I find it fascinating that some here think that if the players don't like whatever the owners impose on them, they should just go play in another league. We don't pay to watch the owners. Without the players, the league is nothing. Without quality ball on the court, no one will pay what the owners want for their seats, their concessions, their souvenirs. Get a grip, people. We aren't going to flock to the arenas and fork over for League Pass to watch a bunch of scabs and D-League players. The various media outlets that pay untold millions to the league for broadcasting rights aren't going to pay for that product, not if people aren't watching. The owners know that. Stern knows that. We're watching a poker game, people, and it's in play.
Nah dude. People watch college football and NCAA's are more popular than the NBA. People watch Football League Championship and any number of national/region soccer leagues. People watch their teams and their leagues. It's not like if the players are better the games are better. It's the legacy of the league that makes players. If Kobe had never played in the US but was in some Italian league somewhere would you have gone looking for him? You'd be watching Lega Basket? No. The league develops, markets and makes the player not the other way around. If all the players in the NBA had never been born, you'd never have missed them. Stern would have made stars out of the next hundred tall, agile, black guys from the college ranks. It's like the draft lottery, the #1 in a crap year could well be a 5-10 guy in a very strong year, yet they're all #1 picks and all hyped up simply because they're put in that position. Being an NBA Player or "best in the NBA" is what gives that aura to the ballplayers. As for OP the idea that you'd side with players or owners is r-tarded. Side with whoever is right on a particular issue. As for me, I'd rather they stem guaranteed contracts and cap fairly across the league than raise concessions 30% or fire some guy working the door so Bosh can pay his ex $1 million more in his divorce settlement or buy another 25% of a Netjets plane from a fatter paycheck. The amount of money is immaterial. I mean models get paid millions for being skinny and during the boom real estate agents in NY got paid $10 million a year just for showing houses around. The issue with the pay is simply that the owners cannot afford to pay the player what they're paying. If they could, then it would be no problem that a player makes 20x more than your Internist. But due to crappy work on the part of Stern and the league they cant do what your average business does and fire or reduce the overpaid staff. This CBA is to rectify those institutional problems that owners have so they dont keep bleeding money and overpaying ppl.
You make some good points, but miss the mark on others. College ball sells for many reasons, passion being premier. Taking the top 100 NBAers and creating a league would fell like summer exhibitions. Fans buy into the history and rivalries and all the things that make up a league. Fans don't know the college players during March Madness but madness is what they do know. I doubt the 10 teams players acknowledge losing money are really losing net dollars long-term. One year or two? Perhaps. I sincerely believe if the owners want to make a deal and the players want to make a deal there is a deal to be made with sufficient give-backs and keeps by the players and let the games go on. If they 'NHL' this then the golden goose will be an alchemist's goose up the collective butt of all things AND PEOPLE NBA. What door will Cal Ripken and Sammy Sosa and Mark McGuire enter?
The players can't make any money without the owner's setup up the vehicle, and the owner's can't do it without the players to drive the vehicle. IMO, there is no doubt that many of the player's are making would they're worth, if not less. LeBron James is worth more, Rose is worth more, even guys like Budinger is worth more. I believe Morey has stated that the best bargains are at the max contracts and some of the rookie contracts. It's some of these guaranteed contracts that cause the problem IMO. No reason Thabeet should be making about as much as Lowry next season. He adds no value to the team, nor do I think the Rockets/NBA owe him anything for prior service or something. There was no injury here, no prior service, no need for guaranteed money because he invested himself for the team. Nothing. So how do you cut guys like that, but keep the ones where the salary is legit? I would like to see the age limit raised so that there are less gambles out there, but there would still be guys who are far under-earning their salaries. Perhaps some form of arbitration. If a team wants to cut a player for under performing, then they submit the request to the panel for acceptance. Can't cut a player due to injury or if it looks as if the player was not utilized up to his potential. Maybe even use this for reduction in salary, although I think many contracts could be renegotiated down over threat of being cut outright. Put that in place, and you can have a hard cap, and start doing trades without matching salaries, and without economic reasons. The players aren't going to go for this, so I want to give back some sort of pension that helps players after they retire. If a player is cut, the reasons 3 mil (or whatever is remaining on the contract) spread out over 10 years. Regardless, I think the negotiates really need to get creative to resolve this. The owner's have to recognize that quite a few of the players are pay what they're worth, but then the player's need to realize that some of them are leeches on the system.
No because the majority make millions of dollars in their NBA career and don't want/need to do anything afterwards, duh.
Bloop has hit the mark on this one. The power is all in the owners court for a variety of reasons: 1. The NBA is fueled more by hype than real actual playing ability. Derrick Rose captured way more fans than Dwight Howard, who is undoubtedly the superior player. If a mass exodus of the top talent somehow happens, I don't think the NBA will suffer long term consequences. Sure, people might miss Kobe and Lebron and Wade, but in a couple of years new Durant clones will be dunking on the court and hitting fade away 3s. You may think you pay to see the players, but the truth is you pay to get entertained by watching basketball, and that's something the league can always provide you. 2. Not every player can afford the lockout. Most of these NBA players are living paycheck to paycheck, they need their salaries to pay the interest on the houses and cars they bought. The owners OTH are millionaires who can afford to let their team sit if they don't have to pay salaries. It may be a poker game, but the owners have 4 aces and the players only have a spare. 3. People will always watch what's available to them. If the only food you know is ****, would you think it tastes bad? If these players leave the country majority of the fans will forget who they are, esp. if the league counters by having multiple drafts every year to fill the roster space. Players are never in short supply, every year you have a new generation coming out every year, however there is only one NBA. 4. March Madness has proved that as long as the marketing is solid, you can make crappy b-ball seem more exciting than a league with better players. I watched some NCAA games, and those players were terrible, yet their ratings are on par or even higher than the NBA. IMHO, the players should just shut up and fold like what the NFL union did years ago. Look at the NFL now, in a lot of ways much more exciting the NBA simply because the NFL players had very little power.
