The NFL lockout is officially over  after 18 weeks of chaos, but as most people knew, the odds football would be back was a lot greater than basketball. Jokes have been flying around about how the NBA won’t be back until 2012 or 2013 but we certainly believe and hope that that won’t be the case.

As of now, the players have a 57% right to total NBA revenues and when they offered  to reduce that to 54%, owners were still not satisfied. The new NFL agreement gives only 47% to the players but the big difference between the NFL and NBA is that the NFL makes more money annually. The reason the NBA players get a greater percentage of the revenues and the reason that the average NBA salary is higher than the NFL is because each NBA team is limited to 15 players total while each NFL team starts 11 on both offense and defense, therefore increasing the value of the average NBA player versus the average  NFL player. Quarterbacks’ contracts arguably rival those of the NBA because of their importance to a franchise in all aspects such as leadership and are the most endorsed by sponsorships. (remember that national Brady Quinn commercial?). With the economy looming over everybody’s head, the players, who are suffering ALOT less than the rest of the world, are going to have to come to their senses.

The cause for the lockout is primarily between players and owners but another battle is also ensuing between the big-market owners and the small-market owners. 22 of the 30 teams claimed they lost money. Traditionally, the owners have a revenue-sharing system but they don’t have to share the revenues of ticket sales, and media deals, giving the big-market teams a whole lot more money to play around with. In the NFL and MLB, more of the total revenues are shared making it possible for teams like the Packers to win Super Bowls. The NBA reportedly shared a revenue of only $45 Million last year which is chump change in the world of millionaires and billionaires as is, but is literally nothing when it gets divided 30 ways. Simply put, small-market teams want a greater percentage of total revenues shared so they too have a chance to compete in free-agency since signing multiple players to max deals is the trending form of general management of today’s big time teams. The big-markets don’t want to budge because although they do make more money, it costs them more due to where they are located.

The NBA players are being asked to take a big pay cut while the big-market teams are being asked to give up 50% of their revenues. Nobody wants to budge, but someone has got to give.

I hope this lockout gets resolved before November because to be quite honest, I can live without the NFL, but without the NBA, I have no life.