I love the NBA, its the best competition when it comes to basketball there is around the world period. But its policy concerning foreign players and clubs. I agree that with shanghai sharks asking for a player in return might be a little to far, but i do think financial compensation is very reasonable. For warrant, i will turn to soccer. There are already several threads that mentioned this but i will reiterate. Soccer, outside of US is the most popular sport in the world. There's a huge internation connection, though every country has there own leagues and such, there is constant transaction between clubs in different countries. For these transactions, a player under contract with a club can join another club if the club that wants the player is willing to pay a transaction fee, and for top notch players, it can go to millions. This is good for sports in several ways, first, countries with poor econonomic backgrounds are still willing to invest and train players, because if the player is good enough there might actually be a return on the investmond. Second, because of this pre agreed notion of transactions fees, transaction between clubs of different country can go smoother, since there is some sort of rule in place. Third with more investment into the sport, even by those of less wealthy nations, the sport gains more popularity. Because of abundance of home grown talent, the NBA haven't looked towards foreign countries much for talent until recently. because of this, there isn't much ground work concerning transactions between foreign clubs, there for many transaction don't go through (i.e. that dude we drafted ahead of rashad, turksan i think, that never even took a dribble in rox uniform) or have to wait until a contract runs out. I think if NBA trully wants to grown in popularity and fame around the world, perhaps even( though i don't see it) surpass the popularity of soccer, it seriously need to rethink the way it deals with foreign players.
You couldn't really change that rule because of the salary cap. The NBA tries to be fair to all the teams, regardless of how much money they make. If you had to buy out contracts and shell out millions to bring players in, only the richest teams could afford to pay for international players. Some cap expert in the bbs probably has a better understanding, but to allow NBA teams to pay buy players from other teams, the money they use would have to count against the cap.
Why couldn't the system works with the cap? Like you said, the transaction fees can count against the cap there fore, balancing it out along the teams? Also, why couldn't there be a agreed amount to the player's team whose loosing him. For example, before the draft, Shanghai sharks agree to release Yao to whatever team that draft him to pay a fee of say 2/3 million to the shanghai sharks organization. Therefore, every thing is agreed upon, and every team can decide if the investment is worth it or not.
see...here we go again with conflicting reports... but doesn't his contract with the Sharks expire soon??? or hasn't it already expired??? i call that free agency....
Damn, I never really looked at it from that perspective. I think it is the NBA who should change their policy. It would be fair for everyone. I dont think this is like baseball , all these cats(owners) make a profit.
i'm from holland, and therfor Soccer is the most popular sport in my country, but i don't agree with you, the way the nba deals with pplayers is better than the way of soccer, with soccer there are a few teams with money and they win everything, more than with basketbal, a turnaround in a frnchise like with dallas or detroit or boston is not possible with soccer, atleast almost never, the uefa (the commision of soccer in europe) even chanced a few rules so it was more like basketbal. another problem with the way of soccer. is that there is no limmit in how much someone can get payed,a few team are almostout of money and wil have to stop playing soccer. the way of the nba is better
I don't think the NBA should change, at least not very much. One of the things i really like about the NBA is the transaction and salarycap rules. These make it possible to have a more interesting league, where even small teams without a lot of money like San Antonio can be champions.
I dont think they should do away with any of that ... but if a foriegn player is developed by a foreign team. I think its fair to compensate that team (with a cap on that as well) or have some set policy for compensating teams for their players under contract if they're NBA material (ala Sabonis)
Teams are allowed to spend 350,000 on contract buyouts and additional expenses come out of the player's salary. <A HREF="http://www.sportingnews.com/nba/teams/spurs/20010912.html">Tony Parker Article</A> <A HREF="http://www.realgm.com/src_prev_memphis_column.php?columnid=12">Gasol Article</A> <A HREF="http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/basketball/nba/2001/draft/news/2001/06/27/gasol/">Gasol Article</A> <i> Damn, I never really looked at it from that perspective. I think it is the NBA who should change their policy. It would be fair for everyone. I dont think this is like baseball , all these cats(owners) make a profit. </i> If things become more structured with foreign farm teams and so forth, then it would be following the path of MLB which has many problems related to spending inequities. The Knicks made some mistakes in regards to players and their contracts and the team's won/loss record reflects that. The Blazers are on the cusp of the same problem and will struggle to stay out of the situation that New York is in. Allowing those teams to buyout the expensive contracts of foreign players to help them out of their predicaments would allow them to go unpunished for bad decisions. <i> Why couldn't the system works with the cap? Like you said, the transaction fees can count against the cap there fore, balancing it out along the teams? Also, why couldn't there be a agreed amount to the player's team whose loosing him. For example, before the draft, Shanghai sharks agree to release Yao to whatever team that draft him to pay a fee of say 2/3 million to the shanghai sharks organization. Therefore, every thing is agreed upon, and every team can decide if the investment is worth it or not </i> The farm team system of MLB baseball has a defined pecking order with structured affiliations with the Major League team: AAA AA A A Rookie League <i>(Not a big baseball fan, but seems close)</i> To get teams/leagues in foreign countries to have a defined pecking order and to allow themselves to be <i>underneath</i> NBA teams is a daunting proposition. The Sharks seem to want a strong participation that goes beyond monetary considerations. Mango
I think thst in thr end the NBA will change, but it will probably not happen for a long time yet. After all why do you think people play basketball in other parts of the world? Why are there leagues in other countries? Is their goals to supply the NBA with talent without getting anything back? I don't think so.
