Basketball fans of AHS wrinkle their foreheads in frustration as the NBA lockout continues. All preseason and regular season games in November have been cancelled, and the rest of the season is still in discussion due to a labor dispute between players and owners. This is the second time in 13 years that the season has been shortened.

Teams are scheduled to play 82 games in the regular season, but games in November will not be played this season. The Washington Wizards lose nine games, three home and six away.

Players and league owners have been disagreeing on financial issues such as salaries, luxury taxes and contracts.

“We remain very, very far apart on virtually all issues,” commissioner David Stern told reporters in a statement. “We just have a gulf that separates us. We are so far apart . . . we can’t close the gap.”

Now, students and faculty are disagreeing over who’s to blame for the lockout.

“I think the owners are being unfair about wanting to decrease their salary and I think that the players should get paid the same amount even when their games are cancelled,” junior Diana Hurtado said. “The federation needs to start meeting player’s demands if they want to end the lockout. The league is nothing without the players.”

“How much money do the players really need?” Asked health teacher Gabe Romano. “[The NBA] can’t afford to pay players this kind of money in this economy.”

The league’s deputy commissioner and union executive director estimated that teams lose hundreds of millions by missing the first two weeks of games and players lose more than 350 million dollars for every month lost of the season. Some players have even traveled to leagues overseas to because of the lockout.

“I don’t think [the NBA lockout] will end any time soon,” Romano said. “There is a lot of money that they’re disagreeing about.

“They should forward more money to the players instead of things like the stadium construction,” freshman Robert Beathea said.

“[The players and owners] need to compromise, it’s not just money that’s at stake, it’s their fan base too,” Romano said. “When this is over, they will only get back the die-hard fans.”

Although many predicted the lockout would be similar to the NFL’s and that it would end right before the season was scheduled to start, they were proven wrong.

The difference between the NFL lockout and the NBA lockout is how the players get paid for their season. In the NFL, players don’t have guaranteed contracts; they receive bonuses. In the NBA, players still get a salary even if they don’t play in a game.

“It’s worse than the NFL because three games is really important and the NFL didn’t miss anything except pre-season training,” Beathea said.

“They’ve met to discuss issues a lot of times, but can’t compromise. The disagreements over the salary cap and revenue are due to the economic recession. Right now it seems like the whole season is in jeopardy.”