Nothing to Say

Me too, Big Sexy, me too.

Do you think real sports columnists sometimes wake up and say to themselves the following?

“Damn, I have nothing to write about. I guess I can write about LeBron?”

I kinda do. Because I’m sitting here wanting to post something and I don’t have anything. I thought I was going to do a UFC tiers list, but I lack both the desire and the knowledge base to do such a thing. I could write about golf since it’s here in the District this weekend, only I know less about golf than I know about knitting. I could write about the difficulties of starting in MMA that few people really know about, only I’m not one of those few people. I could write about hockey, except I’ve watched a grand total of one hockey game, all season, and the only thing I’ve read about it is that the goalies hate each other. I could write about LeBron, but I’m pretty sure I did that on Friday and with Game 6 going the way that it did I don’t have one change to make or statement to retract. I could write about the greatness that is the spicy chicken sandwich from Chick-Fil-A, but that would make me a corporate sellout (I wish, I would totally write that for money). I could write about the LSAT, except that I’m contractually obligated not to write about the LSAT, like it’s Fight Club or something. I could write about pollen, but that would be boring and stupid. I could write about Chuck Norris’ failings as a political pundit, but sometimes a link says a thousand words. I could rate wines, but considering all I buy are $6 bottles, you might as well just go to the store and try them yourself.

Action jeans? I can't say I'm not interested.

This blog somehow morphed into a railing against sports media, which is one of the stupidest things anyone could rail against. And I’m afraid I’m about to do it again, because quite frankly, I just don’t have anything else to say.

The coming NBA lockout is one of those things that not a lot of people understand. The NBA just concluded its best, most exciting, most watched season in a very long time, and should be ready to capitalize on the NFL’s giant greed-fueled lockout that might be the dumbest potential work stoppage in the history of the planet. Trouble is, the labor deal negotiated between NBA owners and players is unprofitable to the owners, meaning they are being asked to lose money by the players. It’s an unsustainable business model that favors the current players, but not future players of a league weakened by financial trouble. The timing of this couldn’t be worse, but it needs to be done.

It is very likely that a hard salary cap, like the one in the NFL and NHL that dictates how much a team can spend on players per season, will be negotiated. Baseball doesn’t need such a thing to work, because they make all of their money from TV thanks to it essentially being a nightly program for six months (and other reasons that I’m too lazy to explain). A hard cap will prevent teams like the Lakers and Mavericks from amassing huge payrolls through the various cap exceptions presently available that cause the salary cap to be considered “soft”. It also will force teams to dump players and potentially lead us into a crazed scenario where a significant percentage of the players in the league will change teams, not because GMs are making moves to improve their teams, but because they have to get under a cap figure. There are going to be a lot of contract buyouts and waived fringe players from these teams.

The point I have with all of this, is that respected national media writers have ignored the potential brave new world the NBA is facing. Monday, Jason Whitlock wrote that the Miami MoHeatOs need to blow their team up and trade one of their Big Three players, as this team isn’t set up to win a title. If the labor deal coming was going to be a similar one to the one we have now, it wouldn’t be prudent to move one of those guys. They’re all in their primes and there’s no way the Heat could get close to equal value for any of them. But what if the new labor deal ended up FORCING one of them out the door? What if the hard cap figure came in below their current payroll? I don’t know if this is possible, because it’s been ignored, but I imagine it's very possible.

Last night, Bill Plashcke proclaimed “It’s time for Lakers to recapture some Magic and trade for Dwight Howard.” Terrible puns aside, this headline and article make absolutely no sense. It’s not going to be “time” to do anything until the labor agreement is settled. His proposal, for the Lakers to trade Andrew Bynum and Lamar Odom to the Magic for Dwight Howard and J.J. Redick, makes sense from a basketball perspective, and he argues that well. But what if the Lakers, suddenly $30 million or so over a hard cap, have to buy one of those guys out or trade one of them for a fringe player? If this is the case, and I believe it will be, then the likelihood of this trade is zero. So why write the article? I guess these guys have to write about something.

Sucks to be them.