NBA Team Owners Proposing $62 Million ‘Flex-Cap’ to Players

During the big labor meeting in New York yesterday, David Stern and NBA team owners proposed a “flex-cap” to the skeptical players, an idea borrowed from the NHL. The Boston Globe reports: “The NBA owners offered the league’s players a $62 million ‘flex cap’, commissioner David Stern revealed Tuesday at the Omni Berkshire Hotel in midtown Manhattan, a plan that deputy commissioner Adam Silver said is similar to the current National Hockey League salary structure. Owners and players met for four hours today and the league offered more details about their proposal, which would set a $62 million salary limit for all teams that could be exceeded by teams re-signing their own players to contracts (Larry Bird Rule) and mid-level exception contracts. However, this proposal is dramatically different than the current plan that sets a $58.044 million salary cap and levies a dollar-for-dollar luxury tax at teams that exceed $70.3 million, which the Celtics have done the past several seasons. This plan would set a median for salaries for all 30 teams at $62 million, and if the total aggregrate salaries exceeds that amount, the players would financially be obligated to make up the difference. Under the current system, the players bear no responsibility for teams over the salary cap. Eight percent of players salaries are withheld in case those salaries exceed the the 57 percent of players revenue and they is returned to the players if they don’t. The players did not respond to the owners’ proposal and requested another meeting for Friday in New York. The current collective bargaining agreement expires June 30 and the owners have threatened to lockout the players, similar to the current NFL situation.”