NBA Lockout: Why NBA Owners Shouldn't Listen to NHL Owners

The NFL lockout has given sports fans a reminder of how painful even an offseason without football can be.  If the lockout were to extend into the season, that pain would become 1,000 times worse.  Combine that suffering with the misery fans are feeling from the NBA lockout and the only possible antidote that would give relief this fall would be a playoff in college football.

Yeah, that’ll happen…when pigs can fly, or the greed in college football is put to an end—same likelihood.

According to ABC’s Dan Toman, ESPN’s Ric Bucher is saying that the NBA owners that also own NHL teams and went through the league’s 1996 lockout are telling the rest of the NBA’s owners that it’s worth losing an entire season as long as they get what they want.  And of course, the fans that make everything possible are once again being left out of any thought process.

NBC’s Kurt Helin notes that a lockout would halt the rising popularity of the league and he’s right.  After multiple NBA Finals featuring the San Antonio Spurs and the Detroit Pistons, the league’s rating weren’t exactly flourishing.  No offense to those franchises, but fundamental, defensive basketball teams with a lack of marketable players just don’t sell.

As David Stern once said, his dream NBA Finals is the Lakers against the Lakers because of the team’s massive fanbase.  With Los Angeles returning to the Finals three out of the past four years and fans tuning in to see Kobe Bryant and Company, the league’s popularity has skyrocketed.  Of course, LA matching up with their historic rival in the Boston Celtics twice has a lot to do with that as well.

The Lakers making the championship repeatedly has made a difference, but one man deserves most of the credit for the NBA’s rapid gain of popularity: LeBron James. 

Hate him or love him, "The Decision" united diehard and casual fans alike across the globe to either back up their hero, or root against their most hated player.  The Dallas Mavericks came out on top in 2011, but in terms of hype, popularity and attention, it was the year of the Big Three.

A full-season lockout doesn’t just kill the league’s momentum though; it kills the league’s top contender’s momentum.  The NBA is a league of stars and it aggressively markets those stars more than any other sport. 

Following a year-long lockout, Kobe would enter the 2011 regular season at 33 years old.  Dwyane Wade would be 30 and Steve Nash 38.  Age is something so precious in the world of sports and the league’s biggest stars that are seasoned veterans would lose an entire year of the second half of their careers.

Age isn’t the only factor affecting teams either.  Each player of an entire squad would lose a year on their contract which would shake up NBA rosters even more.  If fans aren’t fond of the league’s new trade-and-ask-questions-later mindset that makes roster sheets unrecognizable from year to year, a full-year lockout isn’t going to please them, that’s for sure.

The Miami Herald’s Israel Gutierrez explained the effect a long lockout would have on the Miami Heat’s Big Three:

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"If next season goes by the wayside, that means (Heat owner) Micky Arison has only two more seasons guaranteed with the Big 3 under contract. What could happen after that is too scary to even consider right now.” 

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ESPN’s Nick Borges explained further, saying: “James, Wade and Bosh have signed contracts though the 2015-16 season, but they have provisions that allow them to opt for free agency in 2014.”

The Miami Heat’s potential dynasty could end just like that and just imagine what that’ll do to the league’s popularity.  The consequences lead in one big cycle and there isn’t a positive outcome to be found.

Unlike the selfish NFL owners, it’s easy to understand the NBA owners' agenda.  The majority of teams are actually losing money.  That has to change, but taking an entire year to get a new CBA agreed upon isn’t going to do the trick.  

The owners may gain a bigger piece of pie in the process, but they’d be eating out of a significantly smaller pie.

David Daniels is a Featured Columnist at Bleacher Report and a Syndicated Writer. Follow him on Twitter.