NBA Labor: Wizards Owner Ted Leonsis Says To Expect A Hard Cap

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During a random appearance talking to a group of business leaders in Northern Virginia, Wizards owner Ted Leonsis may have let the owner’s Collective Bargaining Agreement plans slip a bit. According to Fanhouse’s Hal Spivack, Leonsis mentioned that he expects the NBA to have a hard salary cap after this season.

“In a salary cap era — and soon a hard salary cap in the NBA like it’s in the NHL — if everyone can pay the same amount to the same amount of players, its the small nuanced differences that matter,” Leonsis said.

Leonsis declined to elaborate afterwards, because he couldn’t, but did say he likes the hard cap the NHL currently employs.

It’s unclear how much the hard cap would be if Leonsis is right, but over the summer, Fanhouse’s Sam Amick mentioned a figure close to $45 million. He added that teams over that line — which is pretty much everyone — would have to release players to get under. That seems pretty unrealistic, but if Leonsis indeed accidentally let the cat out of the bag, it may not actually be that far off.