NBA Owners Seeking Huge Salary Rollback

[Dirty]

Proposed CBA would limit LeBron deal


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By Ric Bucher
ESPN The Magazine
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The NBA will put its marquee players on display in next weekend's All-Star Game in Dallas, but the party-like atmosphere is sure to be chilled when the stars learn the details of the collective bargaining agreement offer presented at the end of January by commissioner David Stern to players' union director Billy Hunter.
The proposal, a source familiar with talks said, includes rollbacks that could reduce maximum guaranteed salaries, both for veterans such as Kobe Bryant and LeBron James, as well as up-and-comers like Kevin Durant and Derrick Rose, to almost a third of what they would have been eligible for under the current agreement.
[+] EnlargeAndrew D. Bernstein/Getty ImagesGuaranteed salaries in imminent new contracts for LeBron James and Kobe Bryant would be reduced under an owners proposal to almost a third of what they would have been eligible for currently.


Perhaps the biggest shocker: The owners' proposal includes a provision that would require any pre-existing deals to be revised to conform to the new deal's limits.
The current deal is set to expire as of July 1, 2011. The league's owners have the option to extend it one more year, but they've already made it clear they don't intend to.
"The league has to be careful," said one agent who requested anonymity. "If the top players are united against David, that's going to make for a tough fight. It could get very ugly."
Presenting a new proposal nearly 18 months in advance of the current deal's anticipated expiration is unprecedented, several sources said. Doing so right before All-Star Weekend also seems odd, particularly since Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, the weekend's host owner, has crowed about the event drawing a record 100,000 fans and a surrounding spectacle dwarfing that of the NFL's Super Bowl XLIV.
"It's the most dire economic time, so they want to take advantage of that and scare the players now," the agent said. "It is a negotiation. This is what you do."
The total value for a veteran maximum deal would be well under $60 million and for players currently on rookie salary-scale deals well under $50 million, the source familiar with the proposal said. Fully guaranteed maximum deals also could be a thing of the past, with the proposal allowing for less than half of any contract to be guaranteed.
The mid-level exception and other devices that allow teams over the salary cap to sign free agents also would be abolished, several sources said, effectively creating a hard cap.
Both the league and players association declined to comment on the source's details of the proposal, as did union president Derek Fisher. "David and Billy have decided not to comment until we get to All-Star Weekend and I'll fall in line with those two gentlemen," Fisher said Friday night.
Stern and Hunter are expected to address where negotiations stand on a new labor agreement sometime during the weekend.
Ric Bucher covers the NBA for ESPN The Magazine.




Source: NBA owners to seek big salary rollback - ESPN

[Old-Timer]

Abolish the NBA believe me in 6 months you won't even know there was such a thing.
Thugs in short pants, Players that hang out with Bookmakers (Not that there bad guys) and drug dealers in the off season. Carry guns, beat woman I could go on and on.

Now I know your going to say in happens in other sports also but not like the NBA and it's following. I witnessed it first hand at the all-star event and no it wasn't just a hand full of players.

The argument that they make to much money to shave or throw is BS when your still hanging with the boys from the hood you do what they say isn't that right AI

NBA

[Dirty]

You are way off on the NBA Old Timer.... the Game is a lot better now than it was a few years ago... it is almost as good now as it was in the 80's and early 90's

[Old-Timer]

I won't argue with you Dirty because I pretty much don't follow it anymore and I won't anytime soon it just leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

Anyway how you feeling? Better I hope.

[Dirty]

Still can't sit up more than 45 minutes or so and in the bed most of the time... pain is not getting much better but will hopefully soon.... Nurse has to come daily to check on me and the dress the hole in my stomach where the incision got infected.... that hurts like hell when she starts putting Gauze and shit in the 2" hole about 3" above my belly button... Back, butt and legs are itchy, sore and hurt all the time since I can only lay on my back... wish I could just stretch one time but can't.... Go to the Doctor in the AM so maybe something will change

[Old-Timer]

Lets hope and lets hope for a speedy recovery.

[Dirty]

Here here..... this is the worst shit I have ever been thru in my life.... wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy..... thanks for the well wishes buddy

[Dirty]

Stern: Cut expenses, but only the players'

Posted on: February 13, 2010 10:25 pm
Edited on: February 13, 2010 11:10 pm

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DALLAS – NBA players simply make too much money, commissioner David Stern said Saturday night, and salaries must be curtailed to keep the league afloat.

Citing $400 million in operating losses this season – and an average of $200 million annually in previous years of the current collective bargaining agreement – Stern issued a challenge to the players’ union to come back with a proposal that would develop “a sustainable business model.”

