The NBA lockout is here, and David Stern would like you to believe that this was his only choice: shut down the operation to save basketball from itself. That is complete bulls--t, like most of what comes out of the league offices these days.
Jul 1, 2011 - I stood beside a runway at my county airport just before midnight ET with a sign that welcomed basketball armageddon, and I cheered when the the clock struck and calendar page flipped. The NBA Lockout is here!, just as it was always going to be here, and now we can actually get something done, now we can actually save basketball.
The question is who we need to save it from.
The onset of the lockout needed to happen for the simple reason that it makes the pressure real. Don't think of the NBA's doomsday clock having expired: it just got going. The last two years (!) were one long tease, a set of poses that became extraordinarily apparent as so-called bargaining ramped up in June. I wrote in the second week of June that any progress the league and union claimed in the lead-up to this very day was cosmetic only, that actual compromise on the only issue that matters -- the money -- was still ages and miles away.
We're still there at the trailhead on what will be an arduous hike to some resolution we're not even sure exists. It could take another two months, or three, or four, or six, or 16. We don't know because the map is just a piece of paper with lies scribbled all over it.
Speaking of lies, how about David Stern's Thursday performance?
The media is in an ... interesting spot in reporting and opining on the lockout and labor negotiations. Both sides are dead set against releasing their proposals to the plebeian public in full; we get the details sorted through leaks (many verbal) to reporters pounding the phones and the hotel lobby. When we get those details and explain to our readers how very, very idiotic, misguided or, uh, insane a proposal is, we instantly face criticism from the side we're shredding for not knowing what we're talking about because hey!, you haven't even seen the proposal.
The league demands that the bulk of this matter be handled in the shadows, not because the public doesn't care or because they have an obligation to players to keep this under wraps, but because the NBA and Stern's office specifically fear that with the curtain pulled back, everyone will realize what an absurd misrepresentation of reality the owners are presenting.
Heavens bless Deadspin's Tommy Craggs and ESPN.com's Larry Coon for their skeptical reports on team finances Thursday. Deadspin acquired financial statements from the New Jersey Nets' late Katz and early Ratner eras; they'd already presented docs on the New Orleans Hornets that showed the NBA's funny way of doing math. Coon broke down the statements in exemplary detail, explaining why the union doubts the league's stated losses, couched in every way it needs to be to avoid summary dismissal by Stern's office.
The gist from both pieces: tax law allows sports franchise owners to write off player salaries as depreciable assets in addition to listing salaries as legit costs of doing business; basically, franchises deduct their payroll as expenses, then get an allowance for depreciation on the players being paid -- yes, depreciation on human beings -- which isn't an actual expense, but looks like one on the tax forms. Craggs, Coon and the players' union figure that knocks a decent chunk off of the league's stated losses.
There's also the matter of the franchises counting their purchase cost (and debt financing) as an expense of the team, when that's plainly wrong in terms of convincing players why salary needs to be cut. "I can't afford to pay you because I spent so much to buy the rights to pay you and profit off of you." Sorry, that's not a legit case.
This is why owners deserve and maybe will receive no sympathy: it's a new world, with new voices and a much easier, broader way to share ideas and information. The Craggs and Coon pieces zipped around the basketball web on Thursday, opening plenty of eyes, even among those of us who have been paying attention all along. The league will be disrobed by a skeptical fan base that watched Wall Street burn Main Street to the ground and get away with it. We are a cynical people, we hate being lied to above all else (ask Anthony Weiner) and we're not going to gobble up the bulls--t that comes out of Secaucus.
Whether a skeptical, unamused public matters is, of course, another question entirely. David Stern has not exactly made a career out of pleasing the league's fans. As Charles Pierce wrote on Thursday: "David Stern knows who pays his salary." They -- the team owners -- pay Stern to make their bulls--t believable; in their other businesses, they pay other people to do the same thing. In the old days, the NBA was a hustle: teams had to be creative to get fans in the gym and to pay young stars despite crummy TV revenue and iffy gate receipts ... every fan counted, every dollar counted.
The NBA is still a hustle, but it's a hustle whose gargantuan size eclipses any individual fan, the fans as a collective or even Stern himself. The hustle isn't about goofy promotions or a 25-year contract for Magic Johnson. It's about 29 rich men trying to maximize profits for the next several decades in an unregulated, feudal industry in which their opponents -- the players -- have massive potential P.R. problems. This lockout is a scheme, plain and simple, to make more money for the foreseeable future. (Not just money. More money.) Everything the league has done points to that reality. To get their way, these 29 rich men and their appointed emperor are holding their entire operation hostage. Again. Because they didn't make enough money for themselves last time they pulled this stunt.
Perhaps there's no hope the labor battle will be resolved any time soon. But fans at the very least deserve to know that Stern and his crew are selling almost nothing but wolf tickets. Don't blame the players for refusing to buy them.
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Comments
Zeller Is An Alinskite
It is pretty obvious by the general tone of your posts but this post gets the Alinsky stamp of approval.
by Buddahfan on Jul 1, 2011 10:19 AM EDT reply actions
I would actually have a bit more sympathy for the owners if they actually were the ones paying for the infrastructure (i.e., arenas).
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 Jul 1, 2011 11:22 AM EDT reply actions 2 recs
this is what this fight is about
http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-current-cba-slowed-growth-of-nba-franchise-values-2011-1 this link shows the slowdown of nba franchise values since the newly expired CBA went into effect. note that growth was steady though possibly slightly below trend in the first couple of years after the signing of CBA 04-05, then it deviates from trend around the 2007-8 period. anyone remember anything significant that started around that time? hmm how was the general economy doing in that time? was their a loss of value to many asset classes that people thought would always increase in price, like housing say? does this mean that NBA franchises are no longer as good an asset to park your money in? perhaps but maybe it’s too soon to tell and maybe a comparison in the loss of value post recession should be compared to other assets like housing backed securities or houses themselves? those dropped precipitously, NBA team prices experienced a minor dip and have since stabilized. maybe they will go down but in the pre recession years of the old CBA team value growth was still positive, so much so that the average NBA franchise is worth nearly 15% more now that before the past CBA was signed. the owners are trying to exploit the recession and guarantee themselves lower costs, and guess what that would do for franchise values? explode them, upwards.
by pwf207 on Jul 1, 2011 11:37 AM EDT reply actions
Haven't checked out your link yet but yeah this is basically the equivalent of getting a mortgage right before the collapse.
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 Jul 1, 2011 12:34 PM EDT up reply actions
Yep.
EvilCowtownInc: Screwin Suckaz over since 1985...... On Twitter
No mistakes in the tango, Donna. Not like life. Simple. That's what makes the tango so great. If you make a mistake, and get all tangled up, you just tango on.....
by pookeyguru on Jul 2, 2011 8:02 PM EDT reply actions
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