For about 200 days, the NBA season was at a standstill. The league lost hundreds of millions of dollars as players and owners stared each other down over salary disagreements. And while some players initially came away with more money once the two sides reached a deal, the league lost much of its popularity afterward. Many of the NBA’s millionaires came off as money hungry, a perception that turned off some fans for years. And with Michael Jordan at the end of his career, the league entered the 2000s in a ratings and attendance funk from which it’s just now started to recover.
Read about the NBA’s newest start, the Los Angeles Clippers’ Blake Griffin.