“At our current level of revenue devoted to players’ salaries, it's too high,” Stern said. “I can run from that, but I can't hide from that, and I don't think the players can, either.”

In a state-of-the-league address that was alternately witty and biting, Stern ridiculed union chief Billy Hunter’s assertion that the owners’ initial proposal was taken off the table during a contentious bargaining session Friday during All-Star weekend.

“I don't know what that means,” Stern said. “We are talking semantics, and everyone around here knows that I am not anti semantic.”

Ba-dump-bump.

“I don't know what to say,” Stern said. “If they don't like it, you know, that's what counters are about. Speak to me, that's all. Off the table, on the table, under the table; I don't even understand it. The answer is, it's for them to make a proposal.”

While Stern was in rare form on those topics, he artfully dodged three of the most important issues related to avoiding a lockout if the two sides can’t reach an agreement by June 30, 2011:

1) The 2010 free-agent class: Though Stern professed no urgency to reach agreement on a framework of a new economic system by July 1 of this year, the owners need cost-certainty by then in order to plan accordingly for spending on the biggest free-agent class in NBA history. Since the players like the current system, they’re in no hurry to speed up the process. So owners will have to risk committing max money to free agents this summer and having it come back to haunt them if the cap falls as far as the union predicts under the owners’ proposal – from $57.7 million to about $43 million.

2) Revenue Sharing: Stern said he’s committed to revamping the revenue-sharing model to help low-revenue teams compete. Despite saying it would be done “in lock step” with collective bargaining, Stern also said, “We can’t do it until we complete the negotiations.” Asked to explain why, Stern said, “We are going to do it all at once. It’s going to be when we have the new collective bargaining agreement.” According to internal NBA documents obtained by CBSSports.com, 12 teams averaged more than $1 million per game in ticket revenue during the 2008-09 season, with seven of those teams making the playoffs. Six teams made less than $600,000 per game, and only one – the Hawks – made the playoffs. “When we get to where we need to get to, there will be a very robust revenue sharing where teams will not be in a position to decline to compete because of money,” Stern said.

3) Other Ways to Reduce Expenses: While there have been cutbacks at the league office and on the team side, Stern admitted that his precious expansion to international markets has been a drag on the league’s financial picture. Stern referred to investments in such countries as India and China as having “not great margins.” But he refused to concede that reducing the league’s global efforts would be another way to rein in expenses. “We think that this will be a large payoff for future players that the present players are benefiting from because of investments that were made previously,” Stern said. But it seems to me that present players aren’t benefiting if the owners are asking them to accept less money while the league plans to open offices this year India, Africa, and the Middle East, with exhibition games planned for Mexico City, Barcelona, Paris, London, Beijing, Milan, and Guangzhou.

“Other expenses squeeze us,” Stern said, when pressed on the issue, “but player expenses are too high.”

Stern relished taking shots at what he described as the union’s “theatrics” during Friday’s negotiating session, though he later said, “I would have to plead guilty to participating a bit in such negotiations as well.” He accused union attorney Jeffrey Kessler, who also is handling CBA negotiations for the NFL, of “threatening us.” One such threat, Stern revealed after his news conference, was that the union would decertify and sue the NBA for anti-trust violations. Coincidentally, the league recognized during All-Star Saturday night festivities Spencer Haywood, the first player to challenge the NBA's eligibility requirements. Haywood's anti-trust lawsuit against the NBA went to the Supreme Court in 1971, and Haywood won the right to join the league although he didn't complete four years of college.

For the second straight day, a story published by CBSSports.com was raised in a news conference on the subject of labor talks. According to sources, Stern was referring to a Jan. 29 story in which a team executive ridiculed LeBron James and Dwyane Wade, saying James could “play football” and Wade could “be a fashion model” if they didn’t like the drastically reduced maximum contracts owners were proposing. Other news outlets published similar swipes, including Yahoo! Sports, which quoted an anonymous team executive who characterized the owners’ proposal as “a photocopy of Stern’s middle finger.”

Stern said he was “offended” by the comments, calling them “cowardly,” and he apologized to players’ negotiating committee and the 10 All-Stars who were so enraged by the stories that they showed up at the bargaining session Friday.

“Some of our so called team executives have been quoted – as you might expect anonymously – in the media, and saying disparaging things about our players,” Stern said. “If you know me, and you know our owners, that’s not what we do. That’s not us. And the players were upset with those quotes, which I find cowardly, if they were actually said. And if I ever found out who said them, they would be dealt with; they would be former, former NBA people, not current. And we assured the stars of that.”

Stern: Cut expenses, but only the players' - CBSSports.com