It’s the Little Guy That Suffers

It seems like the entire focus of the NBA lockout is the players against the owners. Both sides think the other is being too greedy and should be giving up more, but we sometimes forget that there’s a third side to all of this. This side doesn’t get a say in the negotiating room, they don’t get a representative at the bargaining table and yet they’re the side that ends up hurting the most. They’re the NBA workers who don’t get paid millions and are now out of a job because there’s no basketball being played.

Sports Business Journal says 400 NBA workers have already been let go, 200 from the league office and 200 from various teams around the league. Who knows how high that number will get before we have an agreement? If the lockout continues for another year or two, it’s hard to see how an NBA team could continue to employ anyone at all. And they definitely won’t be hiring any new people, most teams are under a hiring freeze right now.

I think they should get a few of these people who have lost their jobs or who are in danger of losing their jobs into the negotiating room. Let the players and owners see what they’re doing to the average person who might not be able to afford two years of unemployment. I wonder if that would make a difference. Maybe it would remind them that there are more people dependent on them than they know.

Quantcast