Look, I don't know why people are still arguing but the owners are at fault here. In 99, the owners thought they won the lockout b/c the lowered the rookie contract scale, and decreased the # of max years. And now they're complaining? Look, it's the owners' fault that they hire incompetent GMs and overpay players. Do you blame Joe Johnson or the Atlanta Hawks for his ridiculous contract? Do you blame the Orlando Magic or Rashard Lewis for getting the max? and there are many more examples. The players already are conceding by offering $600 million in rollbacks, but the owners want more. The owners are basically saying, we messed up, so you have to help us out. Look, if the owners don't want to lose money, it will help if they stop overpaying players that do not improve their team, and thus not provide a better product, and thus not sell more tickets, and thus not make money. The players aren't at fault if the owners are willing to throw cash at them.
This is not a good argument arguments. Lebron james generated 100's of millions of dollars for the NBA. If you don't believe me look the the cavs franchise value before and after the decision. How many doctors do the same. I think the current system is fine. If you want to win you need to spend money. The green bays and Pittsburghs of the world can go back to sucking as they should be.
The more expensive the product gets, the more creative the owners will get. And the more expensive it gets on society too (increased marketing costs, increased T.V. fees, demand by owners of taxpayer funds). Let's not forget that the owners are in this venture trying to make money too. And I bet y'all they have more headaches than the players trying to meet those figures. When the marketing cost goes up, you pay more for you Toyota, Chevy, Ford, Pepsi, Coke, shoes, etc.... Whether you watch the games or not!! When ESPN, TNT, Fox, want more fees for their channels, then your basic cable bill goes up... Whether you watch the games or not!!! When the creative accounting comes up that Areas inject life in a Downtown, cities give out taxpayer funds like charity to the owners... You pay the taxes Whether you watch the games or not!!! When it "rains it pours" as the old saying goes. But sometimes when times are bad, owners need to have a rainy day fund too... Players and their contracts are taxing on our entire society as a whole. It's taxing on those people who watch and those who don't. The NBA tries to force all these NBA players to go to College (so that they have life skills after the playing days are over). But the players want to play a few years and never have to work after their playing career is over. So explain to me again why "WE NEED TO SUPPORT THE PLAYERS"!!!!!
The whole thing stinks! Use to cost $100/night for 2 great tickets, free parking, food and drinks and geto watch the Dream play. Now with similar tickets its $500/night. I can't justify buying season tickets anymore and this whole lockout BS made me decide to not buy 1 night of tickets next year if there is one. Both sides can stick it and Ill watch em on TV.
Wrong. I'm a fan of the franchise (not Stevie), a rockets fan first period. Want to see how quickly I'll turn on Yao? Let him show up in Houston playing for the Jazz!
This ^ Chrs Bosh, Eddie Curry, and Rashard Lewis should not all make more than Andre Johnson, much less Tom Brady and Peyton Manning (Bosh and Lewis)
Agreed, $1M at a laughable interest rate of 4% is $40,000 a year. You add in the fact they're getting paid lets say $3M for 3-4 years, that's putting $10M on average in their bank accounts, that equals out to a bare minimum $400,000 a year on straight interest. If you're saying that's not livable income, I'd like to see what you do and where you live.
The NBA is less accessible nowadays. With the High Definition programing over the air broadcast, less and less people are going to get cable. And that sports connection is going to diminish... It will go like the way of boxing, the popularity will get less and less. Geesh you get better reception with over the air than with cable... No need to upgrade to HD programing for an additional fee. This money grab by both the players and the owners is going to dilute NBA fans. Gone are the days when Home games were on cable and the road games were on free T.V. I get my Rockets game over the Radio... But how many people will follow the Rockets on the radio like I do??????? And the reason the games are on Cable is for the additional revenue to offset some of the player contracts. All of a sudden there is revenue from cable now. But then the players want another piece of that too. Which came first the "Chicken or the Egg"????
Boxing has been only viewable on paid stations like HBO and whatnot, or on PPV for an outrageous amount for a long time now. To compare that to basic cable where we can watch our home team play is a bit of a stretch.
People who support the owners are blind!!!!!!!!! Read this article that uses Forbes and Times as a source http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytime...foul-on-n-b-a-s-claims-of-financial-distress/ For people too lazy to read I'll type out the highlights: -Forbes reports an average of 7% profit margin for the NBA since the last CBA. Other fortune 500 companies report around 6. -NBA player salaries on proportion with league revenue is roughly the same proportion as MLB NFL and NHL. -The real difference in expenses has been other expenses. A 43% increase since 1999-2000 -Teams that have been sold in the last year have been sold for higher prices then their estimated value
One player can affect the outcome of a game in basketball more than any other sport. Brady and Manning alone don't guarantee you anything in the NFL.
