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Union and NBA say lockout realistic
By David Zizmor May 24, 2005 |
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One of the biggest problems NBA owners have right now is being saddled by their own ability to outspend everyone else. They have a penchant for offering new contracts for players for the long-term, then whining about it when the players accept the contract and stay with them for lots of money in the long term. You get what you pay for, but what the owners want to do and what the union objects to is they want to cap the number of years or further cap the number years that the players can sign for. Currently, the maximum number of years a player can sign a contract is seven, and there is an escalating salary structure where the elite players can make a little bit more per year. What the owners are looking for is reducing that to maybe a five-year maximum. The way the market went three and four years ago, owners thought money was falling from the sky, so they spent a lot of money on these players. Now they realize the players aren't as good as they thought and they still have these contracts. Can the owners reduce the amount of contract years to five and sign for $84 million, for example? They can do that, but the owners want their cake and they want to eat it, too. They don't want seven years and $84 million, they want five years and $60 million. It amounts to the same hit in the pocketbook. I don't imagine they're going to fall all over themselves to ratify that particular deal and the union has every right to stand tall here. I would be surprised if the NBA would go into a lockout situation like they did seven years ago just because you would hope they learned their lesson from the last time. David Zizmor does features and co-hosts Sportstalk on 1430 KVVN San Jose and 1110 KLIB Sacramento. |
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