Fisher speaks to the media about the lockout.

I’m so happy the NFL lockout is over – I don’t think I could’ve lived without basketball and football.

I’m glad the players came out on top. I heard Mike Francesa say on his radio show the other day that the NBA lockout was much more called for and justifiable than the NFL lockout…I completely disagree! The NFL players were fighting for health care and a 16 game season, among other things – these are real issues.

The NBA players just want more money, even though the league is losing money as a whole. Bottom line, the league just can’t afford to pay them more. The NBA lockout is supposedly going to last a lot longer than the NFL lockout, because they are unlikely to compromise on their contracts and the hard cap. Here’s the deal: the owners are completely right.

1. The players are complaining about the fact that a hard cap will cause a decreasing number of guaranteed contracts – exactly! Why should their contracts be guaranteed? They should have to work hard to retain their job, just like the rest of the world. The Knicks are just getting contracts like Eddy Curry, Jerome James, and Stephon Marbury off the books, even though they stopped performing years ago! If players don’t put in the effort, they shouldn’t get paid! This is the way the world works, as hard as that may be for them to understand.
2. The NBA absolutely needs a hard cap. A hard cap is a salary cap that cannot be surpassed, the opposite of the ever rising U.S. debt ceiling. As it is right now, teams can spend as much money as they want, provided that they pay it back later. The problem is, they can’t. Their solution? Trade away all their role players’ contracts, leaving teams with a bunch of crappy players and a couple superstars (see: New York Knicks). Catching a pattern here? The Knicks are the perfect example of why the league needs a hard cap and non-guaranteed contracts, the exact things the players are fighting. 

By the way, as much as people want to depict Derek Fisher as an eloquent, knowledgeable ambassador for the league and players’ union, let’s not forget his dirty playing style. The guy is a punk on the court. The league is negotiating with a bunch of overpaid bullies – too bad those bullies are irresistable to watch.