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Lockout!!!

margodydek said:
I haven't seen it brought up, which may be because it's common knowledge, but I would guess that the owners' biggest fear right now is that power/ability to build a team has actually swung to the players - a phenomenon no one could foresee even 5-6 yrs ago. I think somebody who's actually intellegent could build a case that we're in this predicament because of Danny Ainge. My guess is things started to swing w/ the Celtics in 2007. When players saw how quickly that team became successful they started thinking about teaming up. Couple the Celtics together with the fact that Stern has turned this league into a bunch of guys who you're more likely to see demonstrating "public displays of affection" than get into a fight and you get trickle down effect of Miami, Melo, DWill and soon to be CP3 & Mr. Schrute.

I think it's fairly simple. What owner (of any business) wants very little, to no power, over his most prized assets/products/employees? I wouldn't want to be shoveling out hundreds of millions of dollars trying to build something that within a day can come crashing down because one guy wants to party in South Beach. I know Dan Gilbert is doing just fine in Lebron's absence, but his team literally went from the best record in the league to the worst.

There's obviously a lot of layers to this onion and Lebron's not the sole reason the Cavs imploded, but Gilbert essentially started making desperate decisions to try to ensure Lebron would stay, and when he didn't....KABOOM!

I don't know if the owner's proposed taxes would solve the issue, but I guarantee their biggest fear isn't profits, rather the fact that players currently have the ability to collude and essentially buid their own teams.
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This is the tricky part. The players ability to collude could destroy the league. We have a World Series sometime around now (or is it over already) and nobody cares. I don't know who is in it, or anything, and I am a really, really big baseball fan. I watched 160 out of 162 Phillies games. That is why I am 100% behind the owners, as long as they are fixing this. I don't mind a lockout, as long as competitive balance is found. If I sit through the lockout and they do nothing to change the LeBron's, Deron's, etc ability to make a ton of money then screw a small market team, then I will be pissed.
 
green said:
This is the tricky part. The players ability to collude could destroy the league. We have a World Series sometime around now (or is it over already) and nobody cares. I don't know who is in it, or anything, and I am a really, really big baseball fan. I watched 160 out of 162 Phillies games. That is why I am 100% behind the owners, as long as they are fixing this. I don't mind a lockout, as long as competitive balance is found. If I sit through the lockout and they do nothing to change the LeBron's, Deron's, etc ability to make a ton of money then screw a small market team, then I will be pissed.
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when was the golden era of competitive balance when you a basketball and baseball fan?
 
margodydek said:
As far as this CBA goes I'm probably 65 - owners, 35 - players, but as far Lebron and The Decision goes, I probably would have done the same thing but handled it totally different. The owners aren't going to be able to completely restrict players from wanting to play for certain teams or in certain cities, so it should be interesting to see how they try and restrict it.
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Maximum contract length of 3 years if it's with a new team, 5 years if you stay with your current team? Major players who are in their prime would REALLY have to want to leave 2 years of guaranteed $ on the table.
 
I think its contraction time. Stern has to be the bad guy here and make some tough decisions. There are basically bankrupt companies here, and no money to bail them out. First to go is Charlotte, followed by Sactown.
 
Sirkickyass said:
Thank you for explicitly acknowledging that "hopper" is a coded race word. I will remember this in the future.
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....black is synonymous with hip-hop pretty much, right? Although hip-hop has crossed racial and cultural boundaries, in the context of the NBA both are interchangeable to a large degree. I was merely responding to the point/suggestion that BabyPet made that this has some racial overtones to it. I understand that Bryon Gumbel has said the same thing about Stern treating the NBA players as if he were a Plantation owner and they are the slaves! Be that as it may, "hopper" ball can be played by both white and black players at any given time!
 
Jazz4ever said:
I think its contraction time. Stern has to be the bad guy here and make some tough decisions. There are basically bankrupt companies here, and no money to bail them out. First to go is Charlotte, followed by Sactown.
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New Orleans?
 
BabyPeterzz said:
There is an underlying race issue surrounding this lockout that few here care to admit. Yes, the players may not be handling this situation very well, but their concerns over treatment by the league and owners can't be ignored.
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BS. I was all for the players during the NFL lockout, and the NFL is 65% black. NFL players have been getting the short end of the stick for ages, and their franchises made all sorts of money and their franchise owners who claimed they were losing money were too big of pusses to open their books.

In the NBA it's different. The players had a great deal and the franchises have opened their books and have shown they are losing money. Huge difference. Plus as far as I can tell they are offering a pretty fair deal given the circumstances. It's possibly they really aren't, but the NBAPA may be the worst organization in the history of earth in terms of getting their message across.
 
Here is what is causing the flawed thinking with regards to people/players etc. who say that they are 'slaves' in there respective professional sport: They believe that because there are rules set by the league that might involve their appearance, their conduct on the field, conduct off of the field and that there are penalties if the rules are violated, that means they are being treated unfairly. The fact is that almost everyone that has a job, unless you are self-employed, is forced to work under a set of rules set by someone else and will get in trouble if you break the rules. It does not mean that you are a 'slave' because you can't do whatever you want without consequences. When you are an employee, you don't make the rules, the employer does and if you don't like it then you don't have to work for them.
 
the league is not losing money. stop it. it defies all logic. everyone admits that revenue is at a record-high. everyone admits that player salaries as a portion of that revenue has held constant over the last 11 years. What are the expenses that are rising so dramatically that the league is losing money? And why are franchise values appreciating at a healthy rate of return if the league has been losing money so consistently.

the league has not opened up its sales prospectuses not even for player inspection let alone for public consumption. the league is NOT losing money. they claim to have lost money for 11 straight years without having done anything about it? that defies belief. how did they stay open? how did they prop up a franchise in new orleans? how did they run the WNBA?????

in what other business do you become less profitable as you get more revenue?
 
I never claimed the league was losing money. I claimed that franchises were, and I did not to intend to claim that all franchises were, but if it looks like that then I will make that clarification.
 
ok well in that case...a losing team in a place like milwaukee or sacremento will never make money...those markets just aren't big enough. i'm not sure that lowering players takes to the break even level of the worst franchises is the best way to address this problem.


also, the league is claiming that the league as a whole has lost money for 11 straight years. which cannnot possibly be true.
 
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