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Disappointment. Optimism. Disappointment.

On and on the cycle goes for the Kansas City Chiefs. While I expect this column won’t make me a popular guy in Kansas City (which happens to be my hometown), what I’m about to say needs to be said.

The problem with the Chiefs has very little do with the Chiefs.

Or Todd Haley.

Or the injury bug.

Or Scott Pioli.

The problem with the Chiefs is that Kansas City, as a sports town, is loyal to their own detriment.

It also explains why David Glass – owner of the Kansas City Royals – has raked in eight-figure profits for the better part of three decades on a franchise that hasn’t sniffed the postseason since Jean Claude Van Damme could still do a spin kick.

It’s no secret: Kansas City loves their Chiefs. I know it, you know it, but most importantly, the Hunt family knows it.

Stop right there. I already know what you’re thinking:

Jason, you don’t get it. Being a sports fan is about loyalty. It’s about supporting your team even when you don’t understand the decisions they make. Even when they ask you to pay outrageous prices to watch a sub-.500 team punt the ball in 25 degree weather. Even when they ask you to increase taxes so they can make improvements to their stadium. Even when they ask you for a seven-year commitment to purchase premier level tickets (or suites).

If Kansas City fans were investors, and the Chiefs were a failing stock, the majority of the fan base would lose unheralded amounts of money in the name of being loyal.

The cycle is really simple:

Franchises appeal to their customers through the media. Why do you think they provide so many of those anonymous sources we all love so much? They desperately want the media to pay attention. In turn, the media appeals to their customers by giving them stories they’ll read/watch/listen to. They gauge the customer’s interest(s), and build their business around whatever that is.

The customer – in both cases – are the fans of a given franchise. And we all know the customer is always right.

Case and point: At media day last week, Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak looked on through the glass of his office at Staples Center. When ESPN-LA columnist Ramona Shelburne gestured for him to come downstairs and chat, he sternly mouthed back: No way.

Why? Kupchak knew he couldn’t speak a word to the media until he had something to say that would be acceptable to Lakers fans. Big-market L.A. fans understand that if there’s enough outrage and a serious willingness to stop purchasing an already overpriced product, ownership will ultimately realize that the following equation is true:

Marketable Players + Winning = Profitable Bottom Line, instead of what’s currently going on in Kansas City:

Mediocre Product + Consistent Losing = Profitable Bottom Line.

When the loyalty is scaled back and profits suffer, owners and GM’s are forced into the following thought process:

We’re losing money and our fans are upset. Why? What do they want? I mean, it makes sense that they want a winner. So, if we want to make this a profitable business, I guess that means we have to win.

Once ownership accepts that as a prerequisite for success, everything they do – from player acquisitions to coaching decisions – is an attempt to build a winner.

Boston.

Los Angeles.

New York.

The fans in those cities have their sports franchises so terrified that they spend ungodly amounts of money to keep their customers happy. And you know what? It works.

You want a winner in Kansas City?

Stop renewing your season tickets on the basis of loyalty. Stop accepting mediocrity every season. Stop looking ahead to next season when management hasn’t provided any sort of accountability for this season.  Stop being so obnoxiously (and embarrassingly) loyal when the situation really calls for outrage.

And for God’s sake, stop feeling sorry for yourselves if you’re going to continue being the stupid girl who runs back to her abusive boyfriend.

It’s not being a fair weather fan. It’s not displaying a lack of loyalty. It’s simply putting the emphasis back on where it should be:

Winning.

Because if you’re not a winner, well…

You’re just another loser.

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Jason Riley is a columnist for STNTV, and the editor-in-chief for LakerNation.com. He is also the co-host of Voice of the Nation, a weekly Lakers Podcast and web show for Fox Sports Radio: L.A. and LakerNation.com.

Photo: Getty Images

You can sit back, take a deep breath and piece the following bit of logic together:

The Odom to Dallas deal was just a precursor to a bigger, better trade (I.e. Howard). I mean, it had to be, right? Why else would the Lakers trade one of their glue guys with a bargain contract to a team that swept them out of the playoffs last year? Why else would an $8.9m trade exception (plus a ’12 first rounder) be something worth acquiring at such a steep price? Why else would Jim Buss and Mitch Kupchak risk evoking ill-feelings from their superstar, Kobe Bryant?

