- John Smallwood of the Philadelphia Daily News: "Something is going to have to change for the NBA owners to end this lockout. And that something is ultimately going to come out of the players' side of the agreement. I don't care about the numbers. You've got multimillionaire players fighting with multibillionaire owners over how to equitably divide billions of dollars in profits. With the majority of Americans struggling to enjoy the basic necessities of life and maybe have an occasional indulgence, like a family vacation, I couldn't care less who wins this fight. When it is all said and done, the owners are still going to be multibillionaires and the players are still going to be multimillionaires. Excuse me if I still see that as a win-win situation for both sides. ... Most players are not like Kevin Durant or LeBron James or Dwight Howard, who will make about $150 million in their careers regardless. For the rank-and-file player whose 5-year career will be shortened to 4 years or for the journeyman who never gets a chance at a mega-contract, the implications of missing an entire season could be devastating. The bills won't stop coming just because the paycheck isn't. The owners may not get everything they want, but it is inevitable that things will end up closer to their point of view than the players'. As soon as the players accept that realization, they'll take a huge step toward getting this dispute resolved."
- Israel Gutierrez of The Miami Herald: "There might not be another owner in the NBA with more to lose if the league loses an entire season than Micky Arison. And he is just one of several who provides proof that this NBA lockout will essentially come down to owners bickering among other owners rather than the more common players-versus-owners picture that is normally painted. Arison has been a model owner for the league since he inherited the team from his father. He has maintained a class franchise that did its best to compete in the late 1990s, taking advantage of every opportunity the soft salary cap rules allowed to build what looked like a contender. Once that failed, Arison has been one of the better soldiers in the league in terms of staying below that luxury tax that was implemented in an attempt to dissuade out-of-control spending and create some shared revenue for all teams. ... Arison, Mark Cuban and the rest of the more successful owners would be just fine with making their fellow owners more money by making several adjustments to the collective bargaining agreement. But not at the risk of an entire season. The extreme approach doesn’t work for them (it actually also wouldn’t work for Stern, who could ruin his legacy by allowing next season to be lost). Especially not for Arison. If next season goes by the wayside, that means he has only two more seasons guaranteed with the Big?3 under contract. What could happen after that is too scary to even consider right now. Put yourself in Arison’s shoes, and you would be walking to the negotiating table right now to make sure a deal gets done in time."
- Lisa Dillman of the Los Angeles Times: "If this were a normal summer, Lakers rookies Darius Morris and Andrew Goudelock and Clippers rookies Trey Thompkins and Travis Leslie would be working hard this week in practice sessions to get ready for the Summer League in Las Vegas, which had been scheduled to open on Friday. That's where they
would have received a platform of valuable exposure through NBA TV, and in front of a convention of NBA executives. And, likewise, teams could resume the evaluation process, say, the Clippers getting early information on how Leslie rates compared with Willie Warren, who is coming off his rookie season. Instead, some of the draftees are considering going back to college to work on finishing their degrees, holding basketball camps or putting themselves in areas where there are a lot of NBA players on hand. ... The players with major agencies obviously have more options at their disposal. Derrick Williams is represented by Landmark Sports Agency's Rob Pelinka, who also handles Kobe Bryant and the Clippers' Eric Gordon and Chris Kaman, and Thompkins has signed with the influential Arn Tellem of Wasserman Media Group. ... Potential overseas tours could be another source of income. Pelinka is in the early stages of putting together a tour of China, maybe featuring Bryant and enough players to fill two or three teams. Similarly, Wasserman Media Group is weighing China as an option, considering a multi-week tournament, the SportsBusiness Journal reported." - Jenni Carlson of The Oklahoman: "Check out any team's website, including the Thunder's, and you'll see that dance teams have taken over. Tryouts. Camps. Trips. All of it is front-page news these days. And the teams that don't have their dance teams front and center instead feature mascots or coaches or stoic pictures of NBA Commissioner David Stern. I mean, I love mascots as much as the next gal, but is this the kind of NBA world we want to live in? Since last week when the current collective bargaining agreement ended without a new deal and the teams locked out their players, there are ties that had to have been cut. Players can't workout at team facilities. Coaches can't contact players. Contracts can't be negotiated. But removing players from websites and replacing them with dancing girls? As near as anyone can tell, neither the NBA nor its teams have any compelling reason to do that. Not legally anyway. It's likely a symbolic move, a thumb of the nose to the players. It's the league and the owners saying, 'We aren't going to promote you during the lockout.' ... I hope everyone with a seat at the negotiating table remembers the faces of this league -- the players. They are the reason that we watch. They are the reason that we care. Without the players, the league is left with a bunch of dancing girls and life-size Muppets."
