San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich has been known to rest his “older” players in the past. (GETTY IMAGES)

Gregg Popovich sent his best players home prior to San Antonio’s game in Miami. The Spurs head coach felt his aging team needed a break after a long trip. For that, and for keeping it a secret, the Spurs were fined $250,000 by the NBA.

Commissioner David Stern didn’t appreciate Popovich’s ploy to rest Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili, and Danny Green. Stern said the Spurs “did a disservice to the league and our fans.”

“The result here is dictated by the totality of the facts in this case,” Stern said in a statement. “The Spurs decided to make four of their top players unavailable for an early-season game that was the team’s only regular-season visit to Miami. The team also did this without informing the Heat, the media, or the league office in a timely way. Under these circumstances, I have concluded that the Spurs did a disservice to the league and our fans.”

Teams are required to report as soon as they know a player will not travel because of injury. The league’s statement said the Spurs were in violation of league policy reviewed with the board of governors in April 2010 against resting players in a manner “contrary to the best interests of the NBA.”

The issue of resting healthy players has been debated before, though usually at the end of the season, not a month into it. What really made Stern’s blood boil is the fact that the Spurs decided to trot out their B team in a nationally televised game against the defending NBA champion Heat. Stern is all about TV exposure and loves parading his stars for major sponsors. The executives at TNT likely didn’t like the idea of watching Patty Mills, Gary Neal, Matt Bonner, and Tiago Splitter going head to head against Dwyane Wade, Ray Allen, Chris Bosh, and LeBron James.

Popovich has been using the rest strategy for some time. He even joked about it last season when the box score listed Duncan as “old” as the reason he didn’t play. Resting Duncan and Ginobili is somewhat excusable since they are on the down side of their careers. But Parker is only 30 years old and Green has only played in 110 NBA games so they can’t be that tired. Saving older players down the stretch is a common theme especially when home-court advantage has been locked up, but you don’t — and can’t — rest them 17 games into the season. It destroys the competitive spirit of the game and it sends cheapens the league.

Popovich has the right to rest whomever he believes is running on empty, but it doesn’t mean he’s right. Doc Rivers has the same issue with an older Boston Celtics squad, but he goes about the right way. He monitors Kevin Garnett’s minutes and only plays him six minutes each quarter. Popovich should adopt the same approach.

If a player is healthy enough to play the previous game, then he should dress up and play the following game. Pop could have easily played Duncan, Ginobili, Parker, and Green against Miami. Duncan is enjoying a superb season, averaging 18 points and nearly 10 rebounds, showing no signs of wearing down. Ginobili is only averaging 23 minutes per night, so he’s not worn down either. Parker and Green sitting out was simply inexcusable.

Popovich’s decision to rest his starters was a message to Stern and the schedule makers. The Spurs were playing their fourth game in five nights and sixth in nine days, all on the road.

“Popovich has done this before and he knows what’s best for his team,” former NBA star Shaquille O’Neal said on TNT. “It’s his job to manage his players and do whatever he’d like. He’s thinking about the big picture.”

Another former player turned TNT analyst, Steve Kerr — who played for Popovich — also defended the franchise’s actions.

“If the NBA punishes the Spurs for sitting players, it opens up a huge can of worms,” he wrote on Twitter. “This is a serious legal challenge for the league.”

David Stern, who turned 70 last month, has been NBA commissioner since 1984. (GETTY IMAGES)

NBA Commissioner David Stern will retire on Feb. 1, 2014, 30 years after he took charge of the league. He will be replaced by Deputy Commissioner Adam Silver.

The announcement came at an NBA Board of Governors meeting Thursday.

Stern told owners during their two days of meetings of his plans, and the board unanimously decided Silver would be his successor.

”I decided that things are in great shape and there’s an organization in place that will ultimately be led by Adam that is totally prepared to take it to the next level,” Stern said.

Stern, who turned 70 last month, became commissioner on Feb. 1, 1984. He has been the NBA’s longest-serving commissioner, establishing the league’s brand around the world, presiding over team expansion and overseeing the establishment of the WNBA and the NBA Development League.