I mean, this couldn’t actually be a salary-dump move by the Lakers, could it? Not during the closing act of Bryant’s career? Not when a championship is still realistically within grasp? Not less than two weeks before the NBA season starts?

Right!?

The problem with using simple reason and logic to comprehend what happened yesterday is that nothing about the NBA over the last 6 months has been logical or reasonable at all. Not to be forgotten, the NBA owners and players bitterly fought for more than five months primarily over a few hundred million dollars, a figure equal to the amount they both lost while they fought over it.

Because that makes sense.

The most obvious illustration of illogical behavior was Commissioner Stern making the unprecedented decision to reject the 3-team deal that would have (a) rid the Hornets of a disgruntled superstar (Paul) who had vowed to leave anyway, (b) cleared up a ton of cap space to improve down the line and (c) given them the reigning sixth man of the year on a bargain contract.

(Oh yeah, then he rejected a modified version of the deal a second time)

While it’s nice to blindly believe common sense will somehow rule the day, I’m just not so sure we can count on that… and once you eliminate rational thinking from the equation, when it comes to yesterday’s decision to move Odom, here’s what’s left for the Lakers:

Plan B was really the plan all along.

And by “Plan B”, I mean Dwight Howard. The Lakers newly acquired $8.9m trade exception could be packaged with Bynum (or Gasol) for Howard and Jameer Nelson (helping to fill the point guard hole), or if Orlando was willing to take on an additional player, for Howard and Hedo Turkoglu (who’s sizable contract the Magic would like to get off the books).

The complication arises from reports that Orlando wants both Bynum and Gasol in the deal, which seems completely illogical from the Lakers perspective. But again, we have to remember, good sense doesn’t necessarily exist here in the NBA.

In addition to that, Kevin Ding has reported that the Lakers will not part with Bynum and Gasol for Howard, so unless something gives, Dwight Howard in a Lakers jersey might be unrealistic in the short term.

There was a Plan C just in-case Plan B fell through.

That $8.9m trade exception is a nice deal-sweetener for any team trying to shed a large contract or get under the salary cap. Mitch and company could have reasoned that if Howard became unattainable (or went elsewhere) they could drop that into a package (or packages) to help them fill some the gaping holes in their roster.

Kobe Bryant spoke directly to the L.A. Times about that possibility, to which he responded:

“I’m not thinking that at all.”

Furthermore, it was later reported by a source familiar with the inner workings of the Lakers that:

“There’s nothing going on.”

Jim Buss is who we thought he probably was.

I wrote about this months’ ago, right after it was reported that Jim (not Jerry) was calling a large percentage of the executive shots for the Lakers. I went as far as calling Jim Buss the Billy Madison of the NBA. If you look back at the things that have happened when he’s asserted himself into Lakers decisions:

• Rid the Lakers of Phil Jackson. Not once, but twice.
• Made the decision to hire Rudy Tomjanovich in 2004.
• Alienated Kurt Rambis and canned longtime assistant GM Ronnie Lester.
• Once added a personal bartender onto the Lakers payroll.
• Didn’t bother letting his superstar, Kobe Bryant, know that he had hired Mike Brown.

The list can go on and on, but here’s the point:

You throw Jim Buss right into this Chris Paul/David Stern situation, and how does he respond? What does he say when an offended and emotional Lamar Odom tells him he wants to be traded? Does he panic? Does he take it personally? Does he puff out his chest and jump at the first possible chance to get rid of him? We have to consider the possibility that Jim Buss reacted poorly to Lamar’s frustration and hastily shipped him out of town without a Plan B (or C).

It doesn’t make any sense, and that’s exactly why it would make sense.

It’s hard to speculate where the Lakers go from here. The events of the last 72 hours in the NBA have ripped away the ceiling and crammed literally everything into the realm of possibility. No matter how you describe what’s happening in the league right now – exciting, stressful, stupid, catastrophic or confusing – you’re absolutely right.

