Monday, February 8th, 2010 at 9:00 am  |  62 responses

Players vs Owners: Prepare for War

by Marcel Mutoni / @marcel_mutoni

For months now, it’s been no secret that NBA team owners — men stinging from the loss of millions in revenue in the wake of the global economic crisis — were coming for the jugular in the upcoming labor negotiations with the players. A picture of exactly what it is that they want has begun to paint itself.

Let’s just say that things aren’t looking very promising for Billy Hunter and the people he represents. CBS Sports broke the story of the owners’ initial salvo into the battle:

The proposal, sent to the union earlier this week, seeks a reduction in the players’ share of basketball-related income from 57 percent to well below 50 percent, according to a person familiar with the document. Owners also are seeking some elements of a hard cap — a departure from the current luxury-tax system — and a reduction in the length and amount of max contracts.

Owners and players will meet in Dallas during All-Star weekend for their first face-to-face bargaining session as they try to reach an agreement before the current deal expires in 2011. The talks coincide with the NFL’s labor negotiation, in which owners have proposed an 18 percent pay cut for players.

Everyone seems to be in agreement that the players are basically screwed here; even with the growing possibility of a lockout in the 2011-12 season, the Union will have little choice but to agree to the owners’ demands.

For now, however, it’s time for some tough talk from the players. Courtesy of the Orlando Sentinel, here’s Adonal Foyle (of all people):

Orlando Magic center and NBA Players Association first vice president Adonal Foyle on Sunday labeled owners’ newest collective bargaining agreement offer “unfair” and said the owners’ proposed salary rollbacks have mobilized and united the league’s players.

“I think doing that is probably the fatal flaw, because if there is one way to unite the entire NBA against a single thing it would be to go after everybody,” Foyle said. “I think what this proposal has done has done us a favor. It has basically mobilized all our players. Guys are calling. Guys what to know what’s happening and they want to get involved.

So, I am in a way happy that they [the owners] did what they did, because I think now they have awakened not only the players who have been constantly involved in these kinds of negotiations, but they’ve awakened the guys that would have been on the outside looking in.”

The fight is on.

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  • http://none The Philosopher

    Maybe guys will gain the education that college offers. Become team owners. Become a league owner, perhaps. STAY IN SCHOOL boys and girls.

  • Johnson

    I think if they gave up player options, made team options on final years of contracts the standard and basically just gave teams more flexibility on contracts instead of getting ham-stringed by long term big buck deals on players who don’t meet expectations the owners would be more inclined to avoid such ridiculous sudden salary cuts and settle for like a 10% cut or something in their offer.

  • Johnson

    Also, there are quite a few nba teams making a fair profit, they just rally behind the franchises which are suffering saying its because of the economy rather than taking responsibility for their inability to create interest in their city whether its because the team is performing horribly, negative team image or the city just doesn’t care(Atlanta lol). I was really surprised when i saw their potential awhile ago, its hard to believe the owners have the gall to try and cut players salaries in half during 1 negotiation.

  • Justin

    People say “Why should the players have to give back after they’ve busted their asses to get to where they are?” What did it take? High school, a year or two in college and then make a couple million a year? How long do you think it took the owners to get to where they are? Business schooling, clawing their way up as well. Jukai said “What other employees allow their pay to be capped so their owners can save money?” Well, let me ask you this? What other employers give 57% of their revenues to their employees? There are teams that are not making money and a few of them have had to move cities in the past 10 years. I remember the last lockout when the players were crying about money so they had a game to raise money for some of the lesser paid players. Anthony Mason shows up in a full length fur coat and diamond earring. Patrick Ewing gets quoted saying “Fans have to understand that yes, we make a lot of money but we spend a lot of money too”. I mean, wtf! Half of these players make more off of their endorsements anyway

  • tavoris

    i’d like to say that nobody is going to NBA games to see anybody but the NBA players. Nobody buys NBA league pass to see the owners. Nobody floods the NBA store to buy cheerleader merchandise or Mascot replcicas. The players are responsible for 99% of the NBA’s income. Why shouldn’t they have the biggest piece of the pie?
    This fact alone makes it unreasonable to compare ur fry duty to a NBA player. Even if they are doing something they love, they deserve to be paid based on their value. Should Lebron be limited to 8 mil a year when they Cavs easily make 10 times that much off him?

  • therighttoremainsalient

    I think they should look at the way they distribute the large sum of money they already have – There is as many NBA players getting big time money and aren’t even out there earning as there are seats not being filled in every arena (apparently the attendances are low?). If you had to go and do an analysis of out goings versus return on investments then, NBA team owners and GMs would generally look really really poor as investors and business men.

  • rav

    said this before – increase the minimum, lower the max and no contract can guarantee more than $3m a year, regardless of the size of the contract

  • http://dsjfhklf.com Jukai

    I constantly tell Allenp he is overreactive on his ‘suspicions’ and many times they aren’t warranted.
    This time, he’s 100% right.

  • http://www.therealtimscott.com/how-to-get-lots-of-money/ stuart lichtman

    Yeah,The real winners here are the Euro teams. They’ll get lots of talent at a decent price.

  • http://dsjfhklf.com Jukai

    “What other employers give 57% of their revenues to their employees? ”
    The employees are part of the product. So in essence, you’re paying for both employee and product out of that 57%. I can name a sh*t ton of companies like that.

  • aaron

    The NBA owners are looking to turn the screws on the players to lessen their exposure to revenue losses due to their own mismanagement. This is what the big banks have effectively done and the NBA owners hope to emulate to a degree: socialize the losses caused by their own ineptness by cutting payroll and privatize the profits by demanding a bigger cut should they succeed. The owners think they’re “too big to fail” it seems. Hopefully, there will be a compromise that is fair to all.

  • tavoris

    last I heard, AIG is still giving out hundred of millions in bonuses to people who haven’t even EARNED them any money. So, I think their system (which failed w/gov’t assistance) is doing a lot worse than the NBA (which is still thriving w/o help).

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