”You’ll be remembered as the best of all-time,” Silver told Stern, sitting to his left on a podium during a news conference.

Stern said he decided on his plans about six months ago, having guided the league through a lockout that ended nearly a year ago. He said the league is in great shape and he’s confident in Silver, who has been the league’s No. 2 since 2006.

”I don’t know what else to say other than to recite what I told the owners yesterday in executive session,” Stern said. ”I told them that it’s been a great run, it will continue for another 15 months, that the league is in, I think, terrific condition.”

Stern is the one who got it there, taking over what was a second-rate league with little-to-no TV presence and making basketball one of the world’s most popular sports.

He cited the success of the 1992 Dream Team, which helped spark the league’s international explosion, but said everything ”just keeps getting better than that.”

”For the most part it’s been a series of extraordinary experiences and enormous putting together of pieces of a puzzle and it goes on forever,” Stern said. ”And there will always be another piece of the puzzle and so the question is at what point do you decide that, let someone else do it? That’s the point that I’m at now.”

Stern was the league’s outside counsel from 1966-78, then its general counsel before becoming executive vice president of business and legal affairs from 1980-84. He replaced Larry O’Brien to become the league’s fourth commissioner.

The NBA has added seven franchises during his tenure.

Minnesota Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor, the outgoing chairman of the Board of Governors, said the average player salary had grown from $250,000 when Stern took over to $5 million.

The league has reported huge increases in ticket and merchandise sales, and TV ratings are at an all-time high.

”There are all kinds of other business metrics we could look at that would define David as one of the great business leaders of our time,” Silver said.

Taylor and Spurs owner Peter Holt, who is replacing him as board chairman, said the owners will work to have a contract with Silver by April. Silver came to the NBA 20 years ago and served a variety of positions before becoming the deputy commissioner in 2006.

Stern said he wouldn’t leave until he knew there was a successor ready, and he has repeatedly said Silver is ready for that role. Stern said he would always remain available to take a call and help the league.

”Life is a journey and it’s been a spectacular journey,” Stern said. ”Each step along the way there are things that you have to do, things that you maybe wish you hadn’t done. But I don’t keep that list, and so I’m totally pleased and I’m particularly pleased with the transition of which we’re now embarking.”

Story from the Associated Press

All-Star guard Chris Paul remains in New Orleans for now, but he'll likely be wearing a different uniform this season. (US PRESSWIRE)

LeBron James opened a new can of worms last summer with his controversial “Decision.”

Chris Paul and Dwight Howard are now following James’ villainous lead, holding their teams hostage by refusing to sign long-term deals with their current teams. Paul is on his way to the Los Angeles Clippers after the Hornets were unable to convinced him to sign an extension. The Orlando Magic are on the brink of losing Howard, who recently told Orlando management that he wants to be traded.

If these storylines look and sound familiar it’s the same predicament the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Denver Nuggets found themselves in 2010 when LeBron held the Cavaliers hostage before signing with the Miami Heat, and months later Carmelo Anthony practically followed LeBron’s lead by putting the Nuggets on pause until he found a new home with the New York Knicks.

This player power play is the very reason why NBA owners wanted to change the system. Small-market teams don’t want another LeBron or Carmelo situation in which they were left empty-handed and nothing to showcase for their fans. Teams want a headliner to fill seats. The Hornets will feel the sting of losing Paul, considered one of the top points guards in the league and a four-time NBA All-Star. Even though the Hornets got some nice pieces in the trade – Eric Gordon, Al-Farouq Aminu, Chris Kaman and a first-round pick – you don’t give up a Chris Paul and get equal value. The same goes for the Magic. Should Howard leave Orlando, how are the Magic going to satisfy their season-ticket holders at new Amway Center without the best center in the game today? These are legitimate concerns by the owners, but their hands seem to be tied because today’s stars seem determined to dictate where they want to go.