If you’re looking for something to be thankful for, just remember, this column could have been a labor meeting update…

And no matter what happens, anything is still better than that.

Photo Credit | Getty Images

Wait… what!? That can’t be true.

That was my initial reaction to the news that Commissioner Stern had exercised his power to be as brainless (and irresponsible) as his little Grinch-heart so desired. And while much of this made-for-TV drama has centered around Chris Paul, Lamar Odom and Pau Gasol, this really has nothing to do with them, or the three teams directly involved.

The last 5+ months of extensive (and mostly inept) labor meetings impersonated a battle built primarily around greed.

But that wasn’t it at all.

Had it been about money, the player’s willingness to give up hundreds of millions of dollars in salaries would have ended the lockout months ago. More than dollar signs, the owners wanted the power to control and limit player movement – something they believed would allow them to improve the competitive balance of the league and enrich the plummeting value of some smaller market teams.

In hindsight, the lockout was probably closer to 10% about money, and 90% about power, which doesn’t sound so bad when you realize that yesterday’s decision by Stern was 0% about money (or the best interest of the Hornets) and 100% about power.

If it was about money… your second biggest media market (L.A.) just got bigger with the addition of another superstar. Cha-ching.

If it was about the best interest of the Hornets… you’re losing Chris Paul at season’s end (no matter what). The Lakers just offered $.75 on the dollar, along with the added bonus of clearing enough cap space to significantly improve in the near future. Even David Kahn would see the logic in this (wait, maybe he wouldn’t).

Yesterday’s events were very simple: Stern capitalized on an opportunity to employ his power and send a message to the players. While that may not be entirely surprising, here’s what is:

Stern is a self-aware individual. He knew the backlash would be severe. He knew it would further alienate the owners from the players. He knew he would have to make a statement and answer the multitude of questions from the media. He knew the fans would be in an absolute uproar. He weighed all of that and still said:

“It’s worth it to me.”

And with that, welcome back NBA! You’ll never quite be the same again…

Patrick McDermott | Getty Images

The game of chicken is over.

It all ended in Manhattan last night when both cars swerved at the last minute, narrowly avoiding a disastrous collision that would have certainly produced a large number of casualties. It’s been 149-days of empty labor meetings, monotonous press conferences and the complete dismissal of logic and reason. For months, both sides have been essentially saying the same thing:

“We don’t want to lose money, so we’re willingly going to lose money to show you how serious we are about not losing money.”

It was that kind of egotism and downright foolishness that almost wiped out the NBA season (along with about $4 billion in revenue), and while many of us blame greed for what transpired, it was greed that ultimately saved the day. When it came right down to it, the financial ramifications of cancelling NBA basketball on Christmas day just couldn’t be ignored.

Specific details of the agreement are still unclear (and a few system issues still need to be agreed on), but according to sources familiar with the negotiations, the players are set to receive around 50.5% of BRI. The elephant in the room is that both sides still need to hold a formal vote for their members, something Commissioner Stern spoke cautiously about.

“We expect our labor relations committee to endorse this deal, this tentative agreement, and we expect our Board of Governors, at a meeting we will call after that, to endorse the deal.”

NBPA executive director Billy Hunter also spoke with caution, but expressed confidence in the tentative agreement.

“We’re confident that once we present it, the players will support it.”

We expect that specific details of the agreement will spill out over the next several days. While we wait for those, here’s what we know for sure:

• The NBA will begin a 66-game season on Christmas Day.
• The Lakers will host the Bulls as part of a Christmas Day triple-header. Also of note, the Miami Heat will visit the Dallas Mavericks in what will now be Ring Night for the Mavs.
• NBA Training Camps will begin on (or around) December 9^th, along with a shortened (and sure to be frenzied) free-agency period.

And with that, we close the chapter on the NBA lockout, and start a new one. Welcome back, NBA. Don’t ever cheat on us like that again.

Neilson Barnard | Getty Images

Here we are, day 96 of this juvenile pity-party we are now affectionately referring to as the NBA lockout. Thanks to the patheticness (yep, made that word up) of what both David Stern and Billy Hunter are mis-labeling as real negotiating, I am stuck penning another lockout update column (despite earlier reports that I would rather jump off the Santa Monica Pier).

