Well those star players are the reasons the "average" players even make the money they are making. Most of the average players aren't even worth what they are making.
I'm going to go against conventional wisdom and say this: If the NBA season is canceled, the league won't end up half-dead like the NHL. Popularity will be harmed some, but I also believe there will be a huge pent up demand among fans that will fuel next season. Interest in the summer leagues and preseason could be at an all-time high. I'm not so sure about this. Once Stern makes it clear canceling the season is imminent, the players might cave in a hurry. It's possible they snap to reality. If not, they deserve to get demolished.
1) The reason the 99 lockout was bad b/c MJ wasn' there, and the starpower wasn't as great. The NBA would fare better after this lockout, but still it would blunt their momentum, which I don't like at all. Before this lockout, I thought both the owners and players would have some sense of urgency to get this over and done with b/c their ratings finally are nearing those Jordan numbers. So I'm extremely shocked the lockout has lasted as long as it has. Both sides are extremely dumb for doing this. 2) While I hope that's true, every player has publicly been extremely adamant about cancelling the season if need be. So I wouldn't put it past them.
All of this posturing and whining by the players about fairness and bad faith is just a testament to how weak their position is. Do they really think public opinion will trump dollars and sense? We all know how this ends, the only people that don't are the players. It's like trying to play poker with someone who doesn't know the rules or the odds.
Momentum would definitely be blunted, but the league would recover IMO. At this point, clearly no current player with an IQ over 50 will publicly express less than complete solidarity. However, if Fisher/Hunter don't react quickly when Stern threatens to cancel the season, that will change in a hurry. It may change before then. Ideally for the union, sentiments will be privately expressed before it gets to that point and a deal will be made well before then. I expect quotes from "unnamed" players will start cropping up soon.
Let's hope that's true. I still put this on the owners. From what things are leaking out, it appears they have a "take it or leave it" attitude towards the players, with no inclination to negotiate. I think all the players want from the owners is a sign that they are "willing" to negotiate with the players on "good" terms. It's like the players just ask, "Can we keep "something" here? Don't take everything away." And the owners are just saying, "I'll take everything I want, if not, we're not talking."
Please explain. If there were no tier 1 players, some of the current tier 2 players would be better compensated. Teams are going to pay the best available players in the league no matter what. Since stars are taking the most from the overall pool of money given to players, it seems only logical that "average" players are paid less because of this.
Not really. "Star" is a relative term used to describe the the best players in the NBA. If say, the 10 best players in the NBA somehow decides to retire, then the 10-20 players in the NBA would then become the stars. Take out the Duncans, Boshes of the world, and Luis Scola would be a 25/10 player the NBA would market as a star power forward. If people aren't watching Lebron putting up 30/10/10s, they'll watch someone else posting 25/8/8s. In the end it's still the very best basketball in the world. NBA can always find replacement for superstars. NBA superstars are worthless without the NBA.
I disagree completely. You cannot replace a Lebron James or a Kobe; those guys transcend just basketball/sports fans. Just like how you couldn't replace Jordan. Did you see how much the NBA struggled in terms of getting its name out there after the Jordan era? It had some ugly ratings, like the Finals would draw a 5-6. The NBA, last year, FINALLY had ratings that even sniffed Jordan's ratings, and that took what? Over 12 years to get back to that level. Grant Hill/Penny couldn't replace Jordan in the late 90s. The NBA is a superstar driven league. You simply can't just take out its best 10 players, and just replace those with the next best 10 and the league would move forward and be just as popular. You really think the Joe Johnsons/Paul Pierces/Kevin Love would be able to be the face of the NBA? Let's be realistic now. Those guys can't sell out an arena by themselves. Blake Griffin can put the Clippers on national TV or sell out home games even when they suck. That's how ONE player can change the fortunes of a franchise OFF the court
That seems to be correct. If the owners get everything they want after losing a year, the NBA as a whole will run way better for them, and they will all reap the benefits. To them, a year will only be a small speed-bump on the way to much more financial success. When you factor in the problems some owners are facing currently, (losing money) it would make sense for them to cancel the season and crush the union. If you consider a player's short window in the NBA and the amount of money they make compared to their bosses, it just seems silly for them to drag this out. Players have a limited number of years to make their income, making a season much more valuable to them. Owners have a much, much larger window, again, making one season almost trivial in the grand scheme of things. Players have far less money than owners, (who are literally rolling in billions) and have not always been great when it comes to budgeting. Yes the owners are greedy, but they understand the stakes and realize a large compromise on their part may not be the smartest thing in the long term. If they see the opportunity to make more money, they should capitalise. At the end of the day, players will still be generously paid millions of dollars to play basketball. The union needs to realize exactly what position they are in and just take what they can, for the good of their own players, fans, and everyone else involved in the NBA. At this point, it is just stubborn and short sighted of them hold out, as the further they go with this, the further they will hurt themselves.
