No progress made in the lockout meetings. Looking more and more like there will be no basketball.

http://www.nba.com/2011/n...ef:nbahpt1

I can't remember how Hard salary caps work for the league. Is it so that there is profit sharing and team parity?

Personally, I think it's possible that there are too many teams out there. Parity is non-existent when the talent is spread so thin. And somehow you get Miami Heats and Boston Celtics which are a collection of top draws. I just get tired of seeing individual stars having to carry an entire team.

Dauphin said:

I can't remember how Hard salary caps work for the league. Is it so that there is profit sharing and team parity?

Personally, I think it's possible that there are too many teams out there. Parity is non-existent when the talent is spread so thin. And somehow you get Miami Heats and Boston Celtics which are a collection of top draws. I just get tired of seeing individual stars having to carry an entire team.

There is a revenue sharing agreement with regard to the national TV packages with ESPN and TNT, but that's only a small amount of the total revenue for the league. And while there has been some mismanagement by the owners which the players aren't responsible for, ther are at least six franchises which are in serious financial trouble. Sacramento, Toronto, New Orleans, and Atlanta are all in bad shape; Sacramento due to being in a small media market and having a bad team for a long time as well as some financial mismanagement by the owners, Toronto for being a subpar team and in a hockey loving market, New Orleans because of the after effects of being displaced after Hurricane Katrina, and Atlanta for being a historically bad sports market for anything other than NFL football, college football, and college basketball. Most of the teams are just barely above water, but the revenues for the top teams (Boston Celtics, LA Lakers, NY Knicks, Miami Heat, Chicago Bulls) dwarf everybody else.

[Edited 9/14/11 10:04am]

I read somewhere that the NBA fined Michael Jordan for speaking out on something in regards to this...how can they fine him if he's retired from the NBA? Stupid question I guess but I'm just wondering.

[Edited 9/14/11 4:32am]

Dauphin said:

Personally, I think it's possible that there are too many teams out there. Parity is non-existent when the talent is spread so thin. And somehow you get Miami Heats and Boston Celtics which are a collection of top draws. I just get tired of seeing individual stars having to carry an entire team.

I agree with your first sentence. There are too many damn teams in the league, and I put that at the feet of David Stern, the most overrated commissioner in sports. I always felt there was no need to expand into Canada, but was that the league being greedy. Contracting 4-6 teams would be a big help.

As for your second point, the NBA has always been a star-driven league, always. You need at LEAST two or three franchise players(surrounded by quality role-players) to be a serious contender(the rare exception being the '04 Pistons). At one point, the Lakers had Wilt, West & Baylor. Both the Lakers and Celtics were loaded during the 80's. So I don't understand fans bitching about the Heat - what about Bird, Parrish, McHale or Magic, Kareem & Worthy? Miami's problem is their role players are shit. Dallas only has one legit superstar in Dirk, an aging star in Kidd, but their role players are head & shoulders above Miami's.

The NBA is in the opposite situation of the NFL. The NFL has a license to print money. They made $9 billion in a down economy. There was no need for a lockout - it was nothing but a money grab by a group of owners. The NBA has serious financial issues which 728huey stated. They have to get this shit straightened.

missfee said:

I read somewhere that the NBA fined Michael Jordan for speaking out on something in regards to this...how can they fine him if he's retired from the NBA? Stupid question I guess but I'm just wondering.

[Edited 9/14/11 4:32am]

He is the current owner of the Charlotte Bobcats. Owners and players are not allowed to speak on the lockout in public or private.

BigAudio said:

missfee said:

I read somewhere that the NBA fined Michael Jordan for speaking out on something in regards to this...how can they fine him if he's retired from the NBA? Stupid question I guess but I'm just wondering.

[Edited 9/14/11 4:32am]

He is the current owner of the Charlotte Bobcats. Owners and players are not allowed to speak on the lockout in public or private.

Damn that's right.

Glen Rice is back in the news for the first time since he won All-Star game MVP in 1997.

LittleBLUECorvette said:

Glen Rice is back in the news for the first time since he won All-Star game MVP in 1997.

Good for Glen Rice. I didn't know Sarah Palin had a taste for dark meat. Shit, I'd bang her now.

http://www.orlandosentine...7479.story

[Edited 9/14/11 18:28pm]

728huey said:

Dauphin said:

I can't remember how Hard salary caps work for the league. Is it so that there is profit sharing and team parity?

Personally, I think it's possible that there are too many teams out there. Parity is non-existent when the talent is spread so thin. And somehow you get Miami Heats and Boston Celtics which are a collection of top draws. I just get tired of seeing individual stars having to carry an entire team.

There is a revenue sharing agreement with regard to the national TV packages with ESPN and TNT, but that's only a small amount of the total revenue for the league. And while there has been some mismanagement by the owners which the players aren't responsible for, ther are at least six franchises which are in serious financial trouble. Sacramento, Toronto, New Orleans, and Atlanta are all in bad shape; Sacramento due to being in a small media market and having a bad team for a long time as well as some financial mismanagement by the owners, Toronto for being a subpar team and in a hockey loving market, New Orleans because of the after effects of being displaced after Hurricane Katrina, and Atlanta for being a historically bad sports market for anything other than NFL football, college football, and college basketball. Most of the teams are just barely above water, but the revenues for the top teams (Boston Celtics, LA Lakers, NY Knicks, Miami Heat, Chicago Bulls) dwarf everybody else.

[Edited 9/14/11 10:04am]

Agreed, but a few questions (for you and everyone):

1. The players want to retain the soft cap, right? Doesn't that basically incentivize the same overspending habits that are laid at the feet of the owners?

2. Isn't it in the players' best interest to keep the system and the number of teams where they are? The current system maximizes the number of roster spots for players. It allows for the bigger market teams to draw on their sources of additional revenue to exceed the cap, forcing smaller market teams to overspend money from top to bottom just to appear competitive.

3. Could a hard cap work without contracting? Or vice versa? Or will the Association need both to survive long-term?

I think the players sense an existential threat and they'll hold out as long as they can to protect what they've got.

What I'm hearing and reading over and over and over again is that if they owners insist on a hard salary cap there will not be any basketball this season. It will take AT LEAST that much of a stand to get the players to agree. Even if they can come to some kind of terms that DON'T involve a hard cap everyone seems to be in agreement that we will only get a shortened season this year.

Color me exasperated. I do believe these players are overestimating how much a lot of fans care about their millions of dollars. Am I really supposed to care if you can only make 8-10 million instead of 10-15 for playing BASKETBALL!? I don't. And this nonsense is actually about to get real annoying.