NBA Labor Pains

Interesting to note, perhaps, that if a GM had engineered the exact same deal he/she'd be hailed as a genius.

 

One did - Pat Riley

 

Question: Would the NHL have survived its season-long lockout if hockey wasn't Canada's national pastime? I would think the number of people who zealously follow the NBA in the same way is much, much lower. It seems like putting the whole season at risk really could put the NBA's future in jeopardy. Baseball and hockey knew there'd still be passionate fans when they got over their little internal tiff. I'm not sure the NBA enjoys the same luxury.

 

Maybe if the NBA were more diverse it would attract more fans?

 

To tie together many many of my posts on this general subject:

The overclass is going for unconditional victory.

They don't want to settle for anything less.

 

Well, the NBA is certainly "Black America's" national sport, and probably for the overall under-40 population as well. How that translates into Nielsen numbers and ad rates, I don't know.

 

But I think fan interest bounced back in roughly the same proportion in Sunbelt cities as in Canadian cities despite the relatively less passionate following in the Sunbelt.

 

Most fans are like sheep ... they'll talk of fan boycotts or "I don't need the NBA" but, when this dispute is over, most will return. And given the alternative, college basketball, which is turning more unwatchable than the NBA ...

 

I know he's a board favorite, but I found MacGregor's column to be wholly unpersuasive and driven solely by emotion.

NBA players aren't "the little guy" getting crushed by "the evil 1 percenters." They are gifted athletes with a sense of entitlement miles beyond their value. And they are fighting an ego battle while refusing to take a 10-12 percent pay cut -- something so many of their fans have coped with, and worse -- when their industry is running in red ink.

Only the dimwittedest of them still spouts the "we don't believe the league is losing money" nonsense. Their union leaders have accepted the NBA's audited financial books. But they want to push the old buttons because, well, the old buttons worked in the past.

NBA players were protected from the 2008 recession by their six-year CBA that ran from 2005 to 2011. But time's up now. An adjustment is needed. And if it means the average NBA salary comes in at "only" $4.6 million or so, leaving them still as the highest compensated union members on Earth and highest compensated professional athletes, then boo-effin'-hoo!

If going by the misleading "average" isn't satisfying, then consider that the NBA media salary might drop from $2.9M to $2.5M. All in the interest of making sure that more franchises can compete on the court and for better talent. The weak teams can't sell only the star power of the visitors, not when it produces 20-point blowouts of the home team. And in a league set up, compared to real commerce, dominant operations need the weak ones to survive and provide legitimate competition to have watchable games for ticket buyers and TV viewers.

As for the guys filling out the rosters, do they really think the minimum salary would be $450K for their services in a free market? They'd be drawing D League money while the stars pocketed $40M a year.

As for the stars who have to settle for maxed-out pay of $18-$20 million, do they really think their next-best job opportunity (non-pro hoops) would approach anything paying 10 percent of that? One percent?

The NBA tried it for the past six years giving players 57 percent of revenue with a soft salary cap and look where it has ended up. Union and players are being jerked around by agents, who have only their commissions and own egos at heart. Rookie scale and max salaries diminished their importance, and a harder cap system would squeeze the middle guys, the clients who might actually have a need to hand over 4 percent to an agent, in hopes of creating a market for his modest skills.

 

The NBAPA, I'm looking at you Billy Hunter and Derek Fisher, need to either come out themselves or have an agent just rip the owners right now and tell the following:

1. No basketball is entirely owners fault, players were/are willing to play right now.
2. Owners complain about losing money but the business decisions/contracts are entirely up to owners. No one forces them to sign any contract.
3. Owners have decided to cancel games, not players.
4. Owners are trying to renege on the contracts they signed (rollbacks on contracts.)

 

And the response from the owners and the rest of the world would be "Mmm hmmm yeah and ...?"

If the players could take care of themselves through a year of no paychecks, they could win this thing. As it is now, though, they can't make it a month.