Hours before the negotiation teams of the players and owners met Thursday, one industry source lamented the state of the game. Each side is entrenched and angry, the source noted. “I don’t even know where we go from here,” he said. “I really don’t. Everybody is painted into a corner.”
With the sport seemingly headed for at least some downtime, there’s plenty of room for reflection — and now is a great opportunity for everyone involved to ask themselves hard questions about how they contributed to a completely toxic working relationship, and what they can do (and must do) to effect change.
The owners
1. Why can’t we focus on the bigger picture? The owners need to free themselves from the cancerous incrementalism that has infected their sport, something their extraordinary collective wealth should allow them to do. It’s not evident that some of the owners are capable of this, though,…
