Kingju1ce
Member
I am not a person that gets riled up very easily, but I find myself jumping on my soap box when it comes to the players making a "stand" against the owners in the collective bargaining agreement negotiations.
I work in the international shipping industry and I deal everyday with union workers at the ocean terminals. The Port of New Jersey has a terminal name Maher Terminals that is the oldest unionized ocean terminal in North America. The union workers at this terminal are financially taken care of and they have retirement benefits that are unheard of in most industries. To give you an idea, some senior dock workers make upwards of $200,000 a year. Those who are "junior" workers are also compensated handsomely. It is difficult to get in the union and most only get in by having family or other tight connections The dock worker unions are the most powerful unions in the world. They can cripple a country's import/export revenues if they decide to go on strike.
So I want to draw a parallel of these dock union workers to the players union in the NBA. The dock workers work at odd hours/weekends and work outside in all kinds of weather. They do the same monotonous work each day and they receive no public praise or honor for doing so. However, whether the economy is bad or not, they get paid the same and they get their annual increases, but recently they have pushed back their increases to assist the industry. Gee, thanks...at least you are not pushing for an increase while the rest of us in the industry bleed money (in the area of a billion dollars a piece).
Many of the NBA's players have started from humble beginnings, but when they are being drafted in the NBA it is an automatic shift into the upper class. A functioning/normal brain whose memory is intact would remember the hard times and the difficulties of the majority of americans who have been impacted by this extended economic downturn. Certainly they can take a substantial hit in their pockets to keep NBA teams from losing money. NBA players have thousands of fans urging them to succeed, red carpets are rolled out and their pockets get filled by simply traveling to play a game. A GAME. Because they are the best of the best, we come to watch them play and where ever the public shows interest, the companies/corporations come to leech away our hard earned money. I love the NBA and I love to watch the players and I love having a home team even in a small market. The player’s insisting to continue to grow their millions and their selfish justifications of making as much money as they can during their primes is threatening to force smaller market teams to move or go away altogether.
So the rich owners meet with the rich players and they talk. The owners of 22 of the 30 teams are losing money on their investments. Players offer a 3% deferment on some revenues…3%!! The two parties are far apart because while the rich owners understand and share the player’s desire to roll around in fresh hundred dollar bills, one half of this arrangement should not have great success while the other struggles to get by. The reason the owners are willing to have a lockout is most of them will actually save money by doing so! There needs to be a balance in this league.
My dock workers are not seen on commercials selling deodorant or fast food, a job that was able to handle Shaq’s living expenses alone while his NBA salary grew by hundreds of thousands each game. As an NBA fan I am fed up. The players can still be rich under the owner’s proposal and will make more money in one game than I have ever seen in real life. They have the best job in the world. If there is a lockout I propose that the owners hold a draft for players who didn’t quick make in the league. I would watch athletes of a lesser caliber and let our stars try to find their money in Europe. It’s not like they can survive with their lifestyles for long before screaming “UNCLE!”. Selfish babies. Makes me wish I could hold a meeting between the players and the fans on this issue.
For example, have a single mother of four step forward and ask if her sons will be able to afford to buy their nosebleed seats if the agreement doesn’t change in a drastic way. How can someone who makes thousands (and sometimes hundreds of thousands) of dollars a game look at someone who is hurting in this economy and say…”sorry I gotta get mine, don’t take away my raises!”?
Am I alone on this? Is there a fan out there that is taking the side of the players and thinks the owners should just shut up and keep cashing the checks as they dive into the red?
I work in the international shipping industry and I deal everyday with union workers at the ocean terminals. The Port of New Jersey has a terminal name Maher Terminals that is the oldest unionized ocean terminal in North America. The union workers at this terminal are financially taken care of and they have retirement benefits that are unheard of in most industries. To give you an idea, some senior dock workers make upwards of $200,000 a year. Those who are "junior" workers are also compensated handsomely. It is difficult to get in the union and most only get in by having family or other tight connections The dock worker unions are the most powerful unions in the world. They can cripple a country's import/export revenues if they decide to go on strike.
So I want to draw a parallel of these dock union workers to the players union in the NBA. The dock workers work at odd hours/weekends and work outside in all kinds of weather. They do the same monotonous work each day and they receive no public praise or honor for doing so. However, whether the economy is bad or not, they get paid the same and they get their annual increases, but recently they have pushed back their increases to assist the industry. Gee, thanks...at least you are not pushing for an increase while the rest of us in the industry bleed money (in the area of a billion dollars a piece).
Many of the NBA's players have started from humble beginnings, but when they are being drafted in the NBA it is an automatic shift into the upper class. A functioning/normal brain whose memory is intact would remember the hard times and the difficulties of the majority of americans who have been impacted by this extended economic downturn. Certainly they can take a substantial hit in their pockets to keep NBA teams from losing money. NBA players have thousands of fans urging them to succeed, red carpets are rolled out and their pockets get filled by simply traveling to play a game. A GAME. Because they are the best of the best, we come to watch them play and where ever the public shows interest, the companies/corporations come to leech away our hard earned money. I love the NBA and I love to watch the players and I love having a home team even in a small market. The player’s insisting to continue to grow their millions and their selfish justifications of making as much money as they can during their primes is threatening to force smaller market teams to move or go away altogether.
So the rich owners meet with the rich players and they talk. The owners of 22 of the 30 teams are losing money on their investments. Players offer a 3% deferment on some revenues…3%!! The two parties are far apart because while the rich owners understand and share the player’s desire to roll around in fresh hundred dollar bills, one half of this arrangement should not have great success while the other struggles to get by. The reason the owners are willing to have a lockout is most of them will actually save money by doing so! There needs to be a balance in this league.
My dock workers are not seen on commercials selling deodorant or fast food, a job that was able to handle Shaq’s living expenses alone while his NBA salary grew by hundreds of thousands each game. As an NBA fan I am fed up. The players can still be rich under the owner’s proposal and will make more money in one game than I have ever seen in real life. They have the best job in the world. If there is a lockout I propose that the owners hold a draft for players who didn’t quick make in the league. I would watch athletes of a lesser caliber and let our stars try to find their money in Europe. It’s not like they can survive with their lifestyles for long before screaming “UNCLE!”. Selfish babies. Makes me wish I could hold a meeting between the players and the fans on this issue.
For example, have a single mother of four step forward and ask if her sons will be able to afford to buy their nosebleed seats if the agreement doesn’t change in a drastic way. How can someone who makes thousands (and sometimes hundreds of thousands) of dollars a game look at someone who is hurting in this economy and say…”sorry I gotta get mine, don’t take away my raises!”?
Am I alone on this? Is there a fan out there that is taking the side of the players and thinks the owners should just shut up and keep cashing the checks as they dive into the red?
