Locked Out: The economics of the NBA
When the American public is torn away from their favorite athletes and teams, there will always be consequences. The NBA lockout is a topic that has created much controversy throughout mass media and sports. It started over four months ago and nobody really knows when it’s going to end. It sounds as if the owner’s side and the player’s side aren’t close on a deal and they are running out of time. Some people in the media believe that the owners are right and some believe that the player’s side is right. However most members of the media, believe that neither side is right and that both sides are being greedy and selfish toward the fans. Each side has spent more time trash talking the other side calling each other racist, unproductive names instead of simply getting into a room and working out the new Collective Bargaining Agreement once and for all. The deadline for a deal before the entire NBA season is cancelled would probably be around the end of December so time is running out. The first two weeks of December were just cancelled by Commissioner David Stern. They are holding up the season for more money and with each passing day with no deal, the odds of playing the 2011 season continues to look less and less likely. After all, the National Basketball Association like all other professional sports is a business, a business where both the players and the owners want to receive as much money and benefits as possible and if it takes missing the entire season for that to happen, so be it.
The Daily News seemed to favor the owners in a lot of their articles. One of the articles I read talked about how the owners brought in Bobcat owner Michael Jordan to try to get the players to agree but it didn’t work and may have made matters worse. Being a living legend, and a role model for many of the league’s young players, the owners believed bringing in Jordan would help persuade them into giving in a little on some of the terms that the owners wanted. (http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/basketball/nba-owners-players-meet-time-days-solution-nba-lockout-article-1.972839) None of the players were able to look Michael Jordan in the eye and tell him that he and the rest of his fellow owners were wrong. However Jordan seemed to also disagree with his fellow owners about many of the key issues such as the salary cap. Jordan wanted a lower salary cap for his money starved Bobcats while most other owners disagreed. The Charlotte Bobcats, coming off a disappointing season revenue wise, were forced to trade some of their premier players that had contracts that were considered too lucrative for the Bobcats. Fan favorites like Gerald Wallace and Stephen Jackson were shipped elsewhere in salary dumps making the Bobcats worse in the process. Even though Jordan is considered one of the best players of all time, he is not considered to be a wealthy owner and his Charlotte Bobcats lost a lot of money last season. One of the things the players and most owners agreed on already was a salary cap floor restriction, forcing teams to spend a certain number per year on its players. For example if the Salary Cap was 58 million, it would force teams to spend at least 50 million hypothetically on players. Michael Jordan had a major problem with this and cause more harm than good on a lockout issue that appeared to be in the rear view mirror. Most small market owners had major problems with this. The idea that owners of an NBA team not wanting to spend 50 million dollars in payroll on his team is ridiculous. If you don’t spend up to the cap, you are going to have an extremely difficult time competing especially long term. Large market owners and players weren’t asking for the small market owners to have a payroll like the New York Yankees, just to have about 85 percent of what the cap is. That rule is a good one because now free agents won’t have an easy decision. Top free agents will no longer immediately just take less money to sign with one of the top 2 or 3 teams in the league. Teams that are considered to be “ a few years away from contending” whether they like to or not will spend big money on free agents, bolstering their team in the process.
Jordan tried changing a lot of the issues that the owners and players had already agreed on. It created even more controversy as the meetings became large market owners vs. players vs. small market owners instead of the owners all working together it created a major divide. Jordan is in a small class of owners that claim they lost significant money last season which is a main reason why this lockout is happening in the first place. These small market owners say the players must accept less of their 57 percent BRI split or the poor revenue teams won’t even be able to break even. While the BRI split or Basketball Related Income is only one of a few things these two sides are arguing about, it is probably the most important thing. It would have probably been better if Jordan came to the meetings from the beginning of the lockout or didn’t come to the meetings at all. Not all owners or players have been present at these meetings, only a few selected representatives. In the article the sides continue to bad mouth each other instead of thinking about the fans and worrying about a potential lost season. This article also talks about how in the previous Collective Bargaining Agreement players made 57 percent and are willing to reduce that to 53 percent since the owners claim they lost money last year. The owners best offer so far has been a 50-50 split of the revenue. This has been the biggest issue in talks so far as each percentage point is worth about 40 million dollars. One idea that probably would work in regards to splitting up the Basketball Related Income was known as the “BRI band”. The band would give the players more of the BRI split if the owners were more successful. At worst if the league was struggling, hypothetically the players would make 50 percent BRI. However, if the owners, along with the NBA as a whole was doing really well, perhaps the players would get like 52 or 53 percent. Even though that was a hypothetical solution it seems to be the fairest way to get this issue done. If the Basketball Related Income issue gets solved soon, it probably would help pave the way for the other issues to disappear and there would be an NBA season before the end of 2011.
