In the NBA lockout, millionaire players trump billionaire owners
I'm just sayin': The owners won't like Kevin Garnett when he's angry. (AJC file photo)
The NBA saved itself as a business by forming a partnership with its players and as a sporting entity by promoting those players to the absolute max. Today the league has locked out its players, and this might be the one time when millionaire players can outlast billionaire owners. Because NBA players know, in a way that other professional athletes never have or will, that the power lies with them.
There was a time when we thought of the NBA and thought of teams. (Mostly the Celtics and Lakers and Knicks, but teams still.) That time, however, was before most of today’s players were born. They — and we — know the contemporary NBA as that exalted realm where the best players aren’t known just by name but by first names, and sometimes by initials.
The NBA nearly collapsed in the late ’70s and the early ’80s. Pro basketball had become such a ratings loser that NBA finals games were being taped for late-night airing. Franchises were hemorrhaging money. Only in 1983, when the league imposed a salary cap while promising its players more than half of basketball-related income would be plowed back into salaries, did the NBA stabilize, and then it got lucky. Magic Johnson and Larry Bird were already in the league, and Michael Jordan was about to arrive.
The league began to market its players — Magic vs. Bird! Michael vs. Isiah/Barkley/The Mailman!– and the NBA became not just popular and profitable, but immensely glamorous. Even now, nearly 30 years later, the league employs the same formula, which is why you’ll rarely see the Milwaukee Bucks on a national broadcast but you’ll get a twice-weekly dose of the Miami Heat. We can argue at length about whether this tactic has passed its expiration date, but we cannot argue this: The players have caught on, and they know nobody ever tunes in to watch Jerry Buss own.
Because the NBA has had a soft cap around which the bigger clubs could tap-dance, teams have overspent. (The NFL, by way of contrast, has a hard cap, and nobody overspends.) The NBA claims that more than two-thirds of its teams are losing money — the players, naturally, dispute this — and wants the players, who have been receiving 57 percent of income, to take 50 percent instead.
The players have countered by saying they’ll take 53 percent but not a penny less, and that’s where matters stands. The NBA has canceled training camp and the first two weeks of the regular season, and the New York Daily News reported this week that the league was prepared to cancel games through the end of November. Usually such delays work in the favor of those with the most money, but the players’ stance seems only to have hardened.
Why? Because its big names have gotten involved. Henry Abbott of ESPN’s True Hoop blog pinpoints Oct. 4 as “the moment the talks fell apart.” Included in that watershed session, Abbott notes, were Kobe Bryant, Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce — “three superstars who had been to very few of the meetings.” Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports claims Garnett’s presence was particularly significant, writing that the “glowering” KG was “defiant, determined and ornery.”
In sum, the truculent Garnett showed up to “negotiate” the same way he would stalk out to play a game of basketball. Should the same NBA that has marketed and profited from such KG antics the past 15 seasons have been surprised?
Don’t think that NBA superstars don’t carry outsize weight. This isn’t the NFL, where the few stars are outweighed by a thousand players you wouldn’t know if they knocked on your door. This is the league that has spent decades promoting the individual over the whole, and the individuals are acting as a whole.
The players aren’t being paid during the lockout, but the average NBA salary was $5.15 million last season. (That’s roughly the average salary of an MLB player and an NFL player combined.) These guys can afford to miss a few checks, and they seem wedded to their convictions. They’re the biggest part of the game, and they want the bigger share of money. If they can’t have it, their big names would rather play overseas or stage an exhibition tour. Can’t blame them one bit.
By Mark Bradley
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109 comments Add your comment
Kem
October 26th, 2011
5:28 pm
@Hillbilly…. At least you are honest…..racist, but honest. College B’ball a better product than NBA? in today’s game unless there are two top ranked teams are playing, it’s not even interesting until conference tournament time. The majority of you complaining about the players would do the same thing if you were in their position.
MitchC
October 26th, 2011
5:28 pm
Mark, I dont follow the NBA or the Hawks as much as I do MLB or the Braves, but I’m sorry, my friend. I dont agree with your viewpoint.
After this “lockout” ends, however long it is.. fans should boycott the NBA.
While the 1994-1995 baseball strike took place in a “recovering” economy, and it took time to get the fans back, there was not as much widespread suffering, or unemployment, then as there is now. Do you really think the average fan who is worried about how he is going to pay his mortgage, or pay for his kids food, is going to give a darn about a bunch of rich guys fighting over money?
Simply put, the legal system, somehow, should force the rich spoiled brat owners and players to settle this for the fans sake.
I might be wrong, but whenever this is settled, this year.. or next.. it wouldnt surprise me to see the NBA television ratings, attendance, and merchandising take a big hit. Both owners and players would deserve it.
Hillbilly
October 26th, 2011
5:29 pm
durtydog – I eat lizards like you for breakfast – c’mon – bring it on, Leroy!
Bob
October 26th, 2011
5:30 pm
Who cares? In a couple of missed seasons, all the NBA stars will be BK, while the owners will still be flush. And, the game needs to get back to “team” skills rather than “individual” highlights. Then, maybe the NBA can be saved.
Hillbilly
October 26th, 2011
5:32 pm
Bob – some people do care – and we really don’t care if you don’t care.
Rudow70
October 26th, 2011
5:33 pm
I lived in Atlanta back in the early to mid-70s and NEVER went to a Hawks game. Flames, yes, Hawks, no. To me the NBA is completely dominated by a bunch of selfish, egotistical clowns. Give me college basketball anyday, especially the ACC variety. The NBA could die a quick death. No tears at all from me.
