JUST HOW DO YOU SPELL GREED?

Legal courts are now being hastened to.
NBA players believe that there is some
sort of discrepancy regarding being
locked out to train or play basketball
for 140 days or so. They feel that they
will have a good case to pose to the
lawyers now that all other negotiations
have broken down. It is just possible
that being in a "locked out" position,
antitrust regulations have been violated
and that they have a good case to present.
Attorney David Boise, who represented
the NFL during that sports stoppage, has
now been brought aboard by the basketball
players and it seems they do have a case
to file being locked out with the players
not able to play. They want to get
back to work and it is feasible that this
case might not take all that long to remedy.
Boise claimed, "if you are playing a game
of poker and you run a bluff, and the bluff
works, you become a hero. If someone calls
your bluff, you lose. In this case, I think
that the owners overplayed their hand".
The way it seems today is that the players
gave in on concession after concession after
concession, but greed is a terrible thing.
It actually becomes a most dangerous thing.
For a full season, the amounts that could
have been made run into the billions of dollars,
but irreparable harm has taken place now
with players unable to play in their rather
"short careers" with the NBA.
Boise acknowledged that the case could take
months, but hoped there would be a settlement
before too long. Often lawsuits can get delayed
but in everybody's interest it is hoped that
this matter can get resolved promptly.
The longer it goes on, the greater the damages
that the teams will face, the greater the damages
that the players will suffer and perhaps most
important of all, the longer basketball fans
will be deprived of basketball. So it is hoped
that the legal courts will move quickly.
The players have shown their willingness to
negotiate throughout but you cannot negotiate
by yourself. That has to be done only if you
do have some one to negotiate with.
There are two suits-one filed in conjunction
with the players' association in the Northern
District of California and another filed in
Minnesota, likely with a favorable venue
in mind. The NBA already has filed a pre-
emptive lawsuit in New York seeking to
prove the lockout is legal and likely would
push for cases to be moved there to gain the
legal home court. So again our waiting game
comes into all this muck.
As of right now it seems that in order to see
basketball with these players we know, we
might be forced for awhile to see them
on Italian courts, Spanish courts or...?
So as of this date, games through Dec. 15
have been canceled and Tuesday marked
the players missing their paychecks. This
makes it with no games for 26% of the season
as it's standing today.
Babs Wells