NBA - it really is just a business

It is easy to state as an NBA fan you are tired of the power struggle between owners and players.  It looks like we may not have an NBA season simply because the players want more.  What does that mean exactly?  The bottom line is they want more revenue.  The owners and players are at the end of a 10-year deal that needs to be renegotiated and one side (the owners) seem to be willing to compromise.  The other side (NBA players) are steadfast.  They are not willing to make any compromises.  They want what they want and are not willing to sign a new agreement unless the owners agree to their demands.

In the sports and entertainment industry things are handled differently.  Players unlike workers can make demands we cannot.  I work in customer service and imagine if I was part of a union and went on strike my company would simply just replace me.  The demand for me is minute on a global scale.

But NBA players are special.  They have athletic gifts such as size, quickness and natural abilities that most of us could never achieve.  They have the power of negotiation.  They cannot be easily replaced.  With that being said, our country will still be fine without the NBA.  It isn't like they are air traffic controllers on strike preventing flights from being routed appropriately.  The same situation happened with the NFL, but the difference is both sides worked toward a solution.  They agreed to disagree and compromised.  The NBA players who make multi-millions are demanding more.  Funny thing is they are going around now holding fake games to raise for charity.  Some players are also signing agreements with either the CBA (Canadian Basketball Association) or European leagues.  Kobe Bryant is even going to play for multi-millions of dollars for a limited time basis.

Do the players deserve more revenue than they are already getting?  The owners are actually having trouble with their finances.  That is ironic considering our economy right now.  Shouldn't the owners be allowed to take a cut back from the players to balance the books?  They are still making money that most of us wouldn't know what to do with.

The problem is our priorities are out of whack.  We are the customers.  We enjoy entertainment more than anything else.  Shows nowadays are dominated by reality TV.  The expectation is instant gratification to be mentally stimulated.  The NBA better take notice that we have a new generation adults coming forth many who are not interested in sports.  Generation Y is predominantly only interested in cutting edge.  More and more people are seeking alternatives to meet their need to satisfy their morbid curiosities.

We love shows to watch people fail and succeed.  The NBA should be on notice.  There are a lot of alternative entertainments out there as well as other sports such as college basketball.  You might just lose more than revenue.  You might lose some of your fan base because fans will find other choices to fill their void.  They already have.  You had something that was 100% guarantee.  It will start to slip away as people will start to look the other way.  At least the NFL knew they couldn't hold out a season.  They had an obligation to their customer's who are struggling financially.

I don't think fans are interested in watching a business.  And as one, I simply say - who cares?

I'm back!

Good morning to all, hey guess what it's Monday, why does everyone hate 


Mondays? I think they get a bad rap, did mondays ask to be the first day of the 


work week no and others who work all different days monday is their friday or 


their Thursday or what ever day. So I just want to say I love you monday!!! I 


hope everyone has a fabulous Monday.










I just had the weirdest thing happen to me, I was on the chew site and on


the side where the advertisements are there was a picture of a bowl of 


gazpacho nicely decorated and it said above it, do you think this was made at a


cooking school? Yes or no, so the weird thing was it was my gazpacho I made 


my first six weeks in school. How did that get on there? Chef Paul took pics of 


all our dishes, so weird but proud, hum.




Here's something to brighten your day:

-Tammy 

Penn State Scandal

This week marked the end of the era of Joe Paterno.  This man coached the Penn State Nitanny Lions for 61 years as head coach.  The events of this week are stunning is an understatement.  Apparently, a former defensive coach who was arrested in 1999 and let go from the University, somehow was allowed to use the facilities on campus in 2002.  He molested a 10-year old boy on campus.  This had been going on more than one occassion.  Coach Paterno had heard from one of his people they had witnessed an event in 2002.  His former defensive coach was caught in the act.  This person who caught them reported this to coach Paterno.

Ask yourself, if are the head coach - what should I do?  Call the authorities?  Report this to a higher staff member?  Both?  What makes sense?  Making decisions in leadership is your job and you have to have a sense of morality.

Paterno did not call the authorities in 2002.  Paterno claims there were allegations all over sports all the time.  He treated none of them seriously.

Paterno did however report this incident higher up to his superiors.  He did not hide the issue he reported it.  That was viewed as not doing enough and made a ton of people angry.  It was enough to get him fired.

The man implicated was a former defensive coach for him for 20 years (Jerry Sandusky).  Why wouldn't Paterno follow it up?  Friends or not, how could a man who was such a positive influence for the community allow this to happen?  After it wasn't followed up upon, he chose to remain quiet.  Why would he do this?

He never believed it happened in my opinion.

Paterno didn't want his former defensive coach to know he was the one who reported it.  He was friends with this person for years.  You don't rat on someone you are friends with for decades.  You do however have a responsibility to protect communities from molesters and young kids from getting molested in the future.

Where is our morals?  Where did they go?

College football brings in a lot of money - the university would never want to stop the money from coming in.  I find it too ironic that this story the university would want to keep this quiet.  Unless maybe it was to appease the head coach.  Why wouldn't they want to report this issue?  Maybe because a football coach didn't want to see his friend implicated then and probably didn't want to believe it.  Denial is a power thing.

It's too bad Coach Paterno handled these allegations as he did the entire tenure as head coach in this manner.  I truly believe there were other incidents that happened and never got reported.  He couldn't believe anyone around him could do these things.

Hopefully we can learn to have morals and be great leaders.  Sorry Joe Pa...even with all of your successes, you came up as a huge moral failure.  I just hope none of the boys that got molested under your tenure can move on from this horrible nightmare.

-Chris