The current players are way overpaid and do not appreciate the "gift" they receive. All over the world people are supporting the "occupy" theme which positions the "people" vs the elite population, the so-called the Wall Street gang.  The occupy protests should be at every NBA training camp. Uneducated, over pampered, unable to support family values, greedy, tatoo crazy, et. al. is the slogan for the NBAPA. What a joke. They are arguing over a salary difefrence that regardless of who prevails is trivial to the players, and not worth the grandstanding. Why should these guys play for millions of dollars -- they have millions already. Its all about ego -- not mney. The players want the owners to beg. I canceled my season tickets (33 years) last summer and will never buy another NBA ticket. I can not contribute a penny to that game. My support goes to the college game which of course is corrupted by the same NBA players that I have disdain for anyway. Fans can't win.
 
When the players wish to pony up the price of a NBA team then they will have some level of understanding of the inequity which the players seek. Ask MJ his view today vs his playing days.

Redwings, I said the same thing about the NFL. People seemed to be too stupid to understand my point and too lazy to do something as simple as boycotting the NFL sponsors. Boycott the sponsors and you can still get the point across without missing any games.

Small problem w/boycotting NFL sponsors.  We wouldn't be able to drink beer, booze or anything else except French wine.  My hatred of anything French means I would rather die of thirst than drink Perrier or anything else the Frogs produce.  I can cancel the NFL Ticket, I can go fishing on Sundays and not watch games, I could even stop playing Fantasy, but I ain't giving up my Miller Lite.  Sorry.

I hope they can get a deal done ASAP! This is a slick way for Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban to get his message out without being fined by NBA Commissioner David Stern like some other owners have been for saying stuff. That may or may not be the case here, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was and let's get this thing settled. 

Cubans brother only cares about his courtside seats. What do you expect him to say?

Redwings, I said the same thing about the NFL. People seemed to be too stupid to understand my point and too lazy to do something as simple as boycotting the NFL sponsors. Boycott the sponsors and you can still get the point across without missing any games.

Owners take all the risk pay the lease on the arenas, pay all the employee's and at the end of the day most don't make a profit.   And the players get more than 50% of revenue? What am I missing?  Most jobs you would be lucky to get 40% of what you produce as an employee.....

Why would the owners budge on 50-50?  You can sell it to the public that 50-50 is a fair deal.  

The players have far more to lose than the owners.  The players lose 50% of the revenue, but the owners have to subtract variable expenses from THEIR 50%, so players collectively lose considerably more per game missed than the owners.  

A lot of players also have little income to fall back on.  Moving to 51% makes no sense.  If the players don't move to 50-50 and the season is cancelled, the owners can just offer less than 50-50 and the players will still be crawling back.

I have had it! I'm done I will not watch an NBA game or go to an NBA game from this point on and forget about the NBA package! I enjoy college basketball and its refreshing to watch kids play just for the love of the game. Im only one person but i really hope I am one of many that feel this way. This is our country people. If we are going to pay these salaries and elect these people in to office then they better damn well start to listen or know a change is a commin!

You know what?  Sports fans COULD make a difference if they wanted to and change the way every sports organization out there does business.  This is the year 2011, not 1991.  Twenty years ago it would have been near impossible to organize, but in today's world it's not impossible to do.  With internet and the technology available today, fans could easily boycott NBA games and teach everybody a lesson.  Whether you're on the other player's side or owner's side like I am, it doesn't matter.  As long as everybody keeps on paying and/or keeps on turning their televisions on to watch games, nobody will ever again care about the average fan. 

And why would anything change? If you were an owner of an NBA team and regardless of anything you do, fans never turn their back on you, why would you change how you think?  If you're an NBA player and you know regardless of how you play, you'll always make guaranteed money and the fans will still show up, why would you care?

As fans it's easy to say we would care.... but if we were in their position and influenced by others around us, we wouldn't be any different. 

I suspect that about now or sometime prior to my posthing this you feel like a complete moron for not even reading my Twitter profile or emailing me to inquire about the tweet in question. If you had you would know that I have no conneciton to the Mavericks whatsoever.  My tweet was the same rank speculation that every other NBA pundit is engaging in. 

Brian Cuban

Lets talk about percentages. If 98% of these guys weren't in the NBA they would be bagging groceries or in jail. On the other side of the coin you have owners who have sucked 99% of purity from the "game" to turn the NBA in to a revenue machine. Literally billions of dollars a year generated and these guys cant come to an agreement? Unfortuantely this is a microcosim of what our country is today.  Its all about greed, money and who has more. Somewhere along the line things in this country have gone terribly wrong. From the sports and athletes we used to love to watch to the representitives we eelct to represent this country. We support them and pay their salaries but they care nothing about us. Nothing about seting examples for our children. Nothing about whats best for our families.

I have had it! I'm done I will not watch an NBA game or go to an NBA game from this point on and forget about the NBA package! I enjoy college basketball and its refreshing to watch kids play just for the love of the game. Im only one person but i really hope I am one of many that feel this way. This is our country people. If we are going to pay these salaries and elect these people in to office then they better damn well start to listen or know a change is a commin!