SAVING THE NBA MAY KEEP IT FROM GOING AWAY FOR GOOD
By Ramona Shelburne
ESPNLA.com
The NBA has real problems. The NFL has, as Tex Winter would say, "trifling issues," which means if the NFL can't get its act together on a new collective bargaining agreement, it deserves every bit of the fan backlash it would encounter. But if the NBA can't get its act together and come out with a new CBA, there might not be an NBA as we know it again.
I'm not normally an alarmist, or one to overreact to issues like this, but I really do believe the NBA is treading in very dangerous waters with this lockout. The league might have had one of its best seasons ever, but in so many meaningful ways that success is fool's gold. Roughly a third of the NBA's franchises are truly viable and compelling teams. A missed season would crush what little fan base those forgotten franchises have left.
My mom once told me that the opposite of love isn't hate, it's indifference. So if you think a lockout in Los Angeles would be rough because you're a Lakers or Blake Griffin fan, just imagine what a missed NBA season in Toronto or Milwaukee would be like. Fans in too many NBA cities are already lukewarm to the league. A lockout might kill off whatever remaining interest they have left.
SAVING THE NFL SEASON MIGHT JUST SAVE THE PLANET
By Andy Kamenetzky
ESPNLA.com
This may seem counterintuitive, since the Lakers are my favorite team and, more importantly, I make my living covering them. For that matter, so does my brother; thus, my immediate family would also feel the effects of a scrapped NBA season. But ultimately, whether thinking with my heart or head, I still gotta save football.
As a fan, I love football above all other sports, even my precious roundball. I had football wallpaper as a small child, played in high school, and after gaining my "sophomore 15" at USC, briefly debated adding another 15 and attempting to walk on. (Common sense eventually won out, along with a diet). I simply cannot imagine September through December without pigskin. Yeah, there will be college football -- which, to be honest, is essentially professional football -- but it's not the same. Too many teams. Too many conferences. Not enough "Sunday."
And from a practical standpoint, the NFL affects far too many enterprises to lose a season. Forget the players and owners. There are the TV networks, all banking on ginormous advertising revenue. The fantasy football industry (of which I am a card-carrying member). Sports bars. Heck, the Super Bowl is practically a national holiday, with tentacles reaching everywhere from Vegas to the tortilla chip industry. As a nation still steeped in recession, we can't afford to look a money-printing gift horse in the mouth.
The NBA is coming off a brilliant season, but still can't match what the NFL means worldwide. Saving football would be a gift to myself, along with the entire planet.