Letter to the Owners, by The Players

NBA Players Union President

Derrick Fisher, Los Angeles Lakers

Dear Owners,

I would normally start by asking you how you are doing, but today I won't.  Even if I did ask, you would know that it was only for the sake of asking, because I already know how you are doing.  Your miserable, uncooperative and out to play the victim claiming you were forced to place the NBA in a lockout situation.

Your major claim is that you continue lose money in what was possibly the most well received NBA seasons in decades.  You are also upset that the contracts being offered to star players are way too high, leaving teams with little remaining money to bring in a solid supporting cast.  Add to the list of complaints an angry majority that are upset that teams with wealthy owners who can pay the luxury tax when going over the the team salary cap, essentially allow them to "buy" themselves championships.  And even though the luxury tax is divided amongst the other teams in the league, you don't feel it is enough.  Hey, if your team does poorly because of lack of funds, your terrible record will reward you with a high draft pick anyway.  Try to look on the bright side.

You, the owners, have to remember that fans come to see us, the players, play.  Few fans can name the owner of their favorite team, but can surely name the starting five.  It is for that exact reason that we currently receive 57% of all basketball related income from the NBA.  Maybe if Marc Cuban shirts started flying off the rack we could bring that percentage down, but until then I think it's fine.

Don't even get me started on the franchise player tag.  You want to extend the length of time a star player has to stay on a team based on his "star" status?  How dare you!  What if a few of us franchise player type players want to form a "super team"? Your telling me we can't! That tag would only allow 1 franchise player per team, or so I've heard.  Me no like.  Besides, how would you even decide who gets the tag?

I know owners have a lot more bills to pay than we do, like players million dollar salaries, arena maintenance, arena employees, coaching staff and basically everyone associated with the team right down to the lovely cheerleaders. But you get a lot more money based on ad space  in the arena, sponsors, ticket sales, concessions, parking and the list goes on.  My point is this, we the players like things the way they are.  We can up and leave teams when we want by making public statements or opting out of contracts or even refusing to show up to cities we don't like.  We can get coaches and general managers we don't like fired and of course, refuse to come off the bench, but that doesn't always work out.  But I'm getting off topic.  Sorry about that.

In the end, I hope this lockout does not linger on into the regular season, because both sides will lose money, players could become out of shape and interest in the NBA could dwindle.  But most importantly, our fans who have no say in the matter and make a lot less money than both parties involved, are waiting for both sides of the sport they love so much to come to an agreement so everyone can win.

Call us when your ready...

Sincerely,

The Players

(This was intended to be humorous and is not an actual Players Union letter to the owners)