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Lockout!!!

“We’re not prepared to let them impose a system on us that eliminates guarantees, reduces contract lengths, diminishes all our increases,” he said. “We’re saying no way. We fought too long and made too many sacrifices to get where we are.”

translation...the players of the past worked hard to see nothing of the bloated contracts we have today.

....GOOD point!
 
i dont understand why you guys keep saying hte owners have all the leverage?

honestly the only people with leverage in this issue are the stars - thats who people watch. The owners are replaceable there are lots of billionaires. The role players are replacable, there are hundreds of guys just as talented as derek fisher. Its the Kobes, lebrons, nash's, dirks, dwights, garnetts, pierces, wades, roses, griffins, stoudemires that are irreplaceable.

the stars are about to go on a world tour and kobe and lebron are each getting 1 mill from it. tahts just in 3 weeks of work.
Wow--your math (or logic) is so bad, you're not embarrassing Duke; you're embarrassing the entire Research Triangle. Kobe and Lebron would make as much in 3 weeks in the NBA than they would from this world tour. And in the NBA, they can do that times 15 or 20 or 25 every year--something that they cannot repeat nearly as often on a "tour."

You guys know sports didnt always exist with this structured league with balanced schedules culminating in a playoff. Sports used to be more like college football, with a bunch of games and then a bunch of trumped up exhibitions. Sports used to be more like the fair, it came to town every once in a while and everyone showed up to see the spectacle.
Yes, and that's what you would get if the players or these imaginary investors start up an alternative league.

If the players decide that they are tired of being insulted and condescended too then the nba is done. I went to school at duke, and they routinely sell out that stadium to see alumni play. I'm talking about guys like roshown mcleod and chris carrawell. And thats a school with a small local fanbase. At carolina, alumni games with guys like ed cota are hot tickets.
Yeah, Cameron indoor arena holds what--12,000? And you're talking what--one game a year?

You are really a bad representative of a Duke education.


It would be so easy to rebuild a pro basketball league using the college stadiums and stadiums in places like kansas city and seattle. It wouldnt be hard at all to find investors for the new league, investors who would be happy to take 43% of revenue (even if they calculated BRI differently). But it would never come to that, because if the players started to formulate a credible plan guys like buss and cuban would have no choice but to fold - lest their franchise values disintegrate.
Wow--I hope you don't have a Duke MBA or econ degree, because you are already embarrassing your school.

Let me fill you in on a concept: fixed costs. There's no way that the fictitious new league that you are dreaming about would get a $4 billion TV contract, because it would take years (if ever) to replicate the stability that the NBA has; the Utah Jazz are a great example of that.

Investing in or buying a sports franchise is already a poor-ROI proposition (look up ROI if your Duke education didn't teach you what that means), so you'll be hard-pressed to find 20+ entities who are willing to put up money for a new, alternative NBA that has to operate out of arenas that don't already have contracts in the NBA. I agree that possibly the optimal league size is about 25 teams, but the 30-team league can operate profitably at 50-50.

Why do you think the players are refusing to budge? Do you think a guy like garnett gives a **** about 53 v. 50 percent? He loses more in a single month, than he will over the difference in that number. Do you think his agent doesn't know that? The reason these guys are holding out is that they know that if push comes to shove they have alternatives - its the owners who have no leverage.
The most likely alternative to the current NBA is that the current NBA owners blow things up and start things over at a much lower cost basis, which would decimate the NBA players' salary. The superstars and journeymen alike are FAR better off taking the 50-50 and running. It is the owners who have alternatives; they have other businesses, and most of them already consider their NBA team as a poor ROI proposition, even at 50-50. Meanwhile, most NBA players have alternatives overseas at 1/2 the salary (see Deron). Or at McDonald's. The journeymen especially are crazy to let this holdout go longer, and I doubt that they've been able to vote on this with the knowledge of the real impact of this holdout.

The reason that Garnett and others are supporting this holdout is that their high-school education is telling him that being greedy is better than the more profitable alternative of partnering with the existing wildly successful NBA organization at 50-50. Which is about as much as your education is telling you.
 
Does anyone know that answer to my question, do owners get tax breaks from owning NBA team during a lockout?
 
Wow--your math (or logic) is so bad, you're not embarrassing Duke; you're embarrassing the entire Research Triangle. Kobe and Lebron would make as much in 3 weeks in the NBA than they would from this world tour. And in the NBA, they can do that times 15 or 20 or 25 every year--something that they cannot repeat nearly as often on a "tour."

Yes, and that's what you would get if the players or these imaginary investors start up an alternative league.

Yeah, Cameron indoor arena holds what--12,000? And you're talking what--one game a year?

