Stern: No NBA 'doomsday scenario'...

...so it must be likely as Commish tries to soft-pedal recent talk of NBA nuclear winter:

AP -- Commissioner David Stern says the NBA and union might have to make "some adjustments" to the labor contract when it expires in two years, but he foresees no "doomsday scenario" for the league because of the current economic crisis.

Minnesota Timberwolves coach Kevin McHale said recently the NBA had entered its own "Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac era of subprime loans" because of player salaries. He added that players will need to make substantial concessions at the bargaining table.

Agent David Falk predicted to The New York Times that the next round of talks will be "very, very extreme," and owners could shut down the league for a year or two if the players don't agree to the owners' demands.

"I'd just say the 'doomsday scenario' is that the NBA is somehow going to be irretrievably damaged by some event or another," Stern said Monday at George Washington University, where Washington Wizards owner Abe Pollin was inducted into the School of Business Sports Executives Hall of Fame. "The predictions of the demise of the NBA were frequent and profound [over the years], and they've always been wrong."

Last month, the NBA lined up $200 million to distribute to teams needing additional cash.

"We've managed to keep the ship afloat, and I think we will continue to do that this time," Stern said. "I'm not unduly pessimistic. I think when we see where this economy comes out, there may be some adjustments that are necessary at the team level and at the league level. But I think that in our players and in our union, we find a group of realists that are sensitive of the needs of our fans and our sponsors, and I'm optimistic from that perspective that we will be able to ultimately work something out.

"I'm not optimistic or pessimistic about the economy, I'm just assuming the worst and hoping for the best as we seek to stabilize ourselves amid a storm of difficult economic times."

Stern said revenues will be "up a percent or 2" for this season, but he is "quite concerned" about next year.

"We certainly see that our sponsors are hurting, and we're working really hard to do what we can to minimize that hurt and to keep our business going."

 

I wonder if Kevin McHale felt so strongly about the players making substantial concessions at the negotiating table 25 years ago.

Talk about a league that needs to nuke about 10 teams. If the NBA did have a nuclear winter and nobody notices or cares, does it count?

 

Isn't the same thing true about the NHL to a far greater extent?

 

The NHL already went through that with the lockout of 2004-05. It was hard, to be sure, but everyone survived and, in some cases, came out the other side better off.

In McHale's defense, salaries 25 years ago weren't even a fraction of what they are today.

All leagues are going to have to take a hard look at player salaries. It's like CEO compensation at these large banks....totally through the roof and out of control. It's one thing to spend millions on the top stars like LeBron James or Sidney Crosby, but there are too many journeymen making waaaay too much money, whose presence doesn't make one iota of difference in their teams.

 

I'd like to see all pro leagues cut way back, down to three months for each.

January to March: NHL.
April to June: NBA.
July to September: MLB.
October to December: NFL.

Radical concept, I know, but they keep pushing for more, and I want less.

 

Gotta keep the season longer to pay those inflated salaries.

Like a lot of others, I could certainly live with 60-game NBA and NHL seasons, especially when half the teams make the playoffs. And the playoffs take two months.

The whole economic system of sports is going to crash and burn someday, probably sooner rather than later. The average Joe who is struggling to put food on the table and pay the rent/mortgage sure can't afford the $200 seats and the fat cats are too worried about their stock portfolios.

 

Yeah, I know.
It's all money and stats now.
But I'd rather have short seasons.
Too much sports all the time now.

 

Erick Dampier (7yrs/$73 million), Brian Cardinal (6/$39 million), and Jerome James (5/$30 million) have no idea what you're talking about.

 

The money for Dampier et. al is ridiculous enough, but giving five years and up contracts to non-All Stars is just laughable. I understand that is for salary cap purposes, but really. Guys get paid for upside, GMs get fired for downside.

 

I don't know if it's ever really "doomsday," but the leagues other than the NFL have the potential for major trouble as long as the economy stays in the crapper.

Ticket sales are always going to fluctuate for some teams, but the loss of major corporate dollars via sponsorships and advertising could be a big kick in the ass.

 

At least the NBA has a salary cap — granted, it's a joke of a cap in that it can be exceeded, and spectacularly so (see Cuban, Mark). Theoretically, the cap is tied to sponsorships and TV rights fees and goes up and down with the revenue. So if the economy takes a dump, the cap should fall in tandem.

The problem is, NBA contracts are for the most part guaranteed money. So max contracts given out in good times become an anchor when franchises hit the skids (again see Cuban, Mark). That's a problem that will have to be addressed in the next CBA.

 

That's likely a cause of you being a sportswriter and being around sports all the time.

Even now that I'm out of the biz, I still find it harder to sit down and watch a random sports event between teams I don't have much interest for. i still watch the teams I root for, but that's about it.


But average Joe Fan who lives and breathes sports (even if he can't get to games) want it every day and then some.