Billy Hunter: ‘Maybe We Can Start Our Own League’

@justin: stfu kid, I’m posting from a blackberry, and just ebonicized (lol) to save time. If you can’t dispute ANY of what I’m talking about then don’t resort to nitpicking about whether my spelling is correct. Btw, I’ve noticed from your posts that you REALLY seem to dislike urban black culture. Care to address why that is? Also why you bother concerning yourself with the blackest of all the major pro sports when you obviously have no appreciation for the ppl who are playing it?

At this point it’s silly to argue. People are going to believe what they believe, folks are set in their stances.
It’s all about how you view the world and the way you think it should work, at a certain point.
If you think players are lucky to have the jobs they have, that they should be eternally grateful, and that they lack the intelligence to make decisions, then you will see things one way.
If you think players earned their jobs, that they don’t have to be grateful for something they’ve earned just appreciative and that they are generally as intelligent as the regular population, then you see things another way.
Lots of folks who watch the NBA don’t particularly care for the players. Same thing with several other sports.

This Billy Hunter is a Lawyer and he is minting money on the idiots,(THE PLAYERS) the biggest one Derrick Fisher .These Athletes have muscles not Brains,or have body muscles not brain muscles cause they never used that(brain) part of their body.All their life they depend on Agents,Managers or someone like Billy (the lawyer) .To save 2 billion in next 10 years for the players they have already lost 2 plus billion for this season .I was at the Marquette game it was more fun to watch college game it was fast and furious and was reasonable .so F**** NBA and their F**** Greedy Players and F**** greedy Bast***** owners .I will enjoy NCAA more this year then ever The money I would have spend for NBA will go to NCAA ,They deserve it more than ever

Justin just so we have facts straight; Jim Grey was the person who thought about televising “The Decision.” He then contacted ESPN and LBJ to finalize it all. It was not LBJ’s brainchild. You can disagree that he did it or what he said while it happened, but that spectacle was just as much about ESPN flexing media muscle, Jim Grey working connections and America’s fascination with celebrity…

because the season is going to happen. Its just a matter of who bites first. And someone will bite. Nobody is trying to lose out on billions of dollars.

The World Wide Basket Association. The WWBA sounds good to me. 50 teams, a whole new draft, and get the best players from around the world. let get it started. we just need 50 investors who can put up 250 million per team. The NBA took over the ABA. now its time to take over the NBA. the players have the power. You owners better get a deal done, they might end up looking like a horse’s ass!! it is not 1960. its 2011. its not that hard to start a new league.. Players , Money and the Power!!!

Let’s do something useful, show these players and owners what a really sensible CBA looks like:

-Minimal age to enter the NBA is 20 years. The NBA wil benefit from some more mature players, mature in person and mostly mature and educated in real team play. To many athletically gifted, do-it-all youngsters enter and fundamentals and teamplay suffer. No more “Let’s do some more iso-plays for our star”.
HS players can choose college for two years, and be gratefull for the free education, sportsguidance and teamball education, OR if they can’t intellectually or don’t want to, enter the D-League draft and play for money two years. Now here’s a change to really apply the D in D-league.

-Draft 1 round of 40 players, D-League, International and College. Lottery for top 10 picks among 10 teams with the worst record. Lottery for 11-20 positions for teams that had the 11th to 20th worse record in the league. Lottery for 21st to 30th picks among 10 teams with the worst record. Lottery for 31st to 40th picks among 10 best regular season teams in the league.

-Rookie scale contracts are 3 years. That is THE time a rookie needs to come into his own, superstar or no. After 3 years the rookie is a restricted agent! He can negotiate for a fair market value deal. But the team that drafted him, took a chance on him and invested in his growth can retain him for the market value.

-No further use of the restricted free agent status, it is stupid, either a player is free or not. Contract-end=free agent.

-Max contract length is 3 years! Why? Because the contractvalue will be better based on the players worth. Why would a player like Howard or Anthony be afraid to have to resign after three years? They will still be max value, and have the choice to switch teams as well. And players with undervalued or overvalued contracts will be getting their deserved appreciation. Max guys get max contracts, over the hill superstars get contracts based on their performance not their legacy
-Contracts are fully guaranteed. Players need not be concerned with individual benchmarks, stats, accolades. The only thing that counts is the team result. Help your team win. They need to be assured that they are fully paid when injured, so that they can go all out during the game. No worries, no holding back; hustle, teamplay, teamsacrifice.

-No exceptions, bi annual, mid level, trade etc. Exceptions mean the basic rules aren’t good enough. Exceptions create complication. No bird rights, sign and trades none of it is allowed and basically not needed.

-Minimal salary, applicable from year 4, so after the rookiescale, is 1 mln dollar. So every nba player will be a millionaire. Every year hereafter that you play will add 100K in pay. These are the veteran increases, compensation for experience.

-Max salary is 20 mln a year. This is about 25% of a teams total max payroll.
-Hard Cap, but set at 84 mln, 12 players on payroll so an avg salary of 7 mln.
-No BRI percentage split. Why ? Salaries are guaranteed, min salaries are in place, so are max. The players will receive ample and fair compensation by todays and tomorrows standards. No escrow, and more of those if- but- maybe- then- rules.

Who says yeah? Yeah!

What happens when revenue drops and salaries are fully guaranteed?

