This is why the NBA owners deserve no sympathy

The NBA is headed toward a lockout, the kind of lockout that the NFL is already deep into.

According to some folks who all know more about the NBA than I do, this could be a protracted lockout.

At the heart of the matter is, of course, money. They players want more of it, and the owners do, too.

But all I can see is exceedingly stupid stories like this one: The Trail Blazers have offered former No. 1 draft pick Greg Oden an $8.8 million qualifying offer to stay in Portland.

If you don't know who Greg Oden is, go ahead and click through that link to see his stats. He's played one season worth of games - 82 games exactly - in his four professional seasons. He has earned nearly $22 million dollars in those four years.

I get that injuries are a part of the game and the risks that you take when you sign a player to a long-term contract, but stop throwing good money after bad and offering Oden a raise at this point. He is injured. He is going to be injured or injury-prone his whole career.

Don't give him a raise.

I have no sympathy for anybody in professional sports.

Or for any sports fan who bitches about professional sports and the money involved. If you we want the madness to end, you we have to stop paying attention, have to stop giving any money to these already far too wealthy people (owners AND players).