“First and foremost, we want Dwight to re-sign here,” Magic president Alex Martins said. “We’re going to continue to give him every resource, every asset that he needs and that we need to be successful. I think we’re proven that over the course of the last four years in particular, but certainly his entire time here. Only two other teams in the league have won more than we have over the last four years.”

An Orlando Magic fan shows her support for Dwight Howard during the third quarter of game five of the 2011 NBA playoffs at Amway Center. (US PRESSWIRE)

Howard publicly criticized the Magic recently for not doing enough to meet his demands. His wise list, of course, includes big-market, sexy teams like the Lakers (so he could join forces with Kobe Bryant), the Mavericks (so he could play with Dirk Nowitzki), and the Nets (so he could play with Deron Williams). The Magic went through this before with Shaquille O’Neal in 1996, and it took the franchise nearly a decade before they were able to recover from Shaq’s departure.

It’s a little baffling that current star players are hell-bent on joining other stars. It is definitely a complete turn from the 1980s and ’90s when megastars such as Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, and Michael Jordan would never dream of playing elsewhere. What ever happened to competitive ego? Twenty years ago, superstars preferred to build their own niche and won championships as the centerpiece. Now, it seems today’s stars are more than willing to share the limelight with other all-stars.

“Gone are the days when teams are built around [star players] and they end their careers there,” said former Toronto Raptors coach Sam Mitchell. “These players today are about quick gratification. They see guys moving around and they see guys having success [elsewhere]. So what you have to do is make the best deal you can. Try to make a deal, get young players , draft picks, be bad for a couple of years and suck it up.”

Paul says he wanted out of New Orleans because he didn’t think he had a chance to win a title with the Hornets. Howard’s Magic career so far has been defined by his numerous failures in the playoffs and the big man is becoming impatient with each passing season. However, not everybody can play in L.A. or New York. Someone has to play in these small markets.

Message to Dwight: Suck it up and try to win in Orlando instead of riding someone’s tail.

Commissioner David Stern is surrounded by the media during one of his lockout press conferences. (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

NBA commissioner David Stern sent out a note to all-access NBA fans via email on Tuesday. Stern thanked the fans for their support throughout the lockout and promised that each NBA team will hold a “special event” to make up for the stress the five-month lockout brought to the league and its loyal followers. Here is Stern’s letter in its entirety:

Dear Fans,
On behalf of the entire NBA family, I want to thank you for your patience and support over the past several months. The new collective bargaining agreement is designed to provide more competitive balance for our league, reward strong performances by our players, and strengthen our game by improving its economics. We believe this agreement will benefit our teams, players, and most importantly, fans by making the NBA stronger.

In the days and weeks ahead, all of us hope you will enjoy the run-up to the start of the season: free agency, training camp, and preseason games. Each NBA team will be hosting special events for fans, so be sure to check your favorite team’s website, Facebook page, or Twitter feed for details. This season we look forward to bringing you more of everything you love about NBA basketball: incredible competition, tremendous excitement, and unending hard work and dedication by the world’s best athletes.

Thank you for being an NBA fan. I hope you enjoy the season, which promises to be a most exciting one.
Sincerely,
David J. Stern
NBA Commissioner

Not sure what these “special events” the NBA will hold, but one thing Stern and the owners could have done was make the exhibition games free. One longtime Los Angeles Lakers season-ticket holder said “that meaningless home exhibition vs. the Clips should have been a special event, as in free for all season-ticketholders.” That makes total sense.

NBA commissioner David Stern has canceled games through Dec. 15. (GETTY IMAGES)

The Wall Street Journal recently published a story on the economic impact of the NBA lockout to the networks and advertisers. The amount of money lost had the 2011-12 season been canceled is astronomical. Money is the main reason why there was a lockout in the first place, but money was also the reason why the league and its players now have a tentative agreement in place that would end the labor strife.