This time around, let’s cut the politically correct according to published reports BS and talk about two things, (a) the most important group in the negotiations and (b) the most effected group in the negotiations. They are, in fact, one and the same group.

The fans.

The lockout could be likened to a lot of things (e.g. any number of scenes from Mean Girls), but here’s the easiest way to break it down.

Your cell phone provider calls you and says, “Thanks for being a great customer and paying your bill every month. We can’t decide how we want to use your money to pay our employees, so we’re going to discontinue service until we work it out.”

As if that’s not preposterous enough, here’s where the implicit arrogance of the NBA trickles into the conversation:

“And as soon as we work it out, we fully expect you to continue spending your money for our service as if we didn’t completely disconnect you for an extended amount of time.”

Is there any company on earth that would even consider temporarily discontinuing their product (basketball) – which is where 100% of their revenue comes from – so they can figure out how said revenue will be distributed?  Imagine that staff meeting…

Owners: I’m not making enough money.
Players: No, I’m not making enough money!
CEO: That’s it! Let’s stop making and selling our product.
Voice of Reason: But isn’t that where all this money we’re arguing about comes from?
Owners: So.
Voice of Reason: So, if we stop selling our product, where’s the money going to come from? …
Voice of Reason: And if we stop selling our product, what are our customers even paying for?
Owners: But I’m not making enough money!
Players: No, I’m not making enough money!
CEO: Done! We’re going to argue about imaginary money from unhappy customers for a product we’re discontinuing. Perfect solution!

And that, ladies and gentleman, is a snapshot of the NBA lockout. What these NBA executives (on both sides) are clearly overlooking is how their only paying customers are going to react to such an idiotic business decision.

As a quick reminder to the League, we, the fans, provide the NBA with approximately 100% of their revenue. Every week of the season, we spend our time watching ten 20-something millionaires we’ve never met take a round, orange ball and try to put it in a cylinder more times than their opponent… then, after the game (or games), we watch some guy named Chuck, who looks like a round, orange ball, disjointedly tell us why one team wasn’t able to get the ball in the cylinder more than the other team.

Many of us have mastered the ability of evading work in favor of browsing blogs (like this one) and managing our imaginary teams. When pay day comes around, we drop our hard earned money on overpriced arena food, even more overpriced tickets, and most overpriced of all, official NBA merchandise (as if a mesh jersey is reasonably priced at $250+).

The NBA thrives on addicted customers who have integrated basketball into every area of their life (like most of us). If we miss games this season (we will), that will be the NBA sending every one of us to rehab, forcing us to detox from our addiction and face the world without the NBA. How many of us will relapse when if they work out a new CBA in the near future? That remains to be seen, but I can guarantee it won’t be anywhere near the 100% return rate they are counting on.

In just a few months, the fans have gone from I can’t wait for NBA basketball, to I’m so angry about this lockout, to I just don’t effing care anymore. It’s essentially the basic stages of any breakup with a boyfriend or girlfriend you’ve ever had. You go from caring too much, to absurd levels of anger, to complete indifference. No matter how it went down, you eventually get over it and move on.

And that is exactly what’s at stake for the NBA – the fans moving on, realizing that basketball is entertainment, and there are a whole lot of entertainment substitutes out there. I love the NBA, but if this lockout carries on without any resolution in sight, it’s going to take a whole lot more than a phone call and a quick apology from the NBA to repair this relationship. Something tells me I’m not the only one who feels like this.

The clock is ticking…

Lisa Blumenfeld | Getty Images

Jerry West.

Most of you know him as the logo – a designation that the majority of today’s athletes would likely describe as the crowning achievement of their career(s).

Some of you know him as GM of the Lakers – a position that added six NBA championship rings to his collection and cemented the mold for a bronze likeness of himself that towers outside of Staples Center today.

A few of you may even know him as a Laker – a 14-time NBA all-star whose automatic jumper and sheer obsession with winning was only overshadowed by his penchant for losing, something he did to the rival Boston Celtics six consecutive times in the 1960’s.

