First of all, to blame the players for this is only partly right. Its a lockout, not a strike, meaning the owners instigated it. The players would love nothing more than to keep the previous agreement. With the old way of doing things, a player could sign a 5-year agreement, completely mail in four of the years, play hard for one year and do it all over again. (Tim Thomas anyone? That guy somehow knew exactly how to make it look like he was playing hard when he wasn’t even trying.)

So the players are happy with the way things were (this isn’t to say all players are like Tim Thomas; most are hard working and love to play), but the owners are claiming that they have lost $300 million this past year, mostly due to players’ salaries staying the same, and income in decline due to the recession. Whether or not the owners actually lost that much is neither here nor there, but the system was in need of an overhaul. Unfortunately, we have the most stubborn men in the world negotiating with one another.

We’ve been here before. There was a lockout in the ’98-’99 season, and the owners learned how if they just stick to their guns, they’ll get whatever they want. Last time, the lockout continued all the way into January, and the players gave into the owners demands when they were missing paychecks and going broke. The owners had the same strategy this time to completely break the players’ union. What makes this a problem now is that the players learned from last time as well, and saved enough money to sit out an entire year.

To me, fixing this seems really easy: Split all revenues 50/50 between players and owners (making each side make an equal amount of money — pre-lockout it was 57/43 in favor of the players), and shorten the maximum length of contracts to only 4 years (so players can’t keep wasting owners’ money by being lazy for years, right now a maximum contract is 6 years).

There’s not a sport I enjoy watching more than basketball, and while college is fun to watch, the Suns are my team, and I like to watch basketball at the highest level. Unfortunately, due to stubbornness and overall fan apathy, it’s looking more and more like we’re not going to have a season at all. I invite everyone to remember how much fun they have watching the NBA playoffs when their team is in it, and how every game means everything. Hold onto that memory, because it’s probably not coming back anytime soon.