i mean this in the most compassionate way possible towards those people and their possible uemployment, but who gives a ****. we've got people trying to work out the details about how a multi-billion dollar business is going to operate for the next 7-10 years. what happens to the cleaning staff isn't on the agenda. "come on guys, that last $120M per year really isn't important, the janitor's about to not have a job, let's just wrap this up" probably isn't how the issue needs to be handled. in terms of the nba, they are. principle and principal are both very important here. just letting someone walk all over you for that last $120M isn't something anyone is just going to allow to happen without a fight. would you? if the owners say "hey, come on, $120 million, that's not that much, why don't we just take it off your hands for you." is your response going to be, "yeah, your right, why were we being so greedy, you just take it." of course it wouldn't be. you'd say "oh, if it's not much money, why don't we just take it" and then you'd be back to your stand off. i'm sure they probably don't. i don't care about any of the nameless end users of the product my job produces. as long as they are happy with the product and i get to keep getting paid my salary, that's about all i'm concerned about. they seem to be behaving largely how i would expect almost any large group of people in the same situation would when faced with the choice between more money or less money. for some, greed just seems to be when other people want more money. the millionaires and billionaires involved in these discussions are largely putting themselves in various degrees of distress financially and calculating it against their future prospects vis a vis giving in too easily. it's not my money so i'm not sure why i should really be concerned with how they come to those value judgments. now i do have the right as a fan to be pissed about the basketball side of the equation and about them possibly depriving me of games (though i will largely forgive and forget as long as there is an nba finals), but why people want to place some sort of morality or value judgment on how others split their money amongst themselves i'm not sure.
I don't get this logic. If it's the players' league, why don't they just go ahead and form their own league? Why do they still ask the owners for pay?
I'm hoping that the lawyers are hammering out the agreement for a grand announcement tomorrow afternoon. Look for leaks in the morning about what's going down later. If there are some upbeat bits of info in the morning, I'll start to get excited.
This pretty much sums up my thoughts whenever i hear "The players the only product" and "players Leauge". The truth is, both sides are completely interdependent which is why 50-50 makes so mcuh sense.
Really? A Lebron James or a Blake Griffin single-handedly turns around a franchise in one year, even when their teams don't even make the playoffs. The Cavs and Clips (trash teams the year before those guys were drafted) became instant must-see TV. Clips sell out games b/c of Blake, and they weren't even winning!!! Same case for Lebron. Furthermore, stars increase a team's worth a ton. Look at us with Yao. Or Cavs without Lebron. Does that happen in baseball? or football? or any other sport? The Redskins and Cowboys are the two most expensive teams in football, and yet they haven't done jack for the longest time, nor have they had the best players. The stars drive the NBA. There's a reason nobody cares to watch fundamentally sound basketball teams like the Spurs or Pistons who proclaimed teamwork. But ratings skyrocket when Kobe or Lebron or Griffin are on. The real stars, despite their $18-20 mil per year paycheck, are actually UNDERPAID. The owners should pay them more for what they do for the team's value on and off the court. The problem is those scrubs and middle-end players who jock onto the stars to get their pay, along with the GM's stupidity to overpay decent players.
Some very solid posts and replies. Im not expecting anything big tomorrow. We have been heading towards catastrophe and its only a matter of time before we get there.
The players have actually gone further - from 57 to 53. The owners have technically gone from a completely unrealistic starting point to 49, when you factor in the reinvestment costs that they are proposing taking off the top of the 50 percent. Any proposal made from the union is a concession from the players, relative to the last CBA - so your idea that the players haven't budged is not true.
If Lebron, Kobe, Wade, etc. can make more year by forming their own league, they'd have done so already. If your boy superstars think they truly are the product, they should leave the slave-drivers that is the NBA and create their own basketball league with NBDL players, since you seem to believe other NBA players are irrelevant. Odd, why haven't they done that? The truth is all of them combined do not match the brand name that is called the National Basketball Association. The NBA is where Jordan dominated, where Bird vs Magic happened, where our Rockets won 2 NBA championships and where the greatest sports player in Houston history resided. The "NBA" did that. Not Lebron, not Kobe, none of the superstars you jock around like they're the only relevant people in basketball.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/chris_mannix/10/09/nbpa.letter/ Didn't even get Chris Paul's twitter right..
He's just paraphrasing what he read in Woj's latest rant/ramble, so don't get too worked up about it. "The star players are actually UNDERPAID guys!" They may bring in more value to their teams relative to their salaries, but they do get the largest portion of the salaries. If you truly want a system that bases player salaries on the value they create in terms of revenue, then you will need to propose a system that pays scrubs a fraction of what they earn now to reallocate that money to star players. Good luck selling the union on that. Even if you do get the larger share of the revenue from the owners, you still need to deal with the current salary structure of the players in order to implement the superstar framework. Like the union is going to agree with that.
The players don't do marketing or operate facilities or manage finances. They toss a ball around, get put on TV for being good at it and thereby draw interest, and demand 25% wage increases every season. They live in an extreme fantasy world. If business ethics were based on paying everyone their max worth, we'd all be making either a lot more or a lot less than we do right now. That's not how it works.
Sure if you want to be technical. But no other sports are driven by the players like the NBA. Albert Pujols is the best player in the MLB and they aren't even on prime time in the playoffs playing the best team in the league (Phillies). Tom Brady got injured for a whole year and the Pats still sell out like normal. All I'm saying is an NBA team's worth/revenues are HIGHLY dependent on its best player(s). More sellouts, jersey sales, national TV appearances, general/public interest... The players are its own brand in the NBA; the general interest care more for the players than the teams, unlike other leagues. In the MLB, it's the Yanks and the Sox. In the NFL, even the Bills can be relevant. In the NBA, you can be mediocre with a superstar, but will still be in the national spotlight. There is a reason NBA players in general get more advertisement deals and shoe contracts. How many national TV appearances have we had since TMAC/Yao have not played a game for us? Vince Carter brought the freakin' Raptors to the national TV scene for god sakes 10-12 years ago. If we get a Blake Griffin-type player tomorrow, we will be on national TV immediately. The teams don't need to market that.
What 25% wage increase every season? Also, (1) Players do do marketing. What do you think all these "NBA Cares" crap is? (2) Players tossing the ball around is what people want to watch. With no players the nicest arenas would have no fans.
So under a 50 50 split, players are giving up over 10% of their salaries in the face of record revenues? Wow. I thought they were better prepared this time.
Ill be willing to pay double for tickets if they end the lockout. PS: I will not be attending any games this season
