Giving Up and Going Home

Even professional athletes are cutting back to save money.

Waiting for the end of the NBA’s lockout, New York Knicks guard Andy Rautins moved back to his childhood home outside of Syracuse, New York.

According to a study done by Twentysomething Inc.,
%85 of college graduates move back in with their parents.
This %85 now includes Andy Rautins.

In the 2010 NBA Draft, Rautins, 25, was selected 38^th overall by the Knicks. He signed a two-year, $1.38 million deal. This past season, he made over $600,000, not bad for a recent college grad. But, with the uncertainty of the labor situation, Rautins came to the conclusion that living in Manhattan was just getting too expensive for his million-dollar budget, and decided to spend a little bit of time with mom and dad.

The labor situation is threatening to ruin the NBA’s season. First, the entire preseason was cancelled, with hope that an agreement could be reached before the regular season began. However, the players and owners have not been able to come to an agreement. Federal mediators have been summoned to the meetings multiple, many of which have been held in New York City.

NBA Commissioner David Stern has set Wednesday, November 9^th as the latest deadline for an agreement to be reached. This seems unlikely to be executed, however, with the NBA Players’ Association declining the most recent offer from the owners. The agreement called for a 50-50 split of all revenues, a deal that many players, including Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant, have been ready to accept.

Bryant’s teammate, Derek Fisher, is the Players’ Association president. “The current offer on the table from the NBA is one that we cannot accept,” Fisher said in a statement after the latest negotiation. The NBAPA isn’t as unified as they once were, though, with over 50 players looking into the legality of decertifying the Players’ Union in order for basketball to be played this year.

With the threat of the entire season being cancelled, it is important to question how many fans the NBA could potentially lose, when they are already behind in terms of American popularity when compared to Major League Baseball and the NFL.