1 Lockout + 1 Walkout = No Good

Right now the NBA is playing into the hands of its harshest critics, the people who say the sport is full of wealthy babies and think there’s no reason to watch the games, since all of the action takes place in the last two minutes anyway.

Only this time, it’s the owners who are looking like schoolchildren. And the players are content to milk the clock, waiting until the legal system weighs in during what will be the fourth quarter of this lockout.

The latest round of negotiations ended abruptly Thursday afternoon when a group of owner representatives led by Commissioner David Stern walked out of a meeting with the players’ union.

Stern said he didn’t appreciate it when union lawyer Jeff Kessler began lecturing them like a bunch of kids, warning them of the legal dangers they faced. Stern described it as insulting and patronizing.

So Stern, Deputy Commissioner Russ Granik and six owners packed up and left. Karl Malone likened it to a 4-year-old picking up his ball and going home because things weren’t going his way.

The fact is, the players are smart to stall and wait on their courts. It’s their best option. The players’ union has two acts of litigation in the works. One is an unfair labor practice charge filed with the National Labor Relations Board, which could be heard next week. The other is a grievance filed over the owners’ failure to pay guaranteed salaries.

Arbitrator John Feerick will hear that one later this month. He’s the guy who decreed that the Golden State Warriors had to pay Latrell Sprewell, even though Sprewell had choked his coach, so it isn’t too hard to imagine Feerick ordering the owners to pay the players they locked out. If the 220 players with guaranteed contracts get their money, the NBA will have a tough fight on its hands. It’s a whole lot easier to show resolve when you’ve got money in your hands.

For a league whose hierarchy is heavy with top-notch lawyers, the NBA has a history of losing in court. The league has already lost its fight to keep Feerick from hearing the case. It took a court to settle the baseball strike, and look who came out on top--there’s still no salary cap in baseball.

If the union wins this latest round and the owners are forced to pay up, it will be time for the owners to rethink their agenda. They saw this as their last chance to regain control of salaries, and flush with cash from their new TV contract they were ready to ride out most of the season to break the players’ will.

What will they do if the players stare right back and don’t flinch?

They had better not look at baseball fans returning to the ballparks four years after that sport’s disastrous strike and get any ideas. Baseball is much more deeply embedded in this country’s psyche than basketball will ever be. And the state of baseball is healthier because it has a combination of young talent that is actually doing something. Most NBA players who are popular and successful are also old: Michael Jordan, Malone, Charles Barkley, to name a few.

The NBA is learning how far it has to go in its quest for global domination at the world championships in Greece. Since the lockout kept NBA stars off the U.S. team, television backed off and no one is showing up to watch a collection of CBA players shoot hoops. The NBA needs stars to promote the game both here and abroad.

Meanwhile, the Chicago Bulls are set to go the route of baseball’s Florida Marlins, sending out a bunch of new faces and a new coach to defend their title. That’s not the way to win over fans. At least the Marlins kept Manager Jim Leyland.

Those responsible for playing and supporting the sport at its highest level have been blessed with a great game, one that’s fast-paced and easily televised. Yet the best sport is besieged by the worst problems. No other league faces such daunting labor strife.

The owners know full well that if they instituted a “hard” salary cap, teams would scramble to find ways around it, the way the Dallas Cowboys and San Francisco 49ers have done in the NFL.

The players entrusted with carrying the game into the next century have yet to prove that it’s in good hands. A lockout would probably show them how good they have it when they get paid to play. But it’s a lesson that would come at too high a price for everyone involved.

Go ahead and channel-surf for the rest of the summer.

Just be sure you’re tuned in for the fourth quarter of this one.