For a few years now, we've had the luxury of ignoring our own division for the most part. The Knicks were always waiting for next year, the Raptors were still recovering from the Vince Carter era, the Nets were rebuilding, and the Sixers were just sort of stuck in neutral. Now the Knicks are loaded on offense, the Raptors are at least enjoying the growth of Bargnani, the Nets are players for Dwight Howard, and the Sixers just so happen to be at the top of the standings right now. But are they legit?
The Point Forward " Posts Can Sixers hold up against NBA’s elite?
Here’s what I’m prepared say about the Sixers, sitting at 6-2, sporting a top-five offense and a top-five defense, leading the Atlantic Division and looking like a top-five overall team in the eyes of many: This is a very good team, one worth rooting for if you like unselfish, disciplined team basketball on both ends of the floor. They may well win the Atlantic Division, with Boston struggling to find itself (and probably content with the sixth seed if it comes to it) and the Knicks doing a yin-yang by the day. They are athletic, young, deep and long on the perimeter, and they will be an absolute pain for any opponent on any night. But let’s go easy on putting them among the league’s elite, despite the hot start.
We'll see if they can maintain this pace or if it is one of those flukes of a lockout shortened season. Regardless, it doesn't seem like the Celtics will be able to slide through the Atlantic Division any longer.
For more on the Sixers as "media darlings" see our friends' take over at Liberty Ballers.
By the way, here's a quick look at where some "Power Rankings" slot the Celtics.
"This is the end, my only friend, the end." - The Doors
Is tomorrow the end of the lockout? Or the beginning of the end of the season? Or the end of hope for reason and sanity? Or perhaps another dead end. All I know is I'm at my wits end.
Standoffs, media stakeouts, marathon bargaining sessions, cancelled games, mediators, lawyers, unions, agents, revenue sharing, BRI, system issues, posturing, propaganda, grandstanding, fake deadlines, bluffs, bluster, ultimatums, calling bluffs, decertification, accusations, bad slavery analogies, ...on and on it goes, and where it stops, nobody cares. Well, the fans care, but who really cares about them?
One of the interesting phenomenons to come out of the NBA lockout has been the vehemence with which many fans have "taken sides". You can't read a fan discussion without people proudly announcing that they are "pro-owner" or "on the players' side". We've seen both fans and NBA writers resort to some fairly ugly language in arguing why their "side" is in "right" and the other side is "wrong". All of this has come despite the fact that there is no objective evidence that either the players or owners care about the fans in this dispute at all.
So, why do fans choose sides? A lot of it is that for many of us, the reason we love sports is because we love competition. The lockout, at its core, is a competition, which very clearly pits two sides against one another. It's not quite Celtics versus Lakers, but it's hard to see an outcome that won't involve one side being branded as the "winner", while the other is the "loser". Fans naturally love to back winners, which is why many are declaring their allegiances.
Other fans are influenced by their own personal convictions. Some will be "pro-labor" in almost any employee / employer dispute; others will be anti-union, no matter what the circumstances. Some see race as a factor here, and gravitate toward the players as a matter of social justice. Others see the players as prima donnas who want to have their cake and eat it too, earning millions of dollar while coasting by on their talent; Eddy Curry and Vin Baker are poster boys for those fans who adopt this view.
In the end, though, I personally think it's silly, to get worked up over who "wins". I'm not talking about the fans who think one side makes more sense than the other. No, I mean the passionate, hardcore true believers, the ones who want to see the owners crush the players, or the fans who would prefer the players to sit out the season rather than make a "bad" deal.
We're talking about a group of approximately 500 people who can't decide how to divvy up $4 billion in revenue. Nobody has clean hands here. Sure, it was the owners who locked the players out, but if the roles were reversed, would the players behave any differently? I think not. Collectively, the two sides are a group of millionaires and billionaires who are completely out of touch with the reality of the average American. They'd rather slaughter their golden goose than cave over approximately $40 million per side in annual revenue. These aren't particularly likable people, and that's even before getting into the agents and the lawyers, etc.
Are these really the people you want to be defending? Is it really going to matter in your life one iota if the two sides meet in the middle at 51/49, rather than holding out for that last 1%? Are the flame wars and strident statements really necessary? I'm truly curious: why do you care? Isn't playing basketball the thing that matters here, rather than some imaginary ideal of "fairness"?
I say, just play. Both sides, give in. Or, better yet, give back. Players, owners, listen up: you want this lockout to be over without "giving in" and "losing face"? Do you want to "stand on principle"? Here's the solution: Players get 50% of BRI, owners get 48%, and... the fans get 2%. Take that $80 million, and redistribute to the fans in the way of free tickets. That's approximately 1300 tickets at $50 each per 41 home games. That's a plan I can get fired up about. All the rest of this? It's just nonsense that's not worth losing sleep over. If you're one of those fans who is really going to be upset if your side "caves", I'd suggest you take a step back and re-examine your priorities. Neither side cares about you, so why waste your breath defending them?
Time to take out your angst on some poor, unsuspecting, under-performing slob of yesteryear. Nominate the worst Celtics ever and we'll put them to vote in a day or so. I'll even pick some of your explanations to add to the post - so feel free to get creative when you state your case.
And if we have enough fun with this, we might even have to stretch it out to a starting 5 lineup.
Have fun.
