Official NBA Thread

[S.L.R]

Could anyone here please explain the conflict that threatens the season to me? I've been looking forward to NBA since I subscribed to ESPN. I don't understand the issue/couldn't find a clear explanation online. Far as I can tell, the players are in dispute with club owners in regards to cut of club-related income? So I'm guessing the players already have full access to their own image rights away from the court? Cheers

[StPaulSpur]

Basically, the financial structure of the league as it currently exists doesn't work. Depending on who you believe, roughly 2/3 of the team's lost money last year.

It's frustrating b/c, really, it's on the owners for being idiots. There were a ton of players who got really long contracts with completely ridiculous salaries. Imagine if a club like Wolves decided to sign Kevin Doyle to a six year contract with him on 150,000 a week. Now imagine if everyone else in the Prem was doing the same thing. Financial structure would fall apart overnight. So player salaries are the main cause of the issue, but I don't really blame the players there. If someone offers you stupid money are you supposed to turn it down because you're not worth that much?

If you want a more thorough breakdown on it, you won't do better than Bill Simmons on Grantland (Simmons, I might add, is a Spurs supporter).

Simmons' sums it up on Twitter.
If I Ruled the (NBA) World
Dizzying Heights and Terrifying Lows
A Fan Friendly Solution to Fix the NBA

(I'd also hazard a guess that BlueCrewLA could probably make a few interesting observations on this issue since he's one of the sports & finance gurus around here...)

[crocop]

It´s impossible to pay their wages, they earn a lot more than e.g footballers here in Europe. The league must make a cut and the players should respect that.

[Reserrved]

average salary for a basketball player is almost 5 million a year

[S.L.R]

Thanks for responses, I am surprised at how they've let it get into this mess. Sheikh Mansour would love it there. Perhaps Gary Cook could find work insulting terminally ill kids on behalf of Miami Heat or something. Ah well, hope the season starts on time, I was looking forward to watching some Celtics games.

[BlueCrew LA]

Basically, the financial structure of the league as it currently exists doesn't work. Depending on who you believe, roughly 2/3 of the team's lost money last year.

It's frustrating b/c, really, it's on the owners for being idiots. There were a ton of players who got really long contracts with completely ridiculous salaries. Imagine if a club like Wolves decided to sign Kevin Doyle to a six year contract with him on 150,000 a week. Now imagine if everyone else in the Prem was doing the same thing. Financial structure would fall apart overnight. So player salaries are the main cause of the issue, but I don't really blame the players there. If someone offers you stupid money are you supposed to turn it down because you're not worth that much?

If you want a more thorough breakdown on it, you won't do better than Bill Simmons on Grantland (Simmons, I might add, is a Spurs supporter).

Simmons' sums it up on Twitter.
If I Ruled the (NBA) World
Dizzying Heights and Terrifying Lows
A Fan Friendly Solution to Fix the NBA

(I'd also hazard a guess that BlueCrewLA could probably make a few interesting observations on this issue since he's one of the sports & finance gurus around here...)

Preach.....

You pretty much summed it up. They want to blame it all on greedy players but nobody was forcing them to pay role players $20m per/yr. Everyone deserves some blame but basketball has been broken for some time and personally I think the season needs to be canceled/shortened to work through the issues.

P.S. Nothing bothers me more that Bill Simmons supports my club. The man famously a hater of all things California.

[1van]

Metta World Peace... daaaaamn.. hes crazier then i thought..

i hope this strike ends soon, look what it did to ron..

[gremo]

Could anyone here please explain the conflict that threatens the season to me?

Issue 1. and 3. seams to be solved but 2. is still standing and problem, ATM, is 80M per year. Since this is 10 year contract we are talking about 800M in total. At one point difference was 8 billion $ so ... let's hope for the best. Preseason is officially canceled and if this is not over until monday regular season start will be also officially canceled.

Labor Talks: 3 Main Issues in NBA Lockout | Crank Up The HEAT

[Maro]

Actually it looks like some team owners are enjoying the lockout as they dont have to pay salaries to any players. That means they are gonna save the money they would otherwise hand to overrated players. For example, Washington will not spend 20m for a 3 who will not even play.

And there are some other owners who keep breaking down the negotiations, such as Dan Gilbert, who only wants the other teams to not perform as well. His Cavaliers would be a total dumpster if a season would be in place. And also he is basicly killing another season of Miami Trio

[BlueCrew LA]

I really hate David Stern.

Whatever happens I hope that tool is forced to step down.

[Dancubus]

Well, they've rejected another one. Can't blame them really, they're asking the players to pay for mistakes the owners have made. It's not like the players haven't been prepared to concede on a new CBA, they just don't want to concede as much as the owners are asking, which is quite a massive swing on the last one really.

[Maro]

The NBA becomes a total joke. There has been already too much acting in it, killing the game of basketball. But all these discussions ended up as an epic PR failure.

I'm glad we are at least able to watch some good defense and team play in EuroLeague. I also wish the NCAA season was longer.

[The Sundance Yid]

So where does this end? If the owners are unwilling to pay the players and the players are unwilling to renegotiate new deals, where do people see this going? I guess it is another case of money ruining sport. Basketball has had quite a fall from grace over the last 10 or 15 years becoming less and less popular in the US, yet players were being paid more and more. That makes very little sense when clubs are generating less and less revenue. It seems that the human race has become inept when it comes to managing finances. The millionaires who own the clubs are running out of money but didn't seem to know it have ruined the NBA and the millionaire bankers who were also running out of money, have ruined the world economy. Now where the fook is that reset button???

[Maro]

The owners will realise that they lose even more money when there is no NBA season. And the players will realise that they will not make 15 million dollars by playing in overseas. This year is lost but I'm hopeful that we'll see some matches in 12/13

[Dancubus]

I feel sorry for the arena workers etc. Those are the guy's who are really going to struggle.

So what if players can't make 15 million playing abroad? They could retire now, and never have to work again with the money they've made. Don't get me wrong, I blame the owners for all of this. I just think in the bigger picture, there are a lot of people on minimum wage who are going to be out of jobs.

The fan's too, without them there's no NBA either.