There's nothing left to fight about in the NBA lockout except pride. So why are we still here?
Nov 8, 2011 - At this point, what's the point? The NBA lockout continues over a few minor points that won't actually resolve to much should a handshake end this first-world nightmare. The two sides are so close as to actually smell a deal in the air. There's no real reason for players to hold out or from owners to hold out, is there?
Here's a look at all of the issues that remain at stake.
This is the only item of actual importance that continues to separate the two sides. The players' union is tired of being beaten up by David Stern and the owners. The owners are tried of moving further from their impossible utopia. Some of these new owners were promised an amazing Eden of profits; instead, by the league's own numbers, the NBA will break even in the aggregate for the forseeable future, meaning that profits will go only to the teams with the fortune of favorable cartography or sweet Lady Luck. In the old system, David Stern said eight teams made $150 million in profit and 22 teams lost a combined $450 million. In the new system, assuming Stern wasn't lying about those other numbers, 15 teams will make a combined $250 million and 15 teams will lose a combined $250 million, or something along those lines. There will still be losers.
There wouldn't have been in the utopia Stern dreamed up back around the All-Star break. That's gotta sting for guys like Michael Jordan, Joshua Harris and Tom Gores, who bought in under the impression the concourses would be lined with gold.
The same holds for the other side. I reckon not more than 5 percent of current players -- that'd be 15 or so -- will get adversely affected by the salary cap system issues at play right now. The Carmelo Anthony rule? OK, that's for you, Dwight and CP3. The mini mid-level? Sorry, Samuel Dalembert and J.J. Barea. No more sign-and-trade deals for tax teams? However will we recover from the abolition of a tool that has been used something like five times in the last 12 years?!
The impasse on basketball-related income is now 1 percent. The players have offered 51 percent if they get those final system issues in their bowl. The owners want 50 percent and the issues. That's $40 million per season. Players have given up $240 million per year already; that extra $40 million, per player, is something like $89,000 annually. That extra $40 million is something like $1.3 million in cut expenses per team per season. This is stupid.
These are not intractable issues. These are not even important issues. This is nonsense. The only reason to hold out is to not let the other side win this final battle in a season of battles. As has been accurately noted far and wide: the league has won. It has pegged $240 million per season and a fairly serious shift in pay-for-performance measures on the players. What is this last jab really worth?
The same applies to players at this point, with the big-ticket items already won or lost. You have given back so much money. You have given up some important system concessions like contract length. But you survived the push for a truly hard cap. You survived the destruction of the mid-level exception and sign-and-trade. You still have guaranteed contracts. And you could actually have a season, with paychecks and per-diems and all of that. This can end with just a little more giving to those jackals in suits. This can end, and you can do what you love to do in front of the greatest fans in the world.
(Hey, we NBA fans need to start feeling good about ourselves too, OK?)
No one is happy, and no one will be happy until the ball tips for the first time. There's no way that this lockout ends with a smiling David Stern. There's no way that this lockout ends with a smiling Billy Hunter. We're well past that point. (Maybe that potential result never existed.) And no, nothing is fixed. This disaster will go into re-runs in roughly 6-10 years, and we'll have new flashpoints and mean mugs and enormous consequences to worry about. The teams that will continue to be on the short end of profitability will continue to bitch, their enablers in the media will continue to grouse about the average player salary, and all will be normal. This is the new normal in pro sports. No one is happy. That's how we know it's a deal everyone can live with.
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Comments
replace “PRIDE” with “EGO” and I think you’ll be a little more accurate
"Rooting for the Yankees is like rooting for Steve Jobs to win the lotto." - Chris Rock
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by Taylor Made on Nov 8, 2011 10:19 AM EST reply actions
It never existed.
Words of wisdom from the great Billy Dee Williams
Oh so you disagree. Well then, here is a mature, sophisticated, and compelling rebuttal.
by wallywagon11 on Nov 8, 2011 11:26 AM EST reply actions
In all seriousness
The owners have the pubnlicon their side, all of the leverate, and time even on their side. This has been a 50-50 BRI for months now. If they hold out longer thinking they are going to get a better deal that would make their waiting worth it, they are absolutely kidding themselves. The players need to either take their lumps now or go full on decertification with full knowledge of what that means. Anything else is insanely irrational.
Words of wisdom from the great Billy Dee Williams
Oh so you disagree. Well then, here is a mature, sophisticated, and compelling rebuttal.
by wallywagon11 on Nov 8, 2011 11:55 AM EST reply actions
*public on their side; leverage
Words of wisdom from the great Billy Dee Williams
Oh so you disagree. Well then, here is a mature, sophisticated, and compelling rebuttal.
by wallywagon11 on Nov 8, 2011 1:21 PM EST up reply actions
Yes, take it and run
It will quickly pass.
"Victory goes to the player who makes the next-to-last mistake."
- Chessmaster Savielly Grigorievitch Tartakower
by lietothegirls on Nov 8, 2011 1:39 PM EST up reply actions
Why do you think that the owners have the public on their side?
Do you have any evidence of this?
Get The Frickin' Rebound
by fuhry on Nov 8, 2011 4:37 PM EST up reply actions
Well, pretty sure they aren't doing any national polling on this
if they are, let me know.
Words of wisdom from the great Billy Dee Williams
Oh so you disagree. Well then, here is a mature, sophisticated, and compelling rebuttal.
by wallywagon11 on Nov 8, 2011 5:01 PM EST up reply actions
I'd point out (again)
That the Owners are fighting to stop losing money, the players are fighting to keep making as much as they can, they don’t ever have a chance of actually losing. Even under the proposed deal many owners still face that prospect.
As a fan of a small market team who would like to see basketball continue, not shrink down to 20 teams or something like that – well, you know . . .
"Victory goes to the player who makes the next-to-last mistake."
- Chessmaster Savielly Grigorievitch Tartakower
by lietothegirls on Nov 8, 2011 1:43 PM EST reply actions
The Owners really playing hardball here
with a desperation that is palpable. I think the new owners simply paid too much for their franchises and they face ruin unless costs can be reigned in. It’s not fair that the players make all the concessions but it’s obvious that the owners are after just that – and that they are looking basically to replicate what happened in the NHL.
I would really like to see the owners learn the lesson that they are not entitled to guaranteed profits, and that, since they can’t play basketball, their franchises aren’t worth dick without the players. Bullies should be smacked down hard and not compromised with.
But I don’t think decertification or trying to outlast the owners through more missed games is going to effectively do that. I think the players need to sign the deal and then work with investors to create an alternate league. It’s really simple, find 10 prospective owners with the ability to raise 200 million dollars (about half the cost of an NBA franchise) and then create a new league that allows high school seniors to be drafted, and offers higher rookie salaries and higher max salaries. Once you do that, the players have another option, and that’s really the only way to apply leverage here.
Get The Frickin' Rebound
by fuhry on Nov 8, 2011 4:45 PM EST reply actions
Ahhhhh, simple
Simple? How do you draft? How long to make deals to play in City Arenas, make new TV contracts that typically take years to negotiate? Until those are done – where is the money for all these max salaries coming from? How much will folks pay for tix?
What about the 300 NBA players that won’t have any kind of job with only ten teams?
Won’t there have to be a new CBA for the new league?
Are these non-profit owners or charities – or will they expect to make a few dollars as well?
I could go on . . . . .
"Victory goes to the player who makes the next-to-last mistake."
- Chessmaster Savielly Grigorievitch Tartakower
by lietothegirls on Nov 8, 2011 9:47 PM EST up reply actions 1 recs
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