The Owners are right. Final Answer? Yes, Final Answer...

NBA Commissioner, David Stern

The photo of David Stern posted above is how most people view the NBA commissioner.  An untouchable force who should never be crossed and if angered, consequences are sure to follow.  I also think the picture is kind of funny.  What I also find funny is how over the past few weeks, after becoming more informed and looking at both sides of the NBA labor dispute, I have jumped ship to side with the owners.  Here's why.

It's easy as a fan to blame the owners and not the players during this lockout.  After all we are loyal to our teams and our favorite players, they pose for pictures, make funny commercials, tweet funny things, we own their jerseys, vote for them All-Star weekend and the never ending list of highlights only increase our appreciation for what they do and how they make us feel.  Ask the same fans to name their favorite teams GM and 75% of them might be able to do it.  Ask for the name of the owner of the team and that number will drop significantly.  Part of the reason for that is because we don't care where our hamburger comes from as long as it's in a bag at the drive through window.  And it's this type of mentality that is causing people to side with the players.

NBA player receives 57% ($3.6 billion) of all of BRI (basketball related income), which rounds out to $8.2 million per player, along with their salaries which average about $5 million dollars makes for a pretty nice annual pay check.  Other means of income can come from advertising and public appearances among other things.  Very little if any of their money earned goes back into the NBA to support the league.  Like you and I at our daily jobs, once we get our pay checks, unless we have shares in the company we work for, that money goes straight into our pockets and we spend it on friends, family and ourselves.

Owners don't have the same luxury.  Sure they are millionaires, but they are also spending millions to keep their teams afloat.  Sure it's hard to have sympathy for your boss who shows up at 11am and leaves at 3pm, but everything from the building (arena), you (staff and players), maintenance, cafeteria (concessions) and electricity among many other things, are all coming out of the owners pockets.  True star players are famous based on their talents, but without the largest basketball stage in the world that is the NBA, their world wide appeal would not be what it is.  Today's technology allows athletes, musicians and film makers to become overnight sensations with sites like Youtube, but there is still a big difference between 1 million views and a 3 year $90 million dollar contract.

To really sympathize with the owners you have to put yourself in their situation.  Anyone who has done a business plan or even thought of opening their own business knows the rules of risk and return.  From restaurants, clothing stores to book stores, the scenario is exactly the same, NBA operations are of course conducted on a much larger scale, but the principles remain the same.

You may be lucky enough to get along with and genuinely like your boss, but for those who don't, you also have to understand when your boss is in a bad mood after a poor month of sales, because the staff still gets paid, while the owner may have lost money.  And it really boils down to that.  Would you rather renegotiate your salaries or lose your jobs altogether and have the company fold.  As an employee (player) you might say, "Who cares, I'll get another job", but as an owner who just lost millions, what you say would sound very different....