Simply put, NBA commissioner David Stern and the Labor Relations Committee did not want to stretch the lockout beyond Christmas Day or late January. All those so-called NBA experts who were saying “the sky is falling” and “the season is lost” should have taken a closer look at this bit of information before they made their doom-and-gloom forecasts:

— The NBA lockout greatly affects Walt Disney Co.’s ESPN and ABC, and Time Warner Inc.’s Turner Sports, who pay the league $930 million per season to air games. Advertisers spent $807 million on NBA games that aired on cable and network TV last season, according to Kantar Media, an ad-tracking unit of WPP PLC.

— Madison Square Garden Co., which owns the New York Knicks, in a November public filing said if canceled games aren’t rescheduled, the company’s financial results would see a “material negative effect.” The Knicks are unveiling the first phase of their $850 million renovation this year and planned to raise ticket prices 49% in the lower seating section.

Stern and the owners threatened to kill the season but, in reality, the bottom line is this: the majority of the league’s owners did not want to wipe out the entire season. The Heat’s Micky Arison didn’t want to cancel the season, the Lakers’ Jerry Buss didn’t want to cancel the season and the Mavericks’ Mark Cuban didn’t want to cancel the season.

Now, there is a small faction of hardliners, led by Dan Gilbert of the Cleveland Cavaliers, who didn’t mind missing games. But those same small-market owners also said they were holding out because they wanted more competitive balance, and they didn’t want another LeBron James-type episode where a player can hold a team hostage while he considers his free-agency options.

The players are willing to split the basketball-related income at 50-50. In return, all they want is to tweak the system to allow room for player movement. That’s all!

Union executive director Billy Hunter said weeks ago that the collective bargaining agreement was at the 2-yard line and a deal was on the table if the owners just loosened up some of their demands. Stern canceled games through Dec. 15, but purposely left the all-important Christmas Day schedule on the table. Why? Because ABC and ESPN have large stakes in this day and Stern does not want to disappoint his TV partners.

It’s all about the money. Always has, always will. There is way too much money at stake for the league to simply press the red button and nuke the entire season.

Derek Fisher, president of the National Basketball Players Association, speaks at a press conference at Sheraton New York Hotel & Towers. Fisher is joined by Chris Paul (left) and Maurice Evans (right). (GETTY IMAGES)

Commissioner David Stern and his band of greedy NBA owners had been basking in the glow of their complete annihilation of the players on the negotiating table.

The owners wanted a higher luxury tax on teams that go over the salary cap threshold, they got it. The owners wanted to reduce the years on guaranteed contracts, they got it. The last remaining chip for the players, the basketball-related income or BRI, went down faster than the stock market. The owners wanted a 50-50 split on BRI, they got it.

The collective bargaining negotiations have become a complete blowout for Stern, his deputy Adam Silver, and the hardliners led by Peter Holt of the San Antonio Spurs, Paul Allen of the Portland Trail Blazers and Dan Gilbert of the Cleveland Cavaliers. Even the great Michael Jordan, once the face of the National Basketball Players Association during the 1998 NBA lockout, has joined the dark side.

Yahoo! Sports basketball writer Adrian Wojnarowski compared the one-sided labor talks to a 30-point blowout on the basketball court. Stern and the owners throwing alley-oop passes, pressing fullcourt, keeping their starters in late in the fourth quarter as they run up the score on the players.

On Monday, the NBPA finally had enough. Union president Derek Fisher and executive director Billy Hunter put an end to the owners’ in-your-face celebration by slapping an antitrust lawsuit against the league.

Fisher went Kevin McHale on Stern, clotheslining him on a breakaway and dropping him on the floor like Kurt Rambis.

Fisher and the more than 400 members of the players’ association are disbanding as a union and are taking the NBA to court. Not the basketball court, but the court of law. Fisher told members of the media who were gathered in New York for the NBPA press conference that the players cannot comment further on the current state of the lockout because of legal issues.

This is something basketball fans have been fearing for months, which is a lost 2011-12 season, but it had to be done. The disclaimer of interest Hunter referenced to the media is not something the majority wanted but it was the only way to stop the owners from railroading the players.

