Derek Fisher and the NBA Players Are Dead Wrong About One Key Issue

David Stern is threatening the players, again. The players union is trying to talk tough, again. All this he said-he said is getting old.

How did we get here? And how do we get back to playing basketball?

Those are the only questions we should be asking right now. Let's figure out how the system fell apart, and then let's put it back together. 

Or let's just bust the whole damn thing into a million pieces and start over.

But enough of the back and forth already, okay?

The thing you have to understand above everything else, is that no business, sports league, or any other kind of financial enterprise is healthy when a large portion of money is being wasted.  Can we all agree on that? If guys are "stealing money" (not producing jack despite being paid an obscene salary), then that hurts the entire organization, league, business model, etc.

The players, who are justified in some of their arguments, can't seem to grasp this concept.

How is it a good thing for guys to sign these mega contracts, only to then sit back, not perform and totally jack up a team's salary cap? How can it be a good thing for a team to be held hostage by some spoiled player that quits working on his game? 

That is a sin against basketball, and Derek Fisher and any player who says otherwise should be ashamed of himself!

You get paid to play a game, one that you love!  In what walk of life can you just sign a contract that guarantees you tens of millions of dollars over several years even if you stop working hard? 

Derek Fisher, I don't care how you spin it, you are never going to convince average, hard-working Americans that this is a good thing.

Try explaining that to the auto workers in Detroit who lost their jobs, or to the kid fresh out of college that took out tens of thousands of dollars in student loans, but now he can't get a job. Try explaining that to the cop working a tough beat in a bad neighborhood that makes less in a year than you make in one week. Try explaining that to a teacher in an inner city school that has to work a second job just to make ends meet.

We all love basketball, but we can't stomach these bad contracts that pay bums like Eddie Curry more to sit on the bench and get fatter than the rest of us will see in an entire lifetime of good, honest work. We can agree with you that the BRI should be split in your favor, and that the owners aren't losing as much as they say they are, but we can't go along with guys like Gilbert Arenas carrying guns into the workplace, yet he is still guaranteed millions of dollars.

Do the smart thing. Go to the table and tell the owners you will agree to non-guaranteed contracts. Tell them you will agree to shorter contracts. Tell them you are all ready to earn your paycheck.

That's what the rest of us are out here doing. Why are you any better than the rest of us?