The owners and players are going to meet with a mediator. I suppose this should be seen as a positive turn of events but it is important to note that mediation is not arbitration. The sides are not bound by anything the mediator says, but at least he can get the two talking in the right direction (lawyers, please feel free to clarify).
Our friend J.A. Sherman at Welcome to Loud City has some details on the mediator.
NBA Lockout: Owners, Players to Meet With Mediator - Welcome to Loud City
The independent federal mediator will be a man named George Cohen, who is the director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service. Cohen has already been in contact with each side, so he is familiar with the situation and it looks like the negotiation mediation is on an expedited schedule. Mr. Cohen comes with some high bona fides , as you can read on his bio page. Furthermore, Cohen is quite familiar with the collective bargaining front in pro sports. He was involved in helping the NFL settle its most recent lockout dispute this past summer, he assisted in the 2009 Major League Soccer dispute, and in 1994 he was a labor lawyer who argued on behalf of the MLB union and helped end the strike that wiped out the 1994 world series.
I wish him well. It seems both sides are dug in pretty well and it will take some quick thinking to get them on the same sheet of paper before more games are cancelled.
Related:
Up until last night I had hope that this was going to be resolved. I had faith until the 11th hour. Now I've lost faith and I'm more pessimistic than ever. Will we have an abbreviated season? Probably, but that's no guarantee. I'm guessing that this will last months. So buckle up boy and girls, it is going to be a long, bumpy, ...boring ride.
David Stern hints more cancellations ahead as NBA wonders what's next - Chris Mannix - SI.com
With both sides retreating to neutral corners -- no new negotiating sessions have been scheduled and neither Stern nor Fisher could say when the two sides will talk again -- the question becomes: What's next? Stern hinted that the league will likely cancel the next two weeks of the season two weeks from now. He also suggested that the revenues lost as a result of the lockout bleeding into the regular season, revenues that are expected to number in the hundreds of millions, will be factored into the next proposal.
Can the season be saved? The answer is yes, so long as the NBA owners are willing to negotiate into January, as they did to resolve their previous lockout in 1999. Understand that two weeks of NBA games have been wiped away, and that more cancellations are to come. Nothing important is likely to change over the next two weeks that will enable basketball to be played in late November or early December.
NBA cancels two weeks, earns self-inflicted wound - ESPN
Now the pretending can stop, all the pretense that the season would ever begin on Nov. 1, or the notion that anything else that mattered to the fans would be taken into account. You haven't heard the fans, or the game itself mentioned much lately, have you? That's because they don't factor into this discussion at all. It was always about people saving themselves: owners asking the players to bail them out of bad business moves, players asking to preserve their cushy status with the highest average salaries among American team sports.
David Stern: Two weeks of games at risk - ESPN.com
The NBA has canceled the remainder of the preseason and will wipe out the first two weeks of the regular season if there is no labor agreement by Monday. ... Four hours of talks between the NBA's owners and players failed to close the gap between the two sides, union president Derek Fisher said Tuesday.
... Stern said the league is about to take a $200 million hit from missing the preseason, adding "There's an extraordinary hit coming to the owners and the players." ...... Boston Celtics stars Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett [were] among other players joining the union's executive committee.
At this point, I have lost all optimism of their being a season, let alone a full season.
Update #2: Start of season jeopardized as labor talks break off - NBA.com
Stern said the owners were willing to consider a 50-50 split, but that the players' side would not consider it. "I was very surprised by that," Stern said.
Stern also said that, during discussions, owners had come off their long-held insistence on a hard cap, and revealed that last week owners backed off their desire for a rollback of existing salaries. He also said the owners had offered the players a chance to opt out of a new 10-year agreement after seven years.
... A small rant by Master Po
Ok, I know, I know, I know, this story has nothing to do with the lockout that never ends, or the ranking of former Celtic great players, or even the golf scores of Doc and Danny as they suffer through another sunny day of doing nothing but drinking vodka smoothies in a posh golf cart with fudged scorecards. It’s about something far more serious ...It’s about the troubling "World" situation!!! That’s right... the World situation of the NBA Solar System.
This is a story being ignored by Main Street media, and I am just the guy to butt in to tell you about it like a poorly behaved Rick Sanatorium. You can have one World in the NBA solar system but not two Worlds. Two big old Worlds orbiting in one screwed-up league is gonna mess up the whole Mayan Calendar December 2012 end of the world thing, and that my friends may extend the lockout period beyond my life span. (hey, I did actually mention lockout..ding ding ding...we have a winner).
For you blogging pubescent whippersnappers who don’t know who the great World B Free is, let me refresh your memory. I’ll use a direct quote from your trusted source of Wikipedia. I thought this rock solid source might add some "street cred" for you young guys who think researching a subject has no need to reach beyond CliffNotes and Answer.com.
"He played for the San Diego Clippers, Philadelphia 76ers, Golden State Warriors, Cleveland Cavaliers and Houston Rockets in the National Basketball Association. He got his name from his days in Brooklyn, where a friend nicknamed him "World" because of his 44-inch vertical leaps and 360-degree dunks. He was known for taking high-risk shots and playing flamboyantly.
For both the 1978–79 and 1979–80 campaigns, George Gervin and Free were number 1 and 2 in the league in scoring. Free averaged 20.3 points per game over 13 seasons in the NBA. His best season was 1979–80 with the Clippers, averaging 30.2 points per game, as well as 4.2 assists per game and 3.5 rebounds per game in 68 games. He was an All-Star that season as well."
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