December 3, 2011
To Mr. Stern, Mr. Hunter, Mr. Fisher, and all other parties associated with the National Basketball Association and the National Basketball Players Association:
You're getting off easy.
After the travesty of the 1999 lockout and the following years, when no one in the East really mattered come June, when the Lakers were winning everything, when Chicago was deadly quiet in the post-MJ years, you should have learned not to let this happen.
There was no competition. The second wave of high-school players was coming to prominence, burning brightly on the national stage before flaring out in a second. It was the era of Los Angeles over "whoever else".
You should have learned.
Didn't you watch the MLB strike and the years following? The initial blow to baseball paled in comparison with the future consequences. Baseball needed a fast way to get back on top; the answer was home runs and roided-up heroes. Even on the heels of an incredibly tantalizing World Series, baseball fans are still wary of drugs, big salaries and mealy-mouthed owners, intent only on making more money. Why do think MLB television ratings have fallen so far in the past twenty years? Hint: it's not all Joe Buck's fault.
1999 devastated me. I could have dealt with the break up of the Bulls. Michael, Scottie and Phil leaving was traumatic, but there were always new players. I could finally experience real playoff basketball instead of assuming the Bulls were going to steamroll everyone on their way to the Finals.
Then the league shut down.
Understand, there was nothing to hang your hat on in Chicago sports at that time, save for the 2000 White Sox and the Chicago Wolves. The Cubs sucked (always have, always will); the Bears were a year away from their crazy playoff season (Shane Matthews, everyone, Shane Matthews in the building!); the Blackhawks were slowly being strangled by Bill Wirtz. Now, Bulls went from NBA champions to the worst team in the league. This has a tendency to upset a 20-year-fan, and I was only 11.
After the '99 lockout, I quit playing basketball. I quit watching basketball. I didn't touch a basketball for three years. From that year until 2002, basketball meant nothing to me. I hope I was alone in this, but I doubt I was.
You should have learned from that.
The NFL made you look like petulant children this summer. They settled their dispute in time for a full season and got their fans to act as if nothing had happened. Meanwhile, you sat across the tables and fought over two percent of basketball-related income in the midst of a national debt crisis.
Let me say it again: while you were arguing over who was going to get two percent of the millions...and millions of BRI, the United States of America was careening toward bankruptcy.
You should have learned.
When I found out the season was back on, I was enthused, relieved, but still dissatisfied. 66 games will always mean an asterisk for whoever wins the Larry O'Brien Trophy this year. The Christmas Day games are a nice touch; who can really be upset about three genuinely marquee matchups? Still, the sting of these arduous months should weigh on the minds of any basketball fan.
This is basketball, America's true pastime. Don't let the struggle of business outweigh the beauty of the game ever again. I don't think I'm young enough to come back again.
Sincerely,
JS
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