NBA Lockout: Reality Bites

Image by Getty Images via @daylifeOn what would have been the first week of the 2011-12 NBA season, arenas sit dark, with the exception of concerts and hockey games.  The trash talking of Charles Barkley has been replaced on TV by Dick Vitale yelling "Awesome, baby!", with only college basketball and the NHL to fill the void between NFL football games.

As of November 3, the NBA's owners have locked out the players for 126 days, caught in a dispute over a new collective bargaining agreement.  The owners (who make billions) want to split $4 billion down the middle with the players (who make millions), but the players want the split to be in their favor.  Already, the pre-season and the first month of the regular season have been canceled.  The longer this goes, the more likely it is that the entire season may be gone.

The lockout has lasted longer than TV reality princess Kim Kardashian's marriage to New Jersey Nets player Kris Humphries, whose separation after 72 days of wedded bliss was announced this week.

The August wedding, which reportedly cost around $10 million, was telecast a couple of weeks ago on the E! network in a two-part special witnessed by four million viewers.  Kris Jenner, Kim's mother and manager of all things Kardashian, denied that the lavish nuptials were a ploy for higher TV ratings in addition to the other programs the Kardashians appear in.  So maybe it just didn't work out.

Kim earns a nice living doing whatever it is she does, thank you very much, so she didn't need to lean on her husband for financial help.  Kris Humphries, on the other hand, will be missing a few paychecks thanks to the lockout.  Unless he has a slew of endorsement deals, he shouldn't expect to get much in the divorce settlement to tide him over.

As for the NBA rank-and-file:  If your name isn't Kobe or LeBron, and not married to a Kardashian, you're either playing ball overseas or working the late shift at the local Home Depot.  You're probably still wondering how you'll live from paycheck to paycheck when millions of basketball fans don't even have that luxury.  And, once the lockout ends, you'll be wondering why you're stuck playing in Memphis or Minnesota while the best player on your team takes his talents to South Beach or L.A. with other All-Stars from bad teams.

Whenever the lockout ends (and everyone hopes it's soon), the owners, players and NBA commissioner David Stern will have a hard enough time picking up the pieces without trying to win back the trust of the fans they abandoned.  How long before those who play the game realize that fame and dates with reality TV stars are fleeting?  It's what you do with your future beyond the basketball court that matters.