The NBA players have been and are willing to negotiate a fair deal. The mere fact that they moved down from 57% to 50% on BRI should have told the owners that they are conceding and just wanted to save face and avoid further humiliation. All the players wanted at this point was a little tweak in the system so they can have a little bit of freedom in free agency. That’s all.

But the owners laughed at that last request from the players and proceeded to slap high fives and kept piling on. The owners didn’t want just a slice of the pie, they wanted the whole box and the sauce.

The players didn’t want to file the antitrust lawsuit, but the owners forced their hand. The NBA lockout continues because the owners are unwilling to call off the dogs. The owners were not satisfied with a blowout victory. They wanted to absolutely destroy the union. That is the biggest reason why the 2011-12 season is in jeopardy.

Gordon Gekko may have said that “greed is good.” But in these tough economic times, greed is definitely not the answer to solving the current state of the NBA system.

Even though the lawsuit is now hanging over everyone’s heads, it doesn’t mean either side cannot continue to negotiate. Stern and the owners can still reach out to the players, but they have to deal with their lawyers first. Nonetheless, there is still a six-week window in which both sides can get back to the table and hammer out a new collective bargaining agreement.

The players have said all along that they are open to negotiate with the owners, and there is still time to save the season. It is up to the owners to extend their hand and meet the players halfway.

According to Whitlock, Hunter and at least one member of the union’s executive committee confronted Fisher about their belief that Fisher’s push for a 50-50 basketball-related-income split with NBA ownership was part of a deal Fisher had privately cut with David Stern and/or Adam Silver to deliver the union at 50-50.

In response to Whitlock’s story, Fisher issued this statement to the players via e-mail on Tuesday: “Usually I wouldn’t even dignify absurd media reports with a comment. But before these reports go any further, let me say on the record to each of you, my loyalty has and always will be with the players. Anyone that questions that or doubts that does not know me, my history, and what I stand for. And quite frankly, how dare anyone call that into question. The Players Association is united and any reports to the contrary are false. There have been no side agreements, no side negotiations or anything close. We are united in serving you and presenting the best options and getting everyone back to work. The attempt by ‘sources’ to divide us will be unsuccessful. We will continue to work every day to do right by you, the businesses that depend on our league and our fans.”

Derek Fisher says he remains loyal to the union and denies any side deals with NBA commissioner David Stern. (GETTY IMAGES)

You could almost feel the frustration in Fisher voice as you read his note, and he is willing to put his reputation on the line to get his point across.

I’m going to defend Fisher on this one.

I have had the privilege to speak to Derek Fisher on more than one occasion as a member of the Los Angeles media covering the Lakers. I have followed his career since the day he became a Laker in 1996. I saw his first-ever pro game while playing for the Lakers summer league team 15 years ago. I have seen Fisher go from little-known reserve guard to starting guard for the five-time world champion Lakers. I have seen Fisher grow from an inconsistent jump shooter to one of the best clutch shooters in the history of the game.

Whenever I spoke to Fisher, he always looked me in the eye and articulated his message in a very calculated and well-thought-out manner. Unlike many NBA players, Fisher is genuine and truly cares about his job. You may not get a true sense of what he is all about by watching him on the court because, quite frankly, the man plays like a bulldog and is not afraid to bite back.

But in reality, Fisher is about as level-headed as they come off the court and is very balanced. He is a real stand-up guy. Having said that, I don’t think there was a side deal between Fisher and the league. I just can’t imagine Fisher, who has never backed away from a challenge, giving in and taking shortcuts. That’s not who Fisher is, and TNT’s David Aldridge agrees with me.

“Derek Fisher has killed himself these past eight months. He must have gone across the country 20 times,” Aldridge said on NBA TV. “I don’t buy at all the notion that Derek Fisher has somehow gotten a side deal with David Stern. I just don’t believe that knowing how hard Derek Fisher has worked in trying to get a deal done for the players. Is Derek and Billy on the same page at everything? I’m sure they’re not. I’m sure David Stern is not 100 percent in agreement with the owners. We know that for a fact because Micky Arison just paid $500,000 [for comments he made recently].

