NBA players understand the impact of a lockout on league’s momentum – Basketball News
The NBA Players are worried about the looming lockout, and for good reason. They stand to lose games and money, but even more importantly, the players know they could lose fans.
There is no good time for a lockout, but this year seems a particularly poor choice. The NBA is on a roll. The league wowed fans throughout the year and topped it off with one of the most intriguing playoffs in recent memory. Add to that a stunning fairytale NBA Finals and you have a recipe for success and very high TV ratings.
However, all that now seems to be about to go to waste as the NBA heads for a lockout which could not only cost games, it could cost a season. Just days after the most watched NBA Finals since Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant combined to win their first title, reports started to point to what everyone had feared.
The lockout is coming.
The lockout can have far reaching consequences for the players and the owners. It will also have a pretty bad effect on the league. The NBA is on the verge of captivating the audience like never before. Where ever you look, there are fans clamouring to see the Big Three of LeBron James, Chris Bosh or Dwyane Wade in action. People yearn to watch budding stars like MVP Derrick Rose or scoring champion Kevin Durant. Old warhorses, the Los Angeles Lakers and the Boston Celtics still draw crowds and the Dallas Mavericks’ victory in the Finals this season, gave the whole league a feel good factor.
However all the progress, if halted at this juncture, could be for nothing as the league’s image suffers from the lockout. Whatever be the arguments of the players or the owners, from the outside it seems to greedy parties fighting over money. That can only harm the league.
And the players know that,
“The popularity is at the top,” said the Los Angeles forward Luke Walton. “It’s high, and the ratings were record-breaking the last few years, and from the fans’ perspective, the owners make a ton of money and are very wealthy, and the players make a ton of money and are very wealthy, so its kind of hard for them to sympathize with either side”
The support of fans is important for the players and important for the league as a whole. If the owners and players keep fighting over money and lose all the fans, there won’t be much money left for them at all.
“The idea of the lockout and losing fans is probably the scariest thing of all,” Walton added. “Even moreso than missing games or losing out on your salary for however long you lose those games, it’s losing the fan support because it’s at an all-time high right now.”
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