With a little more than a week remaining before the current CBA expires and the owners (likely) lockout the players, the time is now for the players and owners to hammer out a compromise that will allow the league to continue the momentum it has built over the past year. The NBA has never been more exciting than it is now, with rising stars (Derrick Rose, Kevin Durant) emerging in the playoffs, established stars (Dwyane Wade, LeBron James, and Chris Bosh) teaming up and becoming one of the most villified (yet profitable) teams in league history, and superstars on the downside of their careers (Kobe Bryant, Dirk Nowitzki) reminding everyone that they're not done just yet.
Unfortunately, the owners and players remain far apart as the negotiations enter the final week. One of the main issues being debated is whether the new CBA should include the implementation of a "hard" salary cap- a set dollar amount which each team's payroll would not be allowed to exceed under any circumstances. Under the current CBA, agreed to after the 2004-05 season, teams are allowed to utilize a number of loopholes (namely the "Larry Bird" exception and the Midlevel exception) which allow their payrolls to exceed the salary cap ($58.3 million this past season). The Lakers are one team who took full advantage of the "soft" cap, with their payroll reaching $90 million this past year.
A hard cap would keep the big-market teams' payrolls a lot lower, and ideally give small-market teams (think Indiana and Milwaukee) a better chance to compete with deep-pocketed teams like the Lakers and Heat. The big-market owners don't seem totally opposed to the idea of a hard cap either, as such a change would put a huge dent in the salaries of players and result in a bigger percentage of profits going to the owners.
As you can easily surmise, the players are 100% against any type of hard cap. The inevitable result of such a cap is a substantial decrease in the amount of money going into players' wallets. Many NBA veterans have made their millions in the league due to the player-friendly Mid-level exception, which is equal to the average NBA salary ($5.765 million last season). Its disappearance would mean far less money for the meat-and-potatoes players who comprise a majority of NBA rosters. Or would it?
A less-talked-about scenario which could play out if a hard cap is implemented is a mass exodus of NBA players to European leagues (don't laugh). In past years, players like Josh Childress, Carlos Delfino, and Juan Carlos Navarro opted to play overseas over guaranteed spots on NBA rosters. And this was when the MLE was still available. High-level European teams are known to pay handsomely, and throw in perks not available in most NBA contracts (no taxes, paid-for living expenses, transportation, etc.) If the MLE is abolished (and NBA salaries, as a result, are slashed), many established NBA players will opt for a cushy job playing in Spain or Greece for three or four times as much as they will be offered by NBA teams. In a recent ESPN magazine, an unnamed NBA star stated that a lockout would be all the incentive needed to convince a slew of NBA players to head for "greener" pastures and never come back
Make no mistake: this would be extremely bad news for the owners. The focus throughout the labor dispute has been on revenue sharing, and how the big-market owners need to share the wealth with money-bleeding small-market teams in order to keep the league, as a whole, viable. Overlooked, however, has been the fact that if player salaries are cut to the point that much of the workforce (i.e. players) seeks employment with another league, the quality of play in The Association will suffer. A watered-down product is no way to increase revenues, and if "Player X" is serious about heading overseas and never coming back, the damage could be irreparable. Everything from attendance (and, consequently, revenues from parking and concessions) to national tv revenues would decrease, and the owners would be stuck dealing with many of the same financial problems down the road that they are currently trying to remedy.
In the upcoming week, NBA fans are going to hear a lot about how revenue sharing (among teams) and a hard cap will keep small-market teams competitive. For the sake of the league, let's hope that in their quest for parity, the powers-that-be don't accidentally diminish the quality that has the NBA at the peak of its popularity.
No comments:
Post a Comment