Most newspapers believed that the players or even both sides were wrong. Not too many places seemed to side with the players on these issues. Many newspapers said that the players were being selfish and stupid. Selfish because they are depriving the fans of basketball at least so far, through 2011 and stupid because if they just took the original deal that the owners offered them a few weeks ago, they would have made close to their full salaries which would be a lot more money than if they were to get the terms in the new CBA that they wanted right now. One of the few papers that showed any hope about the lockout ending soon was Newsday. They had interviews by local basketball players Carmelo Anthony and Amare Stoudemire expressing hope that the lockout should end in the next couple of weeks. Both players were in their first year with the New York Knicks and were excited to see how improved the new look Knicks could be playing in front of their excited fans at Madison Square Garden in New York City. (http://www.newsday.com/sports/basketball/knicks/amar-e-believes-nba-lockout-near-end-1.3152579) Newsday beat writers appeared to be one of a select few that expressed much optimism of this dreaded lockout ending any time soon. The goal at this point should be to get games this calendar year, in 2011. One of the best days in sports in my opinion is Christmas Day in the NBA. All of the local television networks usually have the best teams play each other all day. In the article Amare Stoudemire said he believe the lock out was going to end “sooner rather than later.” There aren’t too many NBA players that want the lockout to continue.
Newsday was the only newspaper outline I could fine that showed any sense of optimism that the lockout was going to end any time soon. ESPN would be a good example where their reporters expressed the exact opposite of Newsday in regards to this lockout. Most people at ESPN on Television or on the Internet didn’t believe there would be an NBA season this year because the owners and players wouldn’t be able to agree to a new CBA in time. One article I read by NBA analyst Ric Bucher believed that as of right now, there wouldn’t be a season and that the two sides are talking more about what they should do if there isn’t a season instead of just working out the Collective Bargaining Issues. In this ‘doomsday” scenario the big topic of conversation right now, is what should happen to the NBA draft if there isn’t a season. The plan for the NBA draft right now if there isn’t a season, would be to calculate each of the 30 team’s winning percentage over the last 3 or 5 years (still undecided on that) and base those numbers into an NBA lottery. For example if the Minnesota Timberwolves in this scenario had the worst winning percentage over the last 3 seasons they would get the highest chance to get the number one pick in next year’s NBA draft. The worst 14 teams would be entitled to participate in the NBA lottery while the other teams who made the playoffs would round out the rest of the draft. (http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/7214333/sources-options-discussed-nba-draft-order-no-season) This appears to be the best, fairest way to distribute the best college players next season to the NBA teams that are struggling and really need them.
A lot of top potential lottery picks for the 2011 draft decided not to enlist for the draft and decided to stay in college. Top college players who could have been top 5 picks in this year’s draft like Harrison Barnes, Perry Jones and Jared Sullinger were apprehensive about making the leap to the NBA because they were unsure if there were going to be games this season. The worse thing for a rookie player trying to make a name for himself in the NBA would definitely be being forced to take a year off. Players like Kyrie Irving and Derrick Williams as freshmen went 1st and 2nd in the 2011 draft and haven’t collected a single dime from the NBA due to the lockout. It appears that the players who decided to stay n school because of the lockout were smart by doing that. Instead of worrying about money and the NBA they can go back to college for a year, work on their game and be more prepared to play in the NBA next season. Most players who are in desperate need of money have been forced to go play oversees in places like China and Spain. If the owners and the players spent more time discussing the CBA issues and not talking about hypothetical “doomsday scenarios” then maybe we would be a lot closer to ending this 130+ day lockout.
