The expiration of the NBA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement comes in the wake of an absurd postseason that scored some of the NBA’s highest TV ratings since Michael Jordan took on John Stockton and Karl “the Mailman” Malone in 1997-98.
I mean, remember with me: Brandon Roy dropped 18 in the fourth on the Mavs when he should‘ve been in a wheelchair, the street-fight that was the Grizzlies-Thunder series, the Lakers were swept, LeBron reminded everyone how much their lives suck compared to his and — oh yeah — the Lakers were swept.
Well, prepare for the polar opposite, a greed-a-palooza called the 2011 lockout.
“It worries me that we’re not closer. We have a huge philosophical divide,” NBA commissioner David Stern said.
Translation: Sorry, fans, but the players and owners are more unshakable than Robert Horry with five seconds left in a playoff game. OK, OK, they probably aren’t that unflappable with their offers, but still.
The lockout is like the relationship I had with my first girlfriend — even though both parties involved want things to work out sooner rather than later, neither side is willing to budge one micro-smidgen away from what they want for themselves, even if what they want is totally naive and immature.
The owners are taking a shrewd maneuver out of my playbook and have decided to simply ignore the players until they have no choice but to give in to the owners demands.
In fact, the owners are so gung-ho on locking the players out until they cave that on June 30, the day before the Collective Bargaining Agreement expired and when Billy Hunter — executive director of the NBA Players Association — arrived with his counsel and about 40 NBA players to negotiate a last-second deal, only Stern, Deputy Commissioner Adam Silver, Spurs owner Peter Holt and Knicks owner James Dolan were there to negotiate on the owners’ behalf.
In defense of Joe, Gavin and George Maloof, the bankrupt owners of the Sacramento Kings, plane tickets are awfully expensive these days.
On the flip side, Michael Beasley is smoking marijuana again, players are cheating on the NBA with contracts overseas and LeBron is obliterating 14-year-olds with tomahawk slams.
Thanks for the help, guys!
The players’ first paychecks are due to arrive Nov. 15 — about four weeks into the season — and many analysts speculate the players association will not put its foot on the gas as far as negotiating goes until then.
According to Stern, 22 of the 30 NBA franchises were unprofitable in 2010-2011. The owners claim to have lost north of $340 million in total revenues during that time, and the single biggest reason is overpaying players.
In other words, it’s just like Dallas Cowboys receiver Roy Williams’ debacle — you overpay for a ridiculous $76,000 engagement ring that you send to your fiance in the mail. What do you do when she dumps you a month later? Sue her for all she’s worth to get the ring back, duh.
The players demanded that the owners open their financial records to attempt to catch them in a $340 million bluff.
“There might not be any losses at all. It depends on what accounting procedure is used,” Hunter said after checking the records. “If you decide you don’t count interest and depreciation, you already lop off 250 (million) of the $340 million.”
Also, owners in small markets feel as though the NBA business model is too lenient with the L.A.s and New Yorks of the league when it comes to payroll because bigger markets inherently have more to offer players both financially and otherwise. It’s not a coincidence the Lakers payroll last season was about $92 million compared to Sacramento‘s $45 million.
In order to ensure parity in the NBA is such that even the smallest of markets can compete for titles, the owners want to institute a “hard salary cap” at about $46 million dollars — a set limit on how much money a franchise’s player-salary payroll can reach with very few exceptional reasons to exceed the limit.
The owners also hope to shorten the length of maximum contracts to 4 years because when teams like the Washington Wizards get locked up with players who take up almost a third of their payroll, like Rashard Lewis does making $20 million six years in a row, they remain a sub-30 win team for the duration of that contract.
The players association is adamant the league’s salary-cap remain the same as it has been since 2006. The system is a so called “soft-cap” with several exceptions that allow franchises to exceed the cap-limit.
In 2010-2011, the cap was just over $56 million dollars; however, this soft cap was originally put in place to keep small markets competitive with larger markets, but it has done the opposite. Each of the last four title-winning teams — Boston, the Lakers (twice) and Dallas — has not only dramatically exceeded the cap but has been one of the top-5 teams in NBA payroll spending.
The players union also is vehemently opposed to anything less than a five-year max contract.
“It’s a total distortion of reality,“ Players Union president Derek Fisher said of the owners’ salary cap proposal. “Guys asked us, point blank, why are we even meeting? Everybody’s at a loss as to how we even begin to close this gap.”
But until the owners and players strike a deal, everyone loses by not having an NBA season.