I agree. The players have to cave sooner or later, so it's smart to just cave ASAP. Common sense tells you the owners have all the leverage in the world. All I'm saying is that the owners can speed up this entire process if they are just more "willing" in these negotiations. Like I said, the owners thought they struck a great deal 12 years ago with the past CBA. Economic climate changes, among other factors, and now it's a bad deal. You really can't predict the future. Ultimately, a deal needs to be struck soon. I need my NBA fix.
The point of the previous posters, I believe, was about PAY scale relative to STAR and AVERAGE player They're saying the star "slot" will be filled with SOMEONE. SOMEONE has to be the best on the team, and the best in the league, and they're gonna get that best-in-the-league money. Think of the centers now. There isnt any more Hakeem and Shaq in the league. Dwight Howard isnt as good, but he's still getting the spotlight and max salary. That described it best. The next guy in line might be 80% what Lebron is. But 80% Lebron with no other guys in that class, 80% Lebron will get the star treatment and more money than the average guy. And its still the best basketball league in the world
Last time I checked those star players can't play 48 minutes nor can they clone themselves. Basketball is a superstar league but it is still a team sport. The average players work just as hard and harder than a lot of star players do and without them there is no league. The Wade's of the world that think they are worth $50MM ignore the fact that they can't play basketball by themselves. Those guys get the endorsements that the averages players don't get and that more than evens things out. You can't just look at how much these players make on the court and say they are underpaid. Without the NBA there are no endorsements for the Wades, Lebrons and Kobes of the world. I am not a fan of owners but players like Wade act like the only money they are getting are from their nba contracts which is far from the truth.
It's pretty hilarious you put these two sentences one after the other. If only because they perfectly contradict each other.
Better yet, they are playing poker and the Owners know their hand. IMO they are delaying the inevitable, for them to get any leverage they are going to have to take it to court.
nice to see that quote from Martin. It's the same dbags, like KG and Wade, that think they can all of the sudden buy a pair of thick framed glasses and become lawyers. I still hate the owners too for not learning a damn thing from 1999.
Fans won't abandon the NBA if the season is lost, but it's not going to come to that. I still expect a 50 game season. Players can't last a year without income, and wouldn't want to waste a year of their career even if they could.
The one thing to understand though is that yes, the players time to time act is now, but realize that the owners are looking to run the table. They have already re-tracted offers that were later considered "one-time offers" and would do it again if the players started to crack. If the players gave away more and more concessions then the owners would try and run the table due to their weak negotiation stance. Its a really tough situation for the players to be in from a negotiation standpoint. Making further concession at this point probably wont make the season start any sooner. The players just have to wait for the owners to truely negotiate to make a deal, which they have not done so far. All they have wanted to do thus far is to stall to get power in negotiations. We all think the right thing to do is for the players to just roll over and say "we will take it, just let us play" but its not that easy and that doesn't mean the season will start any sooner if they even have one.
