NBA Lockout affects more than expected: A fan's look at it

If you've ever had a conversation with me, you know that I absolutely LOVE basketball. Honestly speaking to you as a fan of basketball, I legitimately eat, sleep dream and focus on everything basketball.

​The National Basketball Association is in a work stoppage right now because its owners and players cannot agree on a collective bargaining agreement that can satisfy both parties. Now to fans around the world, this situation is disheartening because people have come to identify with the players that bring them emotions such as joy, pain, anger and most importantly HOPE.

​At the beginning of every season every fan or should I say fanatic has hope and a dream that their team will be lifting a Larry O'Brien trophy. Well the beginning of this season will be put on hold for the first two weeks of the season and as of right now it looks like it will be into the near future.

This is not the first lockout that has happened to the association. In 1998, a season after Michael Jordan's second retirement from the Chicago Bulls, the season did not start until February 1, 1999 and was reduced to 50 games.

Both owners and players understand the magnitude of this work stoppage. This is why

I feel as a fanatic of NBA basketball that the league must take their time so each party can come to an agreement that will please all involved: owners, players, and most importantly the fans.

Now just recently the NBA and the NBA players association have agreed to meet with a federal mediator, the same mediator that offered a helping hand to the National Football League during their lockout.

There is a difference here though. The difference is that the NFL did not lose any regular season games, which also means they were able to save and make money. The NBA is another story.

In an interview with Stephen A. Smith for ESPN this past week, David Stern stated that the players have lost 170 million dollars with the first two weeks being suspended.

The clear issue here is Income: Basketball Related Income and salary caps for the teams. Both sides are not budging and there seems to be no middle ground.

Amongst the grievances for the owners, they are asking for a harder salary cap and a better split of BRI. Just recently before the deadline to reach an agreement the players were willing to go to 53% while David Stern offered a 50/50 split if he could sell it to his owners. Currently the players have a 57% share of BRI in the agreement up until this point.

There is a clear divide in the negotiation that has caused players to result to going overseas to play or going on city tours to play in high school sized gyms. This has helped the all-star game feel for the game with hands on experience with fans. For the international appeal fans can see the likes of Deron Williams in Turkey for a short season or maybe Kobe Bryant in Italy for 10 games, but there is a larger stage to be played on and this in reality is hurting the brand of the NBA more than anything.

As players are going on city tours, are they continuing to getting better? Is the competition up to par? Will they be able to turn the switch on when and if the season starts? Regardless of the situation there is a lot at stake and all parties involved must realize that the game will suffer the longer that this goes on.

The season was scheduled to start on November 1. As of right now there looks like there will be no season at this rate, I just hope the league understands that their impact is much bigger than any monetary value that can be accumulated.

At this point, all fans can do is HOPE