“Derek Fisher doesn’t do side deals with anybody. I don’t believe that. This is a high-character guy.”

Now, I’m not going to say Whitlock is in the wrong here either. I’ve never met Whitlock but I am very familiar with his writing, and is a well-respected journalist. It is not clear who his source is, but one thing that is clear is Whitlock has put his reputation on the line by building his story around this source.

Before we shame Fisher for this alleged deal with Stern let us not forget the fact that Fisher is not a lawyer. He is a basketball player and he is merely thinking and acting like a basketball player during these labor talks. Hunter, on the other hand, is a veteran lawyer who knows a thing or two about negotiating labor contracts. Hunter has far more experience in these heated negotiations than Fisher.

So, why is Fisher getting crucified for acting and thinking like a basketball player?

Fisher is smart enough to know that if a 50-50 deal is the only roadblock in the lockout then he’s probably saying to himself “let’s do this!” And I’m sure he’s not alone. He probably heard enough voices in the players’ union that a 50-50 split is acceptable.

As union president, Fisher has to pacify the superstars and the non-superstars. He has to please Stern and Hunter. And he has to deal with the agents who is at the forefront of the BRI battle. Try wearing Fisher’s shoes for a change and see how you deal with all this nonsense. I got your back, D-Fish.

Joel Huerto is editor and publisher of OneManFastBreak.net. Follow him on Twitter @onemanfastbreak.

Federal mediator George Cohen was instrumental in ending the 2011 NFL lockout. (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

The NBA has a messy divorce on its doorstep. The NBA players association want their share of the basketball-related income (BRI) and don’t want to be capped on their spending habits, while the owners claim they are out of money and blame the players for maxing out their credit cards.

So, with billions of dollars at stake and the season in serious jeopardy, both sides have drawn a line on the sand and summoned a third-party negotiator to settle the argument. Enter George Cohen.

Who is George Cohen? He is a mediation attorney and the director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, which provides free mediation service in contract negotiation disputes between employers and their unionized employees.

Cohen was the mediator during talks between the NFL and the NFL Players Association. He is one of the most respected labor lawyers in the country and understands sports labor negotiations. He worked for the Major League Players Association and the National Basketball Players Association during his 40-year career for Washington, D.C., law firm Bredhoff & Kaiser.

He was also a member of the National Hockey League Players Association advisory board before being appointed to the head of the federal mediation service by President Barack Obama. Cohen represented the MLBPA before U.S. District Judge Sonia Sotomayor, now a Supreme Court justice.

Cohen mediated during the 2011 NFL lockout, helping bridge the gap between the owners and players, and ultimately a resolution was reached and the NFL season started on time. He also worked on owner-union disputes in Major League Soccer, the Metropolitan Opera and its musicians, the FAA’s dispute with Air Traffic Controllers and the American Red Cross and its unions. The NHL credits Cohen for helping prevent a complete cancellation of its 2004-05 season.

With Cohen sitting in the middle of the negotiating table, the NBA labor talks lasted 16 hours on Tuesday and nearly nine hours on Wednesday. Commissioner David Stern and league officials will meet again with NBA union president Derek Fisher and union executive director Billy Hunter on Thursday in New York.

Cohen ordered both sides to refrain from making any comments about the negotiations to the media, and so far both sides have declined to speak to reporters who, after nearly 25 hours of waiting, will have to brave through another marathon waiting session on Thursday. Make sure to bring your lunch ladies and gents because it could be another all-day affair.

Yahoo! Sports writer Adrian Wojnarowski wrote on Wednesday that some progress was made on the 50-50 revenue split in terms of basketball related income (BRI). TNT’s David Aldridge won’t speculate on what transpired during the meetings, but noted that having the two sides meet again Thursday can’t be a bad thing.

