NBA owners and the players’ union have met for the past 3 days in order to save the 2011-2012 season. They’ve negotiated for more than 30 hours this week and it has led absolutely nowhere. The fact that a deal wasn’t reached signals that more games will be canceled, and it becomes more and more likely that the upcoming season will never even happen. The owners refuse to accept the players’ offer of a 53-47 BRI split. The players lowered their offer from a 53 BRI to a 52.5 BRI today and that just wasn’t enough. The owners have practically given the players an ultimatum, which implies that the players must accept the 50-50 BRI suggested by the owners and if they don’t, there will be no further negotiations. This seems to be a vicious cycle of stubbornness. The players are the only ones that are compromising in this situation, and the owners refuse to relinquish any power. Union executive director Billy Hunter said, “We’ve made concession after concession after concession, and it’s just not enough. No way, we fought too long, we made too many sacrifices to get where we are.” Both sides are still remaining fairly quiet on how much progress is being made, but based on how Hunter responded, not much positivity can come out of this situation.

If the players are truly adamant about having a season and showing appreciation to the fans, than it seems as if the players will have to compromise, yet again, and just accept the 50-50 BRI deal. The players will not receive a better deal at this point, and if they don’t act quickly, the entire season will be lost. It’s unfortunate that the players will have to continue to concede in order to please the greedy, power-hungry owners, but this seems like this is the only possible solution to this whole mess. This prolonged lockout is taking a serious toll on the fans and the players, also. Anthony Tolliver, former Warrior and current member of the Minnesota Timberwolves, has been involved in many of the negotiations, and tweeted earlier, “I want to personally apologize to all the #NBA fans and every1 else affected by this stupidity. I really hope that this can be resolved soon.” Chris Paul tweeted earlier, “Sad day for basketball fans everywhere, “Take it or leave it” is what we heard from the owners so here we are…apologies to the fans!” Dwyane Wade also tweeted earlier, “You know its sad when people don’t even try and hide their greed..#NBALockout.” Lastly, Stephen Curry tweeted earlier today, “Just a summary. The players know how important the fans r to what we do. Would not jeopardize that unless we knew we r being exploited because of greedy owners. We r truly blessed to make what we make to do what we do. Why would we GIVE UP game checks just to get more. If you follow it closely, we r the only side giving concessions. Constant concessions to bridge the “gap”. All good. Sry to fans. Love yall.” This situation has gotten out of hand, and the only solution is for the players to compromise. If that doesn’t happen, then NBA fans will have to get used to more failed negotations and more NBA games being canceled.