NBPA Has No Clue

The NBPA has decided to reject the NBA owner's proposal for a 50-50 split in basketball related revenue.  They claim that the owners haven't dealt with them in good faith and that handing them an ultimatum this late in negotiations was arrogant and wrong.  It was an arrogant move, but it wasn't wrong and it wasn't done in bad faith.  The NBPA is just clueless to what leverage they have and the public perception of what is going on.

The NBA is currently in a lockout because the players have to much power and the owners, in some areas, aren't making money.  The smaller market teams have been struggling through the last few seasons and even the large market teams haven't had it easy.  The league was in danger of loosing teams because they just weren't profitable.  Some will say that it is the teams fault for not being good and not getting better over time.  I would normally agree with this assessment, but there is a reason the small market teams don't get any better and the reason is the players.

For the last few years we have seen small market teams be held hostage by their star players.  Lebron James did it in Cleveland, Chris Bosh did it to Toronto, Carmello Anthony did it right here in Denver.  These "stars" of the NBA will play for a team until they find a better situation and normally that situation has nothing to do with winning.  Most of the time it is a money grab.  Mello wanted to be in New York and did all he could to get there so that he could build his brand and make more money.  He would only sign his extension in Denver if he was traded to New York.  Why does he have a say?  He hasn't won anything and he is one of the worst team players I've ever seen.  Mello is a one on one guy and his shooting percentage isn't good enough to warrant this kind of star treatment.  Other players pull the same stunts so that they have to be traded and the teams that trade them never get the same talent in return so they are doomed to try and rebuild again.

The system is broken and the owners desperately want to fix it.  They want to establish a hard cap so that the big market teams can't get away with buying most of the great talent.  In this deal, however, the owners gave the players the soft cap that they wanted.  They did this in spite of themselves in order to get a season underway and to keep the momentum going from last years great season.  The players didn't think that was enough, they are stuck on the revenue split and it is understandable why that would be.  The last agreement gave them 57% of the basketball related revenue.  This agreement would give them 7% less of that pie, but the pie is bigger and it was growing so I'm not sure what the real value lost there would be.  I do know that the owners are emphatic that the deal before was bankrupting some of the franchises and that isn't good for anyone. 

The players are calling the last proposal from the league as an ultimatum and I don't agree with that assessment.  This deal has been in the works now for months and the owners have never gotten off the fact that the deal needs to be 50-50 and, in fact, many of the owners want it to be lower.  The NBA was tired of waiting for the players to come around and realize that the circumstances weren't going to change so they simply set an expiration date on this current offer and were willing to tweak certain areas of the deal in order to get a deal done.  They then let the players know what the next offer would look like if this deal was rejected.  An ultimatum would be take this or the season is over.  Letting the other side know where talks will go isn't an ultimatum. 

The NBPA is clueless in this situation and following bad advise.  The NFLPA filed an antitrust lawsuit this last summer and lost when they had a legitimate argument that they had no other place to play and make a living playing ball.  The NBA has no such argument thanks to the fact that many of them already have contracts to play overseas.  How can you argue that you can't make a living playing basketball elsewhere when earlier in negotiations it seemed like you were promoting the fact that you didn't need the NBA to make money.  Do you get how stupid that makes you look?  You're a joke and the worst part is that you haven't realized it yet.

The NBA is full of stupid, overpaid clowns.  You play a game for a living and you just wasted a full years paycheck so that you can get more money.  That doesn't endear you with fans and, in actuality, it kind of makes us mad.  We are the ones paying your salary with our loyalty to the NBA and to our teams.  You have routinely spit in the face of the small market teams and now you are throwing away money because your millions aren't enough.  I live check to check and with the current state of the economy you are making it harder for people like me to make a living.  I don't want to hear that not everyone makes the large money that Kobe and Mello make.  You all make more than you deserve and until you realize that the fans won't be on your side.  It's not like the NBA is the NFL and you're fighting for better health care for when you retire.  You want bigger, longer contracts and the ability to dictate where you play instead of being grateful for the fact you are being paid to play a game most of us have to pay to play.  Just a bunch of stupid clowns.