It's in some ways similar to the housing bubble - owners like Starver and Gilbert, in retrospect, overpaid for their franchise by wide margins. Like homes, the recession is partly to blame, but ultimately...if they spent X amount of money on a franchise whose profits don't cover the "mortgage"....that's on them. The NFL tried the same greedy trick, wanting the obscene stadium costs taken out of the players' hide. Same old story, owners can't stay within their means and want the golden goose to take a hit. And yes, I agree that certain unsustainable markets (Sac, NO, Cha) need to be folded.
Kandiman was in Boston in 2006 and 2007. Timberwolves lost money in 2005-2007. Not Having Joe Smith's promised shady larger contract actually saved them from a huge contract expense that would have increased losses.
Job security sits on the top of the agenda of unions. Members will never vote in favor of fewer jobs. Unions do not favor fewer members, because it lowers union revenues. Union management will make their promises of keeping jobs or adding more members. Any union boss that asks for members to give up jobs would be voted out by the members faster than you can say "You're fired."
The Kandi Man took his skills to Minnesota where he signed a 3 year, $15 million contract. He was later traded with Szczberiak to Boston for the just-as-idiotic contracts of Mark Blount, Ricky Davis and Marcus Banks in 2006. --http://www.redsarmy.com/home/2011/08/foreign-born-celtic-michael-olowokandi.html So sure he was in Boston in 2006, but Minnesota still had the money on the books because they signed him to that idiotic contract. They just change the names of the bad players getting the checks. Joe Smith was productive in 1999 during the shady deal. With him on the team producing along with 3 FIRST ROUND PICKS who could have produced on a rookie salary, maybe Minnesota does not overpay Kandy Man, Wally, and Hudson or have to go out and trade for Cassell and Sprewell taking on more money. Remember in 1999 they were not in the red. But those mistakes were the reasons for them being in the red. Now, the money they took as a loan to buy the team. Um, well they took that risk, when did not have the capital on hand to buy the team. If an owner does not have the resources to afford a team and run a team, then they should not buy them. They should also certainly not EXPECT a profit when they mismanage their team and franchise resources. To put into reference what the NBA is doing is this: Some franchises/companies are making money. Some are not making money, quite a few of them because they are badly managed with bad contracts and risky acquisitions and don't have much leverage if they do not pan out. The controlling group that tries to look out for these franchises/companies then believes that is it not right for the franchises/companies to lose money. But it does not hold the people running the franchises/companies accountable for bad business sense and practices nor does it tell the companies that are making money to give some those losing money. Instead, it tries to force the employees of those franchises/companies to take less money, because it is the only way to save the franchises/companies in the red, still run by the same people who made the bad decisions in the first place. Wait a minute. Doesn't that sound a lot of like government bailout of Wall Street...
The larger shady deal with Joe Smith never happened. He was still on the original below-market-value signing. He was bird rights were removed from Stern. If he were to have gotten the larger shady deal, it would have easily swallowed up their marginal profits of $5 mil.
I know it never happened. Yes he would have taken some of their "possible" profits, like those that ended up in the hands of Wally, Kandy Man and Hudson. But that didn't happen. What did happen was a $3.5 million dollar fine, and losing 3 good players on rookie contracts resulting in them to ridiculously overpay unproven players. All it does is further show that the Timberwolves red ink was due to mismanagement.
Union leadership is paid by member's dues. Members would vote out Hunter and Fisher in a heartbeat before losing 30 or more jobs, if Hunter and Fisher asked for the least profitable teams to be contracted.