The NBA lockout has shown to be very ugly throughout this entire process. Neither side has shown one inch of respect toward each other or the fans. Many people believe a lot of these issues come down to race. Racism is considered to be a major factor in sports even in the year 2011, especially in Basketball. Racism still exists unfortunately in the world and basketball is no different. According to a study held in 2010 82 percent of players in the NBA were people of color. That is compared to only 1 African American owner in all of pro sports, Michael Jordan. (http://www.slamonline.com/online/nba/2010/06/study-2010-nba-racial-and-gender-report-card/) Their have been interesting comments by important members of each side that would indicate that race plays a role in these negotiations. One of the top sports labor attorneys in the whole country. Jeffrey Kessler had some very interesting comments on NBA commissioner David Stern.
“Instead of treating the players like partners, they’re treating them like plantation workers.” Kessler said about David Stern. Most people throughout mass media felt as if Kessler had taken his comments over the line and that while he may have been frustrated that his players weren’t getting much progress on a new deal it was still unnecessary for him to do that. David Stern didn’t take those comments too well either saying “Kessler’s agenda is always to inflame and not to make a deal,” Stern said, “even if it means injecting race and thereby insulting his own clients. . . . He has been the single most divisive force in our negotiations and it doesn’t surprise me he would rant and not talk about specifics. Kessler’s conduct is routinely despicable.” (http://probasketballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/11/08/union-attorney-says-stern-treats-players-like-%E2%80%9Cplantation-workers%E2%80%9D/#/2011/11/08/union-attorney-says-stern-treats-players-like-%u201Cplantation-workers%u201D/) Kessler also helped get a deal done in the NFL earlier this year and said similar comments about NFL commissioner Rodger Goodell at that time. Comments like that have been circulating through agents and lawyers on both sides and at the rate these two sides are working they may never get a deal done. It appears now that both sides are just using the race card hear to win a little public perception to make the fans think it is the other side’s fault that we are missing NBA games. It is really a shame that both sides have come to calling each other names like “plantation owner” just to try and express a little frustration. This has been a very long process that looks like it will continue for awhile. Eventually this will go to court if they can’t work out a deal and while it would likely end any chance of a 2011-2012 season, it would make sure that this lockout couldn’t impact the following NBA season. I believe the lockout is an embarrassment to Professional basketball. The game has expanded in popularity all across the globe over the last decade or so and this will only hurt the NBA. A majority of fans of pro basketball think both sides are being greedy and selfish. Calling each other racist names and discussing “doomsday scenarios” don’t help the situation either. Many players have given up on negotiating with the owners and have decided to go play oversees. By going oversees and playing for another country, it has those countries interested in their own teams which makes them lose a lot of interest in what is happening in the National Basketball Association. A majority of both sides here do not care at all about the fans and will continue negotiating to get the right deal even if that takes the rest of the season. There is no guarantee that there will be NBA games this year which is really a shame. Hopefully they can work out their issues as soon as possible. At this point however, it would really be shocking if they could work these remaining issues out, and avoid having judges and lawyers in court determine their fate. If going to court occurs, it would swiftly end any hope for an NBA season. That is really terrible, as the National Basketball Association over the last decade or so, has really done a terrific job at spreading their brand internationally all across the globe. Commissioner David Stern has already cancelled about a third of the NBA season and counting, eliminating any chance for a full 82 game schedule. With each day of this 130+ day lockout passing, the chances for basketball diminish. I believe eventually, the two sides will reach an agreement because their simply is just too much at stake here. If these two sides can’t agree to a deal within the next month or so billions of dollars in revenue will be lost and it would take the NBA a long time to make it up to their fans, employees at arenas along with everybody in the whole world who follows the National Basketball Association. Culture as a whole along the last few decades has learned to live and die by their sports teams. Many people have become dependant on their teams in their cities and there really isn’t anything wrong with that. That being said, it sounds as if the owners and the players acknowledge that and are using that to exploit more money out of the other side. While most people will just be happy if and when the NBA resumes and the lockout ends, there will be more than a select few that become disgusted with the greed shown by both sides and will be fans of other teams in other sports. The American public idolizes their athletes and the stars of the NBA are arguably more recognizable than in any other sport. Basketball has done a great job expanding their brand not only across the Unites States of America, but over the entire world. They NBA shouldn’t mess that up because they can’t agree on the next Collective Bargaining Agreement. Until they do, their will remain a lockout and fans are forced to wait patiently.
