Lebron, Wade, Bosh, Joe Johnson will discuss free agency together

Yeah.. the NBA is just full of divas now.. the real competition is gone. the value of championships has been deteriorated significantly.

The only player who competes to compete is Kobe.. everyone else is just a marketing hoax chasing paper.

 

I don't think this is anything different. I believe there were murmurs about David Falk being too powerful back when he had Jordan and other stars as client, same goes with other "super agents." Scott Boras in baseball has long been seen as a powerbroker with perhaps excessive power.

There just happened to be more star FA this year.

 

Is this how they talk? Think of all the money and time spent trying to turn them into educated Americans. Sounds like it all went down the drain

 

Fixed it for ya, DD.

 

So what? I love this double standard, the owners are allowed to squeeze money out of players but it should never be the other way around. The players should be happy with whatever they get and just shut up and play.

If they want more money, good for them! I'm glad they are thinking of their future after basketball and realize that Bball isn't the only thing in the world.

Joe Johnson doesn't deserve max, but if I were him i'd try to get it too.

Any ways...good for those guys, i'm not sure it means good news for us...but we have this guy...



He'll be at the meeting too

 

How do owners squeeze money out of players when they are the ones who pay the players?

Anyway, I think most owners are not in for making money. They have the money to buy NBA teams because they have been running successful business in the first place. They did not need basketball to make money. Most people buy sports teams for fun, for competition. (Of course, if they are losing too much money, they would think it's not worth it and sell the team.)

Yes, it's a business. But the most fundamental essence of any sport is competition. This is why we despise players who are in just for the money. Don't you hate players who play hard only in contract years?

 

By not paying players what they are worth of course.

I think most of the owners are in it to make money, at least more owners care about their investment more than bball. I doubt most of the players are the same, ESPECIALLY guys like Wade, LeBron, and Bosh. You don't get that successful not caring about the game.

Just look at the state of the NBA today, most of the teams suck. You have a few organizations that every year try to do something to get better...then you have half of the league looking like it generally doesn't care, will do anything to stay under the tax, and put out a bad product year by year.

I don't hate the player for getting a silly contract he doesn't deserve (Deng) I blame the ownership who gave him the contract in the first place. Like you said, the owners have other businesses and income...Deng, and other overpaid players don't. It is their lively hood and if he got hurt seriously and could never play again, he'd have to find another source of income.

If anything you should blame the agents, they usually blow up the players Ego's and think they are worth more than they are, then the player buys into their own hype and sulks around on a team until the ownership pays him.

 

I disagree that most owners don't care about basketball. There are only a handful of owners who put out poor product only to save money. Don Sterling is the notorious one. Most franchises suck because of stupidity or incompetence, not because of lack of fund. But most owners are smart enough to avoid paying big money unless they are sure that it will bring winning.

I do not hate the players who get big contract either. I only hate those who care only about contract. And yes, I blame the agents. They are the real bloodsuckers, not the owners, not the players.

 

yes it would be fun to watch the rocket blow teams out! you dont want to see a rockets season of that caliber?

 

This meeting is an unintended consequence, I think, of the CBA. With the long rookie contracts, restricted free agency, Bird rights, graduated price ceilings and so on, a player is halfway through his career before he has a real choice about where he wants to play (and still make max money). It's not surprising that players (and agents) would figure out a way to position themselves to game the system.

I wonder though, depending on how free agency works out this summer, if the next CBA will try to do something to stop player collusion.

 

This is what I wonder too. The whole system -- the trade restriction, the draft, etc. -- is supposed to create parity, to avoid a superpower like the old Celtics that rendered the rest of the league irrelevant for a whole decade. Player collusion is going the exact opposite direction.

 

agree, but why only stop player collusion? everyone else works an angle. as you noted, they've got to pay dues to even reach the point of independent contractors ... and even then they're still constrains.

 

Wade(SG), LeBron(SF), JJ(PG) and Bosh(PF) decided to ask Yao(C) to option out and join them to start a new NBA team and all become owner player, then hire Morey to manage the team who found a way to convince all the veterans without a ring to play for mininum while sharing profit with the new organization.

And they can get all the endorsement deal they want all over the world......

 

^^

All your base are belong to us?

 

... with Charles Barkley as Head Coach. Would he be a Player-Coach? :grin:

 

They didn't get fined for collusion they got fined for tampering.

Collusion is what current MLB commissioner Bud Selig did in the mid 80s when he was running the Brewers. Cuban and Morey got fined for (according to Stern) basically doing the OPPOSITE... not working in concert with other teams but interfering with them and their players

There's nothing wrong with Bron, Bosh, Wade etc talking together. Even if they came to some kind of agreement about pay cuts.

One of the major cultural problems in the US right now is ppl dont understand the difference between immoral and illegal. It's true that those 3 coming to some agreement might not be "fair" for other players and that management would not be allowed to have a similar kind of meeting but in order for it to be collusion they have to be violating some agreed statute between the players association and the NBA or some clause in their contracts. I doubt anyone has any language in their contracts to the effect of "you will not discuss your free agency with other players" etc

As for what's "fair" look at what's shaped the NBA in the past 5 years... 2 bull**** and illogical trades in favor of LA and Boston that turned teams that probably weren't even playoff teams into champions. At least Lebron and Wade conspiring together is a case of players taking matters into their own hands, instead of waiting for Stern and his cronies or some back-room deal to determine the fate of the league as is usual in the NBA.

 

All I know is that Wade "McGrady can still play" shouldn't be a player-GM:

NY Knicks 9.4 ppg, 3.7 rpg, 39% FG

 

They pay $7.5 an hour for the Head Coach :grin:

 

Stoudemire wants in

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=5235598

[rquoter]Another big name wants in on the upcoming NBA free-agent superstar summit.

Amare Stoudemire, who is likely to opt out of the final year of his current contract, told AOL Fanhouse that he expects to join in talks with LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh and Joe Johnson before free agency begins on July 1.

"I'm friends with LeBron, Dwyane, Chris [Bosh] -- all those guys are friends of mine," Stoudemire told AOL Fanhouse. "So I'm pretty sure they'll call me and we'll talk about a few things."

Wade told the Chicago Tribune last week that he planned to talk with James and Johnson before making a decision on where he would sign this summer. A source told ESPN The Magazine's Chris Broussard that Bosh also would be part of those talks.

Wade said last week that he did not know yet when the players would talk. Wade's agent, Henry Thomas, said last week that no formal sit-down sessions among the headliners of this summer's class have been scheduled.

James, Wade and Bosh became close while playing together on the U.S. Olympic basketball team that won the gold medal at the Beijing Games. While they've pondered the possibility of playing together in the NBA, only two of the stars are likely to wind up on the same team once the dust clears.[/rquoter]

 

I'm waiting for Brian Cook to announce his inclusion in this meeting.