You are really a bad representative of a Duke education.


Wow--I hope you don't have a Duke MBA or econ degree, because you are already embarrassing your school.

Let me fill you in on a concept: fixed costs. There's no way that the fictitious new league that you are dreaming about would get a $4 billion TV contract, because it would take years (if ever) to replicate the stability that the NBA has; the Utah Jazz are a great example of that.

Investing in or buying a sports franchise is already a poor-ROI proposition (look up ROI if your Duke education didn't teach you what that means), so you'll be hard-pressed to find 20+ entities who are willing to put up money for a new, alternative NBA that has to operate out of arenas that don't already have contracts in the NBA. I agree that possibly the optimal league size is about 25 teams, but the 30-team league can operate profitably at 50-50.

The most likely alternative to the current NBA is that the current NBA owners blow things up and start things over at a much lower cost basis, which would decimate the NBA players' salary. The superstars and journeymen alike are FAR better off taking the 50-50 and running. It is the owners who have alternatives; they have other businesses, and most of them already consider their NBA team as a poor ROI proposition, even at 50-50. Meanwhile, most NBA players have alternatives overseas at 1/2 the salary (see Deron). Or at McDonald's. The journeymen especially are crazy to let this holdout go longer, and I doubt that they've been able to vote on this with the knowledge of the real impact of this holdout.

The reason that Garnett and others are supporting this holdout is that their high-school education is telling him that being greedy is better than the more profitable alternative of partnering with the existing wildly successful NBA organization at 50-50. Which is about as much as your education is telling you.
You know that I don't always agree with your delivery, but you were right on the money with this post. Repped.
 
I don't understand how players can collectively bargin anything else besides BRI. Because salary cap and revenue sharing is thing that the league should only have a say in. If the players want to work for the organization they should have to follow the rules that are set by the owners. I can't go to my job and not follow the rules that they have set and that they should negotiate with me all of their business decisions.

Why can't you negotiate with your bosses? Employees do this all the time.
 
Once again, a really dumb post. Why the heck would the players agree to something like this. Do you really think they care about giving 10% of their checks to future players? So dumb. This is like me paying social security only when I finally retire, I don't get a dime .... oh wait.

You'll get at least 7 cents on the dime.
 
The most likely alternative to the current NBA is that the current NBA owners blow things up and start things over at a much lower cost basis, which would decimate the NBA players' salary. The superstars and journeymen alike are FAR better off taking the 50-50 and running. It is the owners who have alternatives; they have other businesses, and most of them already consider their NBA team as a poor ROI proposition, even at 50-50. Meanwhile, most NBA players have alternatives overseas at 1/2 the salary (see Deron). Or at McDonald's.

...racist? Just kidding! Very astute post!
 
My take on the negotiations:

The owners are right that a 50-50 split is fair. First, stop saying the players are down from 57 it means nothing. The CBA expired and if the owners wanted to pay 57 they could have simply extended the old deal. The fact is the players aren't coming down from anything because there is no active CBA. It just as easy for the owners to start at 25% and say they come up 25%, it means nothing. What everyone is really talking about is how much they want nothing else. I love when the players said over and over in the news conference, the owners are at 50 we're at 53 lets split the difference. That's a straw man argument. The owners are saying we are at 47 and you are at 53 so lets meet in the middle at 50. None of its really true its all made up. The owners have decided they want 50 and the players have decided they want 53. That is a very wide gulf to jump. In my opinion 50-50 still pays the players a tremendous amount of money, more than they could get anywhere else in the world. I think they should take it.

The players are right to say we might except a BRi deal if the system issues are favorable. The NBA claims the two issues are separate and distinct. According to the NBA, the punitive luxury tax is about competitive balance and the BRI split is about money. This is not true and they know it. If the luxury tax is so punitive nobody will exceed it, salaries will be greatly lowered. The NBA knows this is true but are choosing to ignore it. The fact is the system and BRI all tie together. Players need a method of switching teams and getting paid what they feel they are worth. If the luxury tax prevents movement, players can't get paid their maximum worth and it lowers salaries. I think the players were right to ask the owners to put a pin in the BRI discussion to talk about the system. The owners were wrong to insist on an agreement of 50-50 before even discussing the punitive luxury tax.
 
Like in the NHL, what ends up happening with a hard cap is that the stars still get paid, but everyone else fights for scraps. For stars and fringe players, the system issues aren't a big deal (as their pay is relatively unaffected), but for the middle tier players, these same issues could end up significantly reducing their income (probably by half or even more for some). If most players fall into this middle tier, it makes perfect sense why the players would reject what the owners are offering: A reduction of 10%+ in BRI share for players collectively is effectively a reduction in pay by 50% (potentially) for a bunch of players.
 
