he can only make 60 mill instead of 80 mill isnt gonna fix that.

True. But if there was a real cap, the owners wouldn't have shelled out those kinds of dollars to those players.

[X-Clown]

KT, how you can prop up Bob and bash MJ in one post for their fiscal policies, but then make another one blaming the lockout on owners who have made more Bob Johnson like moves than ones that MJ has made?

[King Taharqa]

KT, how you can prop up Bob and bash MJ in one post for their fiscal policies, but then make another one blaming the lockout on owners who have made more Bob Johnson like moves than ones that MJ has made?

I was responding to a post that implied Bob Johnson was only out for money, when the fact is he took losses every year here. If Bob had traded Wallace and purposely tanked games, would people call him smart and say he wants to win? Or would they say hes cheap and dont care? Bob overpaid Emeka but he never gave out a Joe Johnson/Rashard Lewis type deal. As for the blunders he and other owners made or make wont be solved by.cutting salary. Getting rid of a few teams is really the best option. Ever since inception, its been about 3-4 dominant teams with the rest of the league teetering on mediocrity. I just dont see that changing.

[Panthers128]

The players make too much money. Various owners are losing money so it makes no sense for them to keep paying players these ridiculous contracts. They have to create a system that is profitable for all teams or they can do away with half the teams.

Any other solution isn't realistic. I am no lawyer or economic strategist so obviously I don't know what they can do to make this happen, but nobody will want to own a team that is losing money.

The players deny the teams are losing money... I find that hard to believe. Anyone who watches the games sees how often arenas are empty. I also doubt so many owners would be selling teams and wanting to relocate if everything was going well.