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Stealing the words of the greatest songwriters of modern time, the Backstreet Boys, I need to tell the NBA something: Quit playing games with my heart.
On two separate occasions, a growing sense of optimism was gained from meetings between the NBA owners and the NBA Players Association.
The original sense of hope came from meetings in early October, when it seemed as though both sides came to an agreement on the biggest issue: the split of basketball-related income, or BRI.
In the previous collective bargaining agreement, the players walked away with a staggering 57 percent of the BRI, a number too high to sustain a working system for the owners, which the NBAPA understood and dropped their share to 52 percent.
After the owners refused to budge from their demand for a 50-50 split, the talks broke down and the first two weeks of the season were cancelled.
The talks stalled until both sides agreed on inviting federal mediator George Cohen to help with the hearings. Cohen was vital in the resolution of the NFL lockout earlier this year.
After multiple marathon meetings, it appeared this week that a season could be salvaged in a condensed form. The two sides even went as far as staying in the same room for the post-meeting press conference early Friday morning after a 15-hour meeting, insisting that a deal could be completed by “tomorrow,” which would have been by the end of the day Friday.
But the end of the week came and went without a deal, and worse, without any further talks scheduled.
Now a loss of games is guaranteed. Under no circumstances will a full 82-game season be played, which will be the second straight lockout, the first coming in the 1998-99 season.
While the reasons for being pissed off continue to outnumber the issues both sides need to settle, here are a few of the latter that still baffle me:
Why do these meetings begin when the CBA expires? Shouldn’t there be constant conversation between both sides two, three years in advance? When dealing with hundreds of millions of dollars, meetings should begin not once the deal expires, but beforehand to prevent that exact situation.
Going along with that, it’s difficult to make decisions affecting the next six to 10 years without factoring in what the NBA landscape will look like in those years. While the audience for the NBA is growing, the attendance will stagnate as the in-home game experience continues to trump going to a game.
Unlike football, where eight home games each season can usually be budgeted by season ticket owners, finding time to go to 41 home NBA games is much more of a commitment. When given the choice, would you rather sit a quarter-mile from the court, paying $7 a beer, or sit in your comfortable recliner, watching a plethora of different games while consuming whatever vice you prefer in the sanctity of your own home?
Instead of figuring out a way to combat these growing problems, the owners are looking to the players to make up the difference.
With that said, the players don’t come out as saints in this scenario. A poorly cut financial pie means the average basketball player makes far too much — yes Travis Outlaw, I’m looking at you and your $35-million contract — while the stars of the league make far less than the money they bring in.
According to an article on Yahoo! Sports, Lakers owner Jerry Buss believes that Kobe Bryant could be worth up to $70 million a year for the Lakers, yet “only” gets paid $25 million a year.
While the BRI is still the steepest mountain to climb, the two sides are only two cents-per-dollar apart. Of course, when working with millions of dollars, those cents add up.
With the owners at an even split and the players at 52 percent of the BRI, the obvious step would be to split the difference: 51-49 for the players. While that’s $100 million less per year than the owners want to give up, the loss in the first month of the season will cost the league $350 million, and more cancellations are likely.
Bangor Daily News