I truly hope the owners stand firm and wait for the player union to collaspe - which is almost certain to happen.


Union will collapse? Certain to happen. Wow, you couldn't be more wrong if you tried. This thing will be settled within a week.

Well put.
 

And just think of all the missed pot that could be smoked on all those long overseas flights

i know what happened to this tour.  the promoter is cal darden, sr. who is a former ups executive from atlanta.  he also sits on the coca cola enterprise board, the target board and the cardinal health board as a director.  he has a son cal darden, jr. who was involved in a celebrity scam scandal a few years back.  cal darden, sr. started talking about organizing a world tour and telling everybody who would listen that he had 20 million dollars set aside to stage this event.  he wanted to hire 18 all-stars from the nba to form two teams who would play in 6 cities around the world.  but he clearly had trouble living up to his commitments and he had no experience putting a tour of this magnitude together.  he initially hired a world class sports events group referred to him by bryant's and rose's agents who had just come back from a well-funded, well-run all-star weekend in manila put up by this group.  but this group, after working 6 weeks on cal darden's project and not getting paid, despite numerous reassurances and promises, finally decided to move on as darden had breached his contract with them.  an interview with the group generated a no comment because they are currently in litigation with darden over breach of contract.

then he hired another sports events group based in lexington, kentucky to help him run the show.  he even got nike to support his tour.  darden hired a woman who was under contract with the first group who proceeded to give him locations previously developed by the first group.  for weeks, darden strung out his new tour organizers and finally paid them some money two days before the start of the first game.  well-advised players like derrick rose, russell westbrook, lebron james, chris paul refused to participate in what clearly was looking like a mess and a half of a tour.  bryant and durant, however, had been promised huge amounts of money to do the tour so they held on.  durant even backed out of a charity tour for the troops because it would conflict with the darden tour.

darden also promised the players he would cover them with disability insurance -- a significant cost of the tour, but never was able to show certificates of coverage.  there's more juicy shenanigans behind this but too much to write.  anyway, don't blame the players who were wise enough not to participate in what looked like a scam or at the very least a mess.  the blame rests clearly on the shoulders of cal darden, sr. (and maybe the agents of the two players who committed to participate!).  this just goes to show there are idiots everywhere who can be mesmerized by the promises of millions of dollars in paycheck. 

these superstars don't have to prove their marketability to anybody golliver, they are businesses within themselves.

Honestly, there's no telling what caused the failure of this.  Going on common sense, it's probably a money issue. The NBA players have NO idea how good they've got it.  I'm no fan of owners and management in the NFL labor situation, but the NBA is totally different.  HUGE minimum salary, guaranteed contracts and no testing for weed.  This lockout is essentially pointless. 

That being said, there is no reason not to do this all-star tour.  Free trip around the world to play easy games against other stars.  Sounds like a great idea unless you are a total layabout. Guess they've all been smoking too many spliffs and can't be bothered.

The league's superstars had a real opportunity to showcase their talents internationally and to prove their marketability here. Instead, the lockout continues and fans are forced to continue to cope with a basketball blackout..

What does this mean... the blogger is an idiot,..