LeBron James: Why King James Is To Blame for Looming NBA Lockout
Last summer we witnessed the greatest free-agency period in the history of sports.
We all sat at the edge of our seats watching ESPN waiting to hear where LeBron James was going to take his talents to continue his career. As exciting as the entire process was, we can all collectively look back and blame the looming NBA lockout on King James and the free-agent class of 2010.
The Association is currently in the hands of the superstars. They decide their fate and leave their former organizations out to dry in the process. At times, their former home is left with nothing as we saw in the cases of Cleveland with James and Toronto with Chris Bosh.
The owners are sick and tired of having their employees dictate their fate, which is why we are all gearing up for a lengthy lockout as the owners look to take back control of the league through the next collective bargaining agreement. From the South Florida Sun-Sentinel's Craig Davis, former deputy commissioner Russ Granik:
""’The sense I'm getting is that it's much like it was in 1998-99, that owners seem to be wedded to getting at least a large measure of changes they're asking for, and my feeling is they would be prepared to lose a season if necessary,’" Granik said in the podcast with ESPN's Ryen Russillo.
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At this point, it is difficult to blame the owners. Unlike the NFL lockout, we have to blame the players.
We saw Carmelo Anthony dictate exactly where he wanted to be traded to during this season. He held the Nuggets hostage. The front office had no choice but to trade their megastar because they would have been left just like Cleveland and Toronto—with nothing to show for their best player deserting them.
As of now, there is no stopping Dwight Howard, Chris Paul and Deron Williams from doing the same this year, which is why the owners desperately want to put an end to this fad.
They will look for some way to keep their superstars, either through a franchise tag or perhaps even the opportunity to pay one player any amount of money for however long they so desire in order to retain their services.
The owners will gladly risk the 2011 season in order to prevent being held hostage by their current megastar in the future. They will do anything in their power to change the current dynamic of the Association. We can thank James, Bosh, Anthony and the rest of the NBA megastars for putting the owners in this league-altering predicament, which could very well leave us without basketball for far too long.