Wednesday was the 111th day of the lockout. Stern wiped out the first two weeks of the season – exactly 100 games – last week and vows to eliminate more regular-season games if there is no significant progress made this week. The cancellations marked the NBA’s first work stoppage since the 1998-99 season was reduced to 50 games.

If Cohen can somehow convince the owners and players that they can each profit from this new deal, then we may have a 2011-12 NBA season. If not, then it will be a very, very cold winter.

NBA players union executive director Billy Hunter (GETTY IMAGES)

Back in 1998, the NBA suffered a huge financial setback and public relations black eye when the league wiped 32 regular-season games and the best it could do was put together a 50-game schedule that started in January. Union executive director Billy Hunter was asked who won or lost in the collective bargaining war and explained that neither side came out unscatched.

“Did we blink? I guess we both blinked,” Hunter said hours after a new deal was reached in January of 1999 to save the season and the playoffs.

Fast forward to 2011 and we are in the same place again. Deja vu!

It’s like a bad Hollywood sequel. “The Lockout II” stars David Stern, reprising his role as the commissioner, and Hunter returns as the union’s embattled executive director. “The Lockout II” introduces a couple of new characters, Derek Fisher replaces Patrick Ewing as the union president and Adam Silver takes over for Russ Granik as the league’s deputy commissioner. However, the storyline and plot remains the same. Ultimately, the big dramatic final scene the players are expecting won’t reach the cutting room floor because the ending has already been written.

Even the script from the league hasn’t changed, just needing some very minor editing. Granik took the podium and addressed the media in 1998 and said the current system is broken. Silver didn’t have the benefit of a podium in 2011 but his message was basically the same. He said on Monday that the current system is broken.

Contrary to what Hunter said 13 years ago, the big winner from the 1998 lockout were the players. Let’s face it, from 2000 to 2010, the players – especially the superstars – enjoyed the fruits of the very long and hard labor debate of ’98. If the players didn’t think they won the last fight, then check out these numbers:

— $19.2 million for Gilbert Arenas.

— $21.2 million for Kevin Garnett.

— $21.3 million for Tim Duncan.

— $22.1 million for Rashard Lewis.

— $25.2 million for Kobe Bryant.

Those were the estimated salaries earned by each player last season. Kobe certainly earned his paycheck but you can argue that the other four were severely overpaid. Arenas was a bit player for the Orlando Magic and has never been the same since multiple knee surgeries. Duncan and Garnett are well past their primes and Lewis’ contract was like stealing money and is the very reason why the system has severe flaws.

The players will argue that nobody put a gun to the owners’ heads when they wrote these massive checks, so the players have a very good argument there. However, the owners will argue that under the current system overpaying for talent is the only way to stay competitive.

Two former NBA players who lived through the 1998 lockout were Charles Barkley and Reggie Miller. Barkley, who now works as a studio analyst for TNT, recently said on NBA TVs “Game Time” that besides revenue distribution the one gigantic issue hovering over this year’s lockout is competitive balance.

“We can’t have all our stars playing in just the major markets. It’s not fair to the game, it’s not fair to the system,” Barkley explained, an obvious strike at LeBron James’ highly debated decision to leave Cleveland for Miami last summer.

“This thing is about competitive balance,” Barkley continued. “Commissioner Stern, who I tell people is the best commissioner in sports and it has been that way for a long time, he’s not gonna let the NBA [become] like pro baseball where it is top heavy. All the teams with the most money get all the stars and then we have 10, 15 franchises dormant. He’s not going to let that happen.”

According to NBA insider David Aldridge, the Los Angeles Lakers’ team payroll reached $110 million last season. Meanwhile, the Sacramento Kings had an estimated team payroll of $44 million.

One way to combat the disparity between the have and the have-nots is having a bonafide superstar in each market. “You can have a bad team in a small market, but at least if you have a star that team can make money,” Barkley said. “You’ve got something to sell to the public. But if you are not gonna have these stars in these small markets they are not gonna survive.”