A change away from the current structure would lead to a LA vs NY Finals 9 out of 10 seasons. Do you really want the Lakers to become the NBA's version of the NY Yankees? No thanks.
nilsrock, If a player has fulfilled his contract as MadMax mentioned earlier, what legal obligation is left to force the NBA to compensate foreign teams & leagues? Goodwill (image building) relationsips are another matter. Mango
Nothing, that player is free to sign with the team of his choosing. That's a bit strange with the Yao negotiations though 'cause I've read somewhere that his contract with the sharks has expired, but I guess it's a complicated situation.
My concern is that why can't the league find a way to manage both have a cap and still pay for foreign players. NBA does recongnize that some teams need to be compensated by allowing for a payment of $350,000 to a foreign clubs. But for some teams and perhaps some leagues that's not enough for their star attraction. NBA has a cap thus it will never be like baseball or soccer, and I think that is good. But I think to increase fan attraction towards basketball and NBA around the world, the NBA needs to seriously reconsider policies dealing with other foreign players. I think that NBA should just raise the limit of $350,000 to maybe 4 or 5 million. And if the sports becomes more global, maybe even more, depending on circumstances. With more teams and countries willing to invest thus more talented players from around the world, the olympics and world games might actually be entertaining instead of everyone trying to play for runner up to US. Or is it the NBA's best interest to make sure the dream team will every basketball game for the next millinium, but 95% of rest of the world will still only care for FIFA instead of FIBA
The NBA has the best labor rules in American sports. There's no way they're going to change them, especially when they've already been getting international talent for years. (Gasol, Parker, Kukoc, Gasol, Nowitzki, Petrovic, Divac, Peja, Marciulionis, etc.) The problem here is that the Shanghai Sharks are trying to pull a fast one. They obviously knew the NBA's rules and allowed Yao to enter the draft anyway. If they were so concerned with compensation why don't they just sell him to Italy or some other league? The truth is that once they allowed Yao to enter the draft, neither the Sharks or China have any leverage at all here. Yao either comes to play against the best and China can benefit from his improvement or they can keep him and never know how good he could have been. Chinese basketball isn't very good anyway so it's silly to think the NBA is going to change it's rules to accomodate a weak basketball country or one player.
Im not talking about changing the rules for one country or one player. Im not even talking about changing the rules right now, what I am simply stating is that for future considerations, the NBA should change its rules. Yes there are foreign talents in the NBA right now but the level of competition just isn't where it should be. For NBA or basketball to be more popular globally, some sort of rule change should be in place. Think about, why is the World Cup so entertaining, because the talent level in every country is improving, there are no dominance by one nation for a long time and every nation in the world is improving. That's because the top soccer leagues are more willing to invest in foreign talents and compensate for them, making it more enticing for diffrent nations to invest in soccer. Now if NBA and Basketball is going to gain more fame globally, it as the top basketball league needs to change its rules. Or else Manchester United and Liverpool will always be more famous than the Lakers and the Knicks.
The NBA would be fools to change their system when the gameis continuing to gain more fame globally. Look at the dream teams. In '92 we slaughtered everyone. Since then, things have gotten much more competetive. Every nation is improving in basketball, as well. The current salary cap is based on a percentage of team revenue, correct(I think 57%)? In addition, they have bird exemption, mce, etc. Well, the players association will never give part of that up to compensate foreign teams(would you?) so this 4-5 million compensation would have to be in addition to the current cap. At some point, some teams won't be able to afford it, even if they are allowed to spend it. I'm not saying that a team who has a player under contract shouldn't be compensated if he leaves. I just don't think that responsibility lies with the NBA or its team. Another thought. If the future world popularity of the NBA is dependent upon foreign player compensation for getting one of the 400 or so jobs in the NBA, the NBA is screwed. I don't think the world is stupid enough to base their businesses on basically the equivelent of winning the lottery. Maybe they are, though. And finally: The world cup is mind searing agony. When is it over?
How is it that the talent level isn't where it should be? There is so much talent in this league, I just can't believe people would really think the NBA is at it's weakest when it comes to talent. There is more and more talent world wide, but the reason more of them aren't coming isn't because of the current rules, it's because the guys who make it over here are the cream of the crop and can compete in this league. Maybe it's just me, but I think even the Bulls could go into Europe right now and handle the majority of those teams pretty easily. The 92 dream team was very dominant for more reasons than just the fact that the world players weren't that good. That team had the best players in the league. Jordan, Bird, Magic, Barkley, Drexler, Pippen, Ewing, Laettner(seriously, how did this happen? Was there some, not enough white guys on the team complex?) made up this team. These guys were all the best of the best in the league. In 2000, guys like Shaq, Kobe, Webber, Duncan, and Iverson didn't go. In there place were guys like Baker, Hardaway, Steve Smith, and Allan Houston. So if the best of the best where on the 2000 team as they were on the 92, then there's no question they would have humilated the rest of the world. I have a feeling the first time a team from another country beats our dream team, will be a time when team USA will win a World Cup.
Honestly? I think that the NBA can get away with this rule because they are clearly the 'only game in town.' While I'm no expert, I think it's fairly safe to say that the English leagues, the Italian leagues, the German leagues, the Spanish leagues, etc. are all at least competative enough that they could loose some of their best players to each other. The moment that the first pick in the draft seriously contimplates going to play for Benneton is, IMHO, the moment that the NBA eliminates this rule.