- Tim Griffin of the San Antonio Express-News: "The NBA lockout has thrown up a barrier between the league’s players and the rest of the employees of the team. And in the process, these roadblocks can get in the way of some pretty strong friendships. Manu Ginobili seemed to hint at that over the weekend when he tweeted his birthday wishes to Spurs trainer Will Sevening. Ginobili and Sevening have developed a strong relationship over the years, considering that Ginobili has missed 105 regular-season games and six more playoff games during his nine-season NBA career. Sevening has been there for numerous cuts, abrasions, broken bones and bruises over the years from Ginobili, who is known affectionately among the Spurs as 'El Contusion' because of all those injuries. The two friends can’t converse as normal over the summer. No summer cookouts among their families. Not even a birthday e-mail. For all we know, the NBA’s thought police might be monitoring Sevening’s ability to read tweets from Spurs players. So we here at Spurs Nation are here to break that blockade. Here is Ginobili’s tweet to Sevening: 'I wish I could talk to my friend and Spurs trainer Will and wish him a happy birthday…' We’re more than happy to circumvent the NBA’s rules during this illogical lockout for all sides -- particularly the fans in Spurs Nation."
- Gery Woelfel of The Journal Times: "When Jimmy Butler was chosen by the Chicago Bulls in the first round of the NBA draft last week, he became the second Golden Eagles player to be selected in the opening round the last two years. Former Marquette forward Lazar Hayward was taken with the final pick of the first round -- just as Butler was -- by the Washington Wizards. To hear Butler tell it, there’ll be another Marquette player bound for the NBA in the not-too-distant future. That would be Jamil Wilson, the former Horlick High School standout. Wilson began his collegiate career at the University of Oregon before transferring to Marquette, where he sat out last season because of NCAA rules. Even though the 6-foot-7 Wilson didn’t play a game last season at Marquette, Butler said he saw enough of Wilson’s game in practice to believe he’s pro material. 'He is really, really good; he can do so many things,' Butler said in a phone conversation. 'He has so much potential. He’s going to be one heck of a player for Marquette and be one of the better players to come from Marquette.' "
- Tim Griffin of the San Antonio Express-News: "I’ve gotten a couple of e-mails over the weekend wondering how the Spurs’ 'watched/attended/listened' rankings compiled by the Scarborough Sports Marketing Group compared to others across the league. These questions were a result of a story in Saturday’s paper where Bill Nielsen, Scarborough’s vice president of sales, said the Spurs should be in position to endure the lockout better than other NBA franchises because of their traditional strong support. The good folks at Scarborough were willing to share their most recent 'WAL' rankings for the NBA and the other major sports. It’s a ranking that determines what percentage of fans in a market have either watched a local team on television, attended a game in person or listened to one on radio in the last year. The ranking provides a pretty accurate glimpse of the NBA’s best and worst American markets. Toronto isn’t included in their compilations. ... These numbers indicate a couple of different findings. It can be argued that the markets at the top of the list have been the league’s best over the years. I’m also intrigued with the way that Oklahoma City’s market is getting excited about the Thunder for obvious reasons. And as teams take these numbers to potential advertisers, even the larger markets at the bottom of the list like New York, New Jersey and the Los Angeles Clippers all have markets of millions of potential customers."
- Dave Krieger of The Denver Post: "Of course, the Nuggets recently traded their Nos. 1 and 2 guys, Carmelo Anthony and Chauncey Billups, but they hope to replace them in due course, either by acquisition or development of their young talent. They can afford to overpay Nene now only because so much of that young talent is still being paid relatively modest salaries under terms of rookie scale contracts. Once players such as Danilo Gallinari and Ty Lawson are due new deals, they'll get significant raises. It's also fair to ask whether Nene has grown into a full- blown diva. If he feels unappreciated, as he recently indicated, and believes $12.5 million a year is inadequate, he might be more trouble than he's worth. Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it. The Nuggets' bloated payroll in the aughts kept them from adding the pieces they needed to be a serious contender. They don't want to make that mistake again. Club officials rolled the dice on Nene's free agency at least in part because they were preoccupied last season by Anthony's potential free agency. Considering Nene's wife is from Colorado and player payrolls across the association are about to come down, there's still a pretty good chance that gamble will pay off. But the club was right to stop bidding when it did. It made a very generous offer. If $12.5 million a year really isn't enough for Nene, the Nuggets are better off without him."
- Rick Bonnell of The Charlotte Observer: "As I said before, I'm a huge fan of Stephen Jackson's competitive passion. The only problem with that is it occasionally serves to delude him. Latest example: Jackson telling Milwaukee-area media that he could have played the last 10 games of the season, with that hamstring pull, so he now assumes the Bobcats shut him down intending to miss the playoffs. I love Jack, but that's a myth. Jack would have tried to play if his leg fell off entirely. The issue was never whether he was willing to tough it out. The issue was whether he was healthy enough to help -- not hurt -- his team's performance in that physical condition. If anything, coach Paul Silas was too flexible, allowing Jack to decide he was ready to play when anyone connected to that team knew he couldn't do what he needed to do -- particularly on defense -- to be a net plus. Jack lost about 20 pounds this off-season, and acknowledged that was about his age and the shock value of that lingering injury. But now he's saying he really could have played, and implied the Bobcats' decision to shut him down was tanking. Jack's statements are always entertaining and frequently newsworthy. They're not always the most accurate, comprehensive word on what happened."
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