Miller, who also works for TNT, agrees with Barkley but has a pointed message for the owners. “Stop overspending on these mediocre players!” the former Indiana Pacers guard said on NBA TV. “Maybe you should hire better general managers who can evaluate talent better. There’s no way you give Rashard Lewis $120 million, a 30-year-old shooting guard in Joe Johnson $130 million, Travis Outlaw five years $30 million. Start looking at your general managers. That’s the reason why we are in this mess in the first place because you can’t assess talent well.”

Miller predicts the players will blink and there will be a 50-game season, starting in January. However, Miller also said he wouldn’t be surprised if the whole 2011-12 season is wiped out. Barkley sees a lost season if the players don’t agree to the 50-50 revenue split on basketball related income.

“If they get a 50-50 split they can make money. If they get a hard cap that can work, or they can have a better revenue sharing system,” Barkley said. “The NBA has been preparing not to play this season for two years. When they went through the whole LeBron thing for the whole season, then the Chris Bosh thing happened. Then you have the whole ‘Where is Chris Paul going next, where is Dwight Howard going?’ You can see the NBA saying ‘We’ve got to stop this.’ ”

Joel Huerto is the editor and publisher of OneManFastBreak.net. Follow him @onemanfastbreak.

If you are judging from home and looking at this whole ordeal from the outside, it appears that Stern and the owners are winning this battle. The league is basically waiting for the players to crack, and it will be just a matter of time before that happens. Poor Derek Fisher, the embattled union president who has had the unenviable task of trying to keep his troops intact while satisfying those power-hungry agents. It’s like asking a bunch of 5-year-olds to not run around during recess. It’s an impossible task.

Just like 1998 when the season was cut down to 50 games, the players stood their ground until the majority of the players peeled off from the union and buckled under the pressure of losing their livelihood. Stern doesn’t seem concerned at all about losing regular season games in 2011 – and possibly the entire 2011-12 season for that matter – because that was the plan all along by the owners when the current deal expired on July 1.

“I don’t think they’re gonna play this year,” TNT commentator and Hall-of-Famer Charles Barkley said on NBATV. “I think the owners have said ‘You know what, we’re gonna be like hockey. We’re gonna have to burn down the house and start over, come in with a cap and make this thing competitive for all the teams.’ That’s what the owners have said from the beginning. They’re not gonna budge this time. They’re not gonna play at all this year.”

TNT commentator Charles Barkley

Barkley noted that one of the biggest mistakes the players are making is that they are banking on a repeat of 1998, but the difference this time around is the fact that the owners are more willing to sacrifice the entire season to save their own bank accounts.

“I think the players are getting screwed by 1998. In the back of the players’ mind they are [thinking] ‘Oh, we’ll start the season in January.’ I don’t think you can compare ’98 to 2011,” Barkley said. “We’ve been in a recession for the last two or three years, some of these teams are really hurting, players’ salaries have continued to go up and they’re gonna continue to go up.

“The owners are saying ‘We’ll lose less money by not playing at all.’ I think that’s been their strategy from the beginning.”

As for the option of playing overseas, Barkley says this strategy only benefits the superstars. “This probably hurt the players,” Barkley said. “This thing is about stars, and the stars have been somewhat selfish talking about going overseas. The majority of the players are not gonna be able to go overseas.”

Barkley believes this current standoff could have been avoided had guys like Dwyane Wade, LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony and Kobe Bryant gotten more involved in the early stages of the lockout. Instead, after being absent for much of the summer, the stars came out in droves and crashed the collective bargaining meetings in New York, which made it harder to get a deal done. Wade and Stern reportedly got into a verbal joust in one of the weekend sessions, adding more tension to an already stressful situation.

“Those stars just started showing up [to the meetings] for the last week. They should have been in there [from the beginning],” Barkley said. “The stars have more to lose than anybody. They just showed up last week, and it’s too late. They should have been in there like a month ago.”

Barkley added, “The people who work for these teams and work in these arenas they’re the big losers.”