Brian Windhorst of the Cleveland Plains Dealer has a report this morning that Players Union Executive Director Billy Hunter was in Cleveland this week, meeting with players to advise players to begin planning in the event of a lockout. Hunter advised the players to begin stashing away cash, and scrimping on some of the more extravagant expenses for the millionaire athletes.
So where as you and I need to be saving coupons, cutting out on the restaurant meals, and opting for the domestic light beers, NBA players need to opt not to buy that fourth Mercedes, or to wait on that remodeling of a room in the shape of their head. Tough cuts in a tough time, I know.
It’s a disheartening development for fans, though, as both sides seem deadset on a lockout. It’s being discussed as inevitable, rather than as a contingency. The Union doesn’t want to revamp their current comfy set up, the owners want to completely revamp the current economic model.
The Union needs to advise its players this way, because players’ resolve will break as their funds run out and they face having to go back to eating McDonalds with the rest of us.
It’s sad that instead of trying to find compromises it can make or focusing on finding a suitable agreement, both sides seem more prepared to build bunkers for the coming nuclear winter, in which no one wins.