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My take on the negotiations:

The owners are right that a 50-50 split is fair. First, stop saying the players are down from 57 it means nothing. The CBA expired and if the owners wanted to pay 57 they could have simply extended the old deal. The fact is the players aren't coming down from anything because there is no active CBA. It just as easy for the owners to start at 25% and say they come up 25%, it means nothing. What everyone is really talking about is how much they want nothing else. I love when the players said over and over in the news conference, the owners are at 50 we're at 53 lets split the difference. That's a straw man argument. The owners are saying we are at 47 and you are at 53 so lets meet in the middle at 50. None of its really true its all made up. The owners have decided they want 50 and the players have decided they want 53. That is a very wide gulf to jump. In my opinion 50-50 still pays the players a tremendous amount of money, more than they could get anywhere else in the world. I think they should take it.

The players are right to say we might except a BRi deal if the system issues are favorable. The NBA claims the two issues are separate and distinct. According to the NBA, the punitive luxury tax is about competitive balance and the BRI split is about money. This is not true and they know it. If the luxury tax is so punitive nobody will exceed it, salaries will be greatly lowered. The NBA knows this is true but are choosing to ignore it. The fact is the system and BRI all tie together. Players need a method of switching teams and getting paid what they feel they are worth. If the luxury tax prevents movement, players can't get paid their maximum worth and it lowers salaries. I think the players were right to ask the owners to put a pin in the BRI discussion to talk about the system. The owners were wrong to insist on an agreement of 50-50 before even discussing the punitive luxury tax.
+1 on your post. The only thing that I would add is that one rationale to the owners demanding a discussion of the percentage first is that in the meetings last week, all they talked about was the opposite--the peripheral details--and made no progress on the BRI (which is the #1 thing that matters). Maybe it was a preference that backfired, as possibly hammering out more concretely the other details would have felt like progress (and possibly would have encouraged either or both sides to talk more seriously about the BRI split), but I can understand the owners' insistence on doing the core negotiation first.

It would be awesome to be a fly on the wall, and we can imagine how stubborn both sides were, especially given that the mediator was successful with the potentially equally tenacious NFL and NHL deals but got nowhere with the NBA billionaires and punk players.
 
So, I'm thinking the season is toast. Any reason to hold out hope?
 
Like in the NHL, what ends up happening with a hard cap is that the stars still get paid, but everyone else fights for scraps. For stars and fringe players, the system issues aren't a big deal (as their pay is relatively unaffected), but for the middle tier players, these same issues could end up significantly reducing their income (probably by half or even more for some). If most players fall into this middle tier, it makes perfect sense why the players would reject what the owners are offering: A reduction of 10%+ in BRI share for players collectively is effectively a reduction in pay by 50% (potentially) for a bunch of players.

Not quite... the owners' current proposal isn't a simple hard cap like the NHL or NFL. It's still keeping the two cap levels as the old system did--the salary cap and the luxury threshold. The luxury threshold becomes "harder", but not completely hard. In fact, I proposed the exact thing about 5 months ago if I recall correctly. I think it's the best way to go. By having the two thresholds, especially if most teams are between the two thresholds, you make it so that signing players for beaucoup dollars is tough (unless it's your own player), but signing players via cap exceptions is easy.
 
Not quite... the owners' current proposal isn't a simple hard cap like the NHL or NFL. It's still keeping the two cap levels as the old system did--the salary cap and the luxury threshold. The luxury threshold becomes "harder", but not completely hard. In fact, I proposed the exact thing about 5 months ago if I recall correctly. I think it's the best way to go. By having the two thresholds, especially if most teams are between the two thresholds, you make it so that signing players for beaucoup dollars is tough (unless it's your own player), but signing players via cap exceptions is easy.
I don't know that we know the specifics of the system being discussed, and it seems as though the owners want to settle BRI split before system issues are tackled (at all?). If there's more info out there, I'd like to see it.

I was mostly posting what I posted in response to the assertion that system issues aren't a big deal. Of course they are, as they'll impact some players more than others. With a harder cap and fewer/lower-valued exceptions, the middle income players will be hit hardest, and that's not something you can just ignore when discussing the merits of the players' actions, especially since (I would guess) the plurality of players are in the middle income category.

This is not a competitive balance issue, no matter how many times people say it is. If the owners were truly committed to greater competitive balance, revenue sharing would be on the table.

A harder cap will impact NBA rosters more than it does NHL/NFL rosters because there are fewer players on NBA rosters, and thus less flexibility in keeping key players. A strict hard cap might just kill the league.
 
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