A lot of people are direct dependents of NBA players — family who need to be taken care of, from food put on the table to schools in good neighborhoods for their kids. The kinds of things you and I have to worry about every day NBA players have to deal with, too.
Like health insurance. It’s expensive but necessary, especially for a family.
Which brings us to this tweet from Delonte West (hat tip to Eye on Basketball):
So the job at the furniture store doesn’t cover that?
And 13 dependents? Damn.
That said, this isn’t meant as a joke — the lockout is hitting some NBA players. Hitting them pretty hard. And the owners hope the longer it goes on the more it hits players, who then try to force the union to settle. Of course, the union has already pushed back on that and sent the issue to the courts.
But as always, there’s collateral damage in these fights. And that hurts both sides more than they care to think about.