Are Unions PREVENTING an NBA Season and Holding Back HOLLYWOOD? The GAMING Industry Might Know The Answer

The NBA recently announced that it is very close to canceling its season, thanks to the inability of the league and its players unions to come to financial agreements regarding contracts. For those of you that are avid followers of the NBA (may I suggest this) you know this all too well. For those of you who strictly live the G4M3RL1F3, we’ll explain why the situation may be a whole lot more interesting than how the media may be portraying it.

In an nutshell, the NBA situation can be broken down to individuals of power WANTING MORE: League owners want the majority of the cut, which players believe belongs to them. What’s resulted from the dispute is a Mexican stand-off where two groups of people stare at each other earning nothing, instead of working together to make something (all while vendors, parking guys, and dudes selling foam fingers search for another part time job).

But what prevents this issue from being limited to the NBA? Are union disputes and apparent greed limited to just basketball players?

It’s no question that movie studios want more, worried that the rise of online channels like Hulu, Netflix, Amazon, etc may cut into their profits. This could conceivably trickle down to the actors in the same fashion that the NBA’s problems fell to its players.

Is it possible that the Actors’ unions could revolt in the same fashion as the NBA players? The distribution of income in the NBA is currently more visible than the payouts on the internet vis-à-vis banner advertising, promotions, and other forms of new media advertising, what’s preventing the actors unions from going on strike (again)?

Could another actor’s strike call for the disbanding of the union once and for all (all two of them)? The NBA players are reportedly getting the impression their union may not be working for the sake of the group, how contagious is that feeling amongst other industries that have unions operating for them in a similar fashion? If the NBA player’s union were to disband, could it set off a chain reaction from the Actors…to the Teamsters and the UAW?

What is all this “union talk” really about? The world is full of talented people and interested consumers willing to invest in their talents, what the heck is the problem? Are we seeing a chronic flaw of unions – an inability to adapt and evolve with changing times?

I promised at the beginning this would mean something to those of your living the G4M3RL1F3…here’s why:

While the NBA players stand at the podium looking like someone just crushed their XBOX and sound bites gather from NBA execs from coast to coast about how much shit they’re NOT going to take, there’s one industry that doesn’t seem to be having this problem.

The video game industry.

How many stories do we hear of a popular franchise being put on hold/cancelled because the developers joined together and decided they wanted more money? Sure games will get delayed for various reasons, but many times that’s based on quality concerns, how many times has a union gotten involved, intervened, and ostensibly pulled the plug?

Gamers have seen some of the greatest releases in the new generation of gaming over the past several months, while industries like the NBA, Hollywood studios, and not to forget, the NFL before it, are in flux and stepping over each other for power.

How much of an example is the video game industry setting? They’ve been cranking out record numbers doing nothing more than having fun, enjoying what they’re doing, and listening to their consumers…could the NBA or the studios take a page out of this book?

Certainly these industries possess different traits, but is it radical to assume they AREN’T AUTONOMOUS industries? What is the difference between an NBA star, a movie star, and a video game developer that could make more money than the both of them?

Are these industries engineered differently or do they just have a different way of going about their business, one without a union to “keep them in check?”

Luckily the video game industry hasn’t had to answer these questions, but maybe the NBA and the movie studios should start asking them for themselves?

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