“That’s Just Suicide”: When Charles Barkley Believed Players Pushing NBA into a Lockout Over Salary Dispute During Recession Wasn’t Acceptable

Back in 2010, Charles Barkley sat down with GQ for an exclusive interview, giving his opinion on the upcoming 2011-12 season. For many who don’t remember, the 2011-12 season was lockout-shortened, and the league had been dealing with negotiations between the owners and the players association for over a year by this time.

During his interview, Charles Barkley was asked about his opinion on the player protesting against the revenue structure of the league, answering the question, Sir Charles said,

” Any professional league that goes on strike right now—that’s just suicide. We’re in the middle of a recession, and guys are fighting because instead of making $5 million a year they’re gonna make $4 million? You can’t sell that to the fans.”

Barkley did have a point when he called out the players for their protest. The protest which began on 1st July 2011, and lasted till November was focused on the new Collective Bargaining Agreement of the NBA. The demands from the players though fair, didn’t take into consideration that without games being played, there was no leverage to be taken advantage of.

With most of the league’s revenue coming from TV deals and ticket sales, not playing games would affect the players more than they ever would the owners.

In the 2010 season, the median salary of an NBA player was $2.8 million, which was significantly higher than the average pay of the demographic that turned up to watch games. Sympathy wasn’t something that players could expect from their fans, as media outlets regularly bashed players for wanting a bigger part of their pie, even when the entire country was tussling with a severe economic depression.

The historic 2011 lockout

The 2011 NBA lockout was an historic event, which will go down in the annals of sports history. The lockout which lasted 161 days was the fourth and most recent edition of the NBA lockout. The league was cut short of 26% of its games, resulting in millions of losses to the league.

Forbes would estimate that the league lost over $800 million in total revenue throughout the lockout. The Collective Bargaining Agreement of 2011 began due to serious concerns over smaller-market teams not being able to compete at the level of their competitors. The 2011 lockout saw the strict introduction of the salary tax, with teams being heavily penalized for no compliance.

But the bigger market teams weren’t in favour of footing a bigger tax bill than they already had to pay. During the huge tassel between owners and the players, many were correct in pointing towards the public opinion of the NBA. The casual watcher of the league already looked at NBA players as spoilt brats who were heavily into living lavish lives. Even Barkley correctly pointed out that the public wasn’t going to feel sympathetic towards the players, as they were getting paid top dollar during one of America’s worst recessions.