Remember when the NFL losing part of the 2011 season seemed rather avoidable and was expected to serve as a lesson for the NBA, whose lockout seemed all but assured?
Lately, all anyone connected with football has done is demonstrate how not to act. The NFL lockout has deepened, while those in basketball have kept their cool, kept their mouths shut — except for moments of cautious optimism — and kept hard at work, creating some hope that the chances of avoiding a work stoppage might — just might — be growing.
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While the rapture was apparently avoided over the weekend, Ray Lewis predicted his own version of armageddon in an interview with ESPN.
“Do this research if we don’t have a season — watch how much evil, which we call crime, watch how much crime picks up if you take away our game,” Lewis said.
Although that’s the opposite tact of Reggie Bush, who said he was enjoying his time off, Lewis doesn’t exactly evoke the spirit of cooperation and business-like approach to contentious, high-stakes negotiations.
Meanwhile, the NBA may still be headed for a lockout, but the shot sent across its bow has been heeded.
“We learn from the experience, our own and the experience of others,” NBA commissioner David Stern told the Sporting News.
It’s as if the NFL is fumbling an old unruly paper road map in the car while Stern has a reliable GPS. Even if he knows the journey toward a new labor agreement won’t be easy, at least he knows how he’s going to get there.
