The NBA season is in jeopardy
The NBA lockout has lasted 130 days so far and there is no sign of it letting up. ( Alyssa Hunter/Lariat)
The NBA lockout has lasted 130 days so far and there is no sign of it letting up. The players and owners have still not agreed to terms, and they are not close to an agreement.
The most recent proposition made by the owners was a 50/50 revenue deal. The owners believed that the money made from the NBA season should be split equally between them and the players, officials said.
All of the players in the NBA, including Saddleback alumnus Anthony Carter, are against that proposition and think that they should make 52 percent to 53 percent of the revenue.
The NBA made $3.4 billion last year and they are at a stalemate between $240 million. These owners and players make so much money and they are still arguing over an amount of money that isn’t that significant.
They are going to lose more than $240 million by not having a season anyway. That amount of money could go to Africa or another country in need.
One of the bigger issues is that the owners think that every single team should be able to compete for a championship.
The extra money for the owners can help their teams in trying to acquire franchise players. Ever since Lebron James and Chris Bosh went to the Miami Heat and Amare Stoudamire and Carmelo Anthony went to the New York Knicks, the smaller market teams don’t stand a chance at beating these teams.
From that standpoint, I understand where the owners are coming from, but these big market super teams is good for the sport. It raises ratings. The NBA season had more viewers last year than any other year in its sixty-five year history. Last year was when all these superstars went to the big market teams.
Another thing that the players are against is a hard salary cap which doesn’t allow a team to spend above the cap.
In a soft cap, if a team has a salary cap of thirty-six million, they can sign whoever they want with that money.
They also get a Mid Level Exception.
This is a one year deal for roughly $5 million. They also get numerous veteran minimums. These are one year, roughly $1 to $1.5 million deals.
The hard cap wouldn’t have any of these features, it would just have the $36 million cap. The players are outraged, and believe that a championship team can’t be built with a hard cap.
The most important thing is the fans. The committee needs to come up with a solution as soon as possible so basketball fans can be happy again.