As of July 1st, 12:00 AM ET, the NBA has locked out their players, and the league is without a Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), putting a halt to all trades, signings, and any communication between players, front offices, and coaches around the NBA.
“The expiring collective bargaining agreement created a broken system that produced huge financial losses for our teams,” said Adam Silver, the NBA deputy commissioner. ”We need a sustainable business model that allows all 30 teams to be able to compete for a championship, fairly compensates our players and provides teams, if well-managed, with an opportunity to be profitable.”
With the league losing as much as $300 million just last season, according to NBA commissioner David Stern, the players’ union and the owners struggled to find common ground, disagreeing on many new proposals from both sides, mainly the percentages each side would earn in relation to each other.
The last NBA lockout was in July 1998, lasting until January 1999, and it resulted in a 50-game season, 32 games shorter than the typical 82-game year.
Labor talks will continue for weeks to come, but many fear that the entire 2011-12 season will eventually be canceled, regarded by most as a slap in the face to NBA fans all over the world.