See now I can vibe on that shutup. I don’t care if it’s fewer jobs for players anymore at least 1 team in each conference needs to get dropped (I know this may create a divisional and schedule issue, but like you kindof implied the schedule is lopsided anyway). Unfortunately we all know Stern doesn’t want contraction on his record. He’ll leave it out there for the next commish to tackle. There is no doubt in my mind the other owners know it and players as well, these poorly run (which is the main issue, it’s bad personnel moves) teams in weaker markets don’t have a realistic chance of changing thier current fortunes unless they nail the draft one year and then follow it up and precede it with stellar drafts as well. Hope everyone blossoms at about the same time, none of the top 5 suffer a season-ender, throw-in a well-timed veteran trade or key FA signing and pray all the egos fall in line. I know it’s over the top, but look at NO (sans CP3, poor trades and signings), Cha (awfuls drafts, bad signings, asinie trades), Mil (after B’s arm, poor trades and over paying mid-level talent), Phx (sans Nash, selling 1st round picks for money, poor trades, not making trade with STAT), Minn (sideways trades, too many players with similar skill sets playing the same positions, over-paying FA’s that don’t fit the teams timeline for success, inability to make a coaching decision and let it play out), NJ (before new ownership just a total mess of bad trades and taking on too much salary in return), Sac (inability to make right moves after the C-Webb/Bibby squads faded away, not a big FA contender given the location, horrible financial moves off the court by the Maloofs handicapping their ability to spend on the team). And to think Beantown had no C and a 1-armed pg – that shht was going 7 easy and possibly set up to be an all-timer. Ugggh, only if…

the whole Canadian expansion was a bust, they have had good players but couldnt keep any of them. seeing so many sub .500 teams in the playoffs makes me sick. i think, not 100% sure but 5-8 last year from the eastern conference was sub .500

The Raptors can’t keep their Star Players because they haven’t been able to build a legitimate winner around them. The closest they came was with Vince in 01, but Tracy McGrady was put on the back burner and he didn’t appreciate that much, so he left. As far as I’ve read and heard from players that played in Toronto, that is one of the best cities in the League to play in. And their fans are more interested and engaged than a majority of the American teams.

The Owners are getting their cake and eating it too. They are getting more money, and restricting player movement. That is what they wanted out of the lockout, and they are going to get it. Just how much of it, is the question.

try and use a different Browser. Or try and contact a slam staff member and let them know your having issues. THe more people that voice their issues the more likely slam is to do something about it

Well i think actions speak louder than words, if the players love it so much how come none of them stay? the extra travel probably plays a factor, applying for work visas and moving your family to a different country has to be a major problem.
The idea starting a league is a bit much i think its just posturing for the negotiations to come.
However i think a round robin tournament could be highly profitable, or a series of games that the players put up their own money?
i remember shaq vs Olajuwan was supposed to be on ppv and if i recall taco bell was supposed to sponsor it.
The greatest tool in any negotiation is the ability to walk away. The players need to show their need is less than that of the owners and then and only then will they get any foothold in these procedures.

and the miami heat entered the league in 1988 it was vancouver another failed canadian experiment that entered the league with toronto and we see how that turned out

my bad i thought miami entered the league the same time as the raptors.
Anyways, of course Canada is a hockey nation for the most part… But that’s irrelevant. The US can just as easily be called a football nation or a baseball nation, yet most NHL teams are stationed in American cities.

Miami’s expansion season was the same as The Charlotte Hornets. The year after that was the expansion seasons of Minnesota and Orlando.

No extra teams don’t necessarily = Weaker teams. The condensing of superstars (and lack of them, there is like 10, you can’t cut 20 teams out of the league) causes weaker teams. Planning for the future causes weaker teams. Cities where a lot of players don’t want to live (like New Orleans, Charlotte, Minnesota) cause weaker teams. Dumb management causes weaker teams. If every team got to redraft their rosters from scratch, and were told there would only be 1 season to have a chance to win. The league would be pretty balanced, except the best 7-10 players would more than likely lead the teams with the best records. It’s not about the 4-5 teams that can or arguably should be contracted are diluting the competitive balance of the whole league. That isn’t what is happening.

oh and the number of “superstars” are probably closer to 30 than 50

a HEADS UP to those wishing to get a fresh, good perspective on this lockout. Zack Lowe, of cnnsi.com, wrote a great article about the current state of things. It’s on the website. Everyone should have a read.

Oh and I find you to be racist. % of white players to black players on a basketball team is not why Toronto hasn’t been winning. You focusing on melanin count every time you comment or judge somebody makes you look like a bitter racist.

fact majority of superstars in the nba are black. i put the figure about 95% dirk and nash are the exceptions.
and btw do you think those white players ended up on the celtics by accident? they know their fan base just like i imply that toronto does

i said it in reference to the reason toronto fails. but you took it as a personal attack. and the past is the past but it influences everything that happens today. and dirk pau and nash would not compete for a title look at when they played on the mavs together. throw kevin love in there and that australian you still dont have a contender.

Nash is no longer a superstar. There are less than 15 of them. Superstars = Bron, Durant, Kobe, Rose, Wade, Dwight, Dirk, CP3, Melo, Deron, Amare, and Blake. I have a hard time calling Pau and Westbrook superstars but they can be considered

Yeah I have no idea why race matters this convo. Who do you consider superstars?