No matter how you know Jerry West… the truth is that you don’t really know Jerry West.

While I soaked up the pages of his fascinating autobiography, West by West: My Charmed, Tormented Life, I was struck by how his entire life was most revealed in a sentence found tucked away towards the end of the book.

“I have a hole in my heart, a hole that can never be filled.”

It was that self-described hole that seemed to govern his life.

For more than three decades, Jerry was surrounded by the glamorous lights of Hollywood and the success of the Lakers organization…only the accompanying joy you might expect very rarely ever came, if it came at all.

“I was just so caught up in winning that I didn’t even enjoy the winning.”

Even when the Lakers – after a decade of coming up short – won the Championship in 2000, any semblance of happiness seemed elusive:

“On the morning after the Lakers won the 2000 Championship against the Indiana Pacers… I was in my office early, staring blankly, the only light coming from a small Tiffany lamp, and wanting to be anywhere but there.”

That moment led to another one– Jerry’s surprising departure from the Lakers following that title run. He cited a number of reasons – an icy meeting with Glen Rice and his agent , a broken relationship with Jerry Buss and a non-existent relationship with Phil Jackson – but the truth was very simple.

“I left the job because it was not only providing me with zero joy, but also affecting – ruining, really –  every aspect of my life.”

Throughout the 300+ pages of Jerry’s journey, I unraveled the many complicated (and surprising) layers of his personality, and was able to discover a central theme that stayed consistent throughout his life: Unlike most of today’s superstar athletes, Jerry West was a relationship-minded person.

He wasn’t satisfied by winning (even though he claims to have been consumed by it), nor was he content with making a lot of money and earning the accolades that accompany his many accomplishments.

It explains why he bitterly remembers a heartfelt letter his wife wrote to Dr. Buss that went ignored… and why he’ll never forget Phil Jackson angrily tossing him out of the locker room… and why he spent countless hours casually chatting it up with the Lakers office staff.

And most captivating to many of us, it’s why he wrote an entire chapter about his treasured relationship with both Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal.

He described Kobe the same way that many of us would.

“Kobe was a once-in-a-lifetime player who could cast his shadow on the franchise for years to come. His fierce competitive drive was innate. You need to possess more than a little nastiness to play basketball at the highest level, and Kobe had that in abundance.”

He had preliminary concerns about Kobe and Shaq’s ability to co-exist, but said that it was Shaq, of all people, who was initially protective and supportive of Kobe.

“After Kobe had fired consecutive air balls in the playoffs against Utah in his first season, Shaquille was the one who told him to shake it off and not let it get him down, even complimented him on his course to even take those shots as a rookie.”

After all, contrary to popular opinion, Shaq greatly cared about winning too, perfectly illustrated by this story Jerry recalls:

“I came into the locker room after a bitter playoff loss at the Forum and found him literally dismantling the place – ripping out the sinks and urinals – and told him that he needed to calm his ass down.”

During the Shaq vs. Kobe days of the early 2k’s, most of us took a side and found as many legitimate reasons as we could to support our position. For Jerry, it just wasn’t that easy. He described himself as a father-figure to Kobe, and warmly recalls Shaq mouthing the words I love you to him as his statue was being unveiled at Staples Center in 2011.

And once again, right there in the text, Jerry inadvertently unmasks himself, as he does quite often throughout the course of his mesmerizing story. While he desperately tries to stay within the context of basketball, he ultimately reverts back to who he really is – a supremely brilliant individual who seemed to value people and personal relationships more than he did possessions.

The unfortunate truth about Jerry West is that his genius was best showcased in a business – and a city – that couldn’t have possibly been more conflicting. As much as Jerry’s autobiography is about basketball, it really isn’t about basketball at all. He goes as far to admit as much:

 “I envisioned a book that would be about far more than my life in basketball.”

As he did so often in his career, he turned that vision into a tangible reality – just another achievement added to a life, career and legend overflowing with them.

QUESTION OF THE SHOW: Was the last night of the 2011 MLB season the best night of regular season baseball ever?