Hillbilly
October 26th, 2011
5:33 pm
I’ts funny how the ones that “don’t care” about the NBA still take the time to read the article and comment about it.
Hillbilly
October 26th, 2011
5:35 pm
“Give me college basketball anyday, especially the ACC variety.”
Yikes – talk about boring!
Hillbilly
October 26th, 2011
5:37 pm
“The NBA could die a quick death. No tears at all from me.”
I bet those college players you love to watch will be thrilled if the NBA folds. All of their career dreams – out the window.
Bob
October 26th, 2011
5:42 pm
Thanks Hillbilly…bet you watch WWF and Roller Derby, too.
nique
October 26th, 2011
5:44 pm
SOME of the players can afford to miss paychecks, but as we’ve seen from past players like Antoine Walker, Latrell Spreewell, etc. there are plenty of guys with HUGE contracts that can’t afford to miss too many paychecks.
Speaking as a luke warm NBA fan, the NBA really only gets interesting in the playoffs anyway – i.e., when the majority of the players actually try – so who cares if they cancel reg. season games?!
Feel bad though for all the working-class folks who depend on the NBA season for their paychecks though.
Reg
October 26th, 2011
5:45 pm
Yeah!!!! And when both sides of these spoil brats are done, first, don’t forget about these five figure salary school teachers who have more brains and have helped both sides get to where they are! I love basketball, and as a coach of little league basketball, but damn both sides!
Hillbilly
October 26th, 2011
5:45 pm
Don’t forget Nascar and Rodeo, Bob. Now, that’s excitement!
GwinnettDad
October 26th, 2011
5:50 pm
@Reg, yes, I agree. Damn both sides! But I’m not watching anyway, and the NBA won’t get one dime from me.
jayone
October 26th, 2011
5:54 pm
One thing i think we all are forgetting. This is about giving up a certain percentage of income. This 50-50 split sound go but it still doesn’t explain how an NBA team in a poor market is going to make up the money that an LA, Miami, Boston team makes during the season. You still have to pay your players. So the Bucks would get a lesser portion than say the Lakers? They already get that. This money only goes back into the owners pocket not to make the team a better marketed team. It will not bring a star player to that team to market to get people back in to the stadium to watch the game.
Hillbilly
October 26th, 2011
5:55 pm
GwinnettDad – why do you call the NBA players greedy? The are entertainers – look at all the money they generate. Players in all professional sports have gone on strike one time or another – I guess it’s safe to say ALL professional athletes are greedy, correct?
GwinnettDad
October 26th, 2011
5:57 pm
What is a slam dunk competition anyway? Like watching golfers sink 1 foot putts. Or a hockey player shooting at a goal without a goalie from 5 feet. Or a QB throwing a TD pass from the 5 yard line without any defenders. And this is a competition that’s featured in a NBA All Star competition? It’s boring. As if all that mattered was attitude! The entire concept of the game is mediocre and uninteresting.
Hillbilly
October 26th, 2011
5:58 pm
GwinnettDad – you can’t tell me you don’t watch and keep track of your “favorite” college players when they move on to the NBA – I know better.
tiger woo
October 26th, 2011
6:03 pm
GwinnettDad – quit picking on the NBA.
College Basketball also has Slam Dunk competions.
NFL has a Skills Challenge.
NHL has a Skills Challenge.
MLB has the Home Run Derby.
Business Man
October 26th, 2011
6:05 pm
I can’t wait to hear the news that the season has been lost. They are all just a bunch of thugs.
Hillbilly
October 26th, 2011
6:06 pm
Thanks Business Man – good to have another racist chime in!
Mojo
October 26th, 2011
6:08 pm
The NBA needs to be renamed to TBA; Thug Ball Association. Let it fold, let all the idiot players go over seas and play for the guido league in Italy. Start a new NBA here in the states, one that promotes team over individual. There’ll be plenty of college players lining up to play in it. Oh yeah, and you can’t play or work in it in any capacity if you ever played in the NBA. Salaries would be capped at 1 million / year(who needs more than that to live on anyway?), ticket prices would be capped at a reasonable price where families could go to a game and still be able to buy food when they go home. Call it a “market correction”; kinda what the rest of us have been through in business and the stock market over the past few years.
Hillbilly
October 26th, 2011
6:11 pm
Whatever Mojo – such nonsense – the best team usually wins – not the team with the best player (see LeBron – see Michael Jordan before he got help) – but you don’t watch anyway – what do you know?
athdog
October 26th, 2011
6:35 pm
No One Cares
Hillbilly
October 26th, 2011
6:36 pm
Someone Cares
Your FaceBook Friend
October 26th, 2011
6:51 pm
Screw the Atlanta Spirit
Paul in NH
October 26th, 2011
6:58 pm
There certainly seem to be plenty of posts from people who don’t understand NBA basketball.
Let me quote from a college guy:
“NBA basketball is the highest level in the world”.
http://www.slamonline.com/online/nba/2011/10/mike-krzyzewski-worried-about-2012-olympic-basketball-team/
Now here is a socialist....
October 26th, 2011
7:04 pm
Mojo
October 26th, 2011
6:08 pm
…
Start a new NBA here in the states, one that promotes team over individual. There’ll be plenty of college players lining up to play in it. Oh yeah, and you can’t play or work in it in any capacity if you ever played in the NBA. Salaries would be capped at 1 million / year(who needs more than that to live on anyway?), ticket prices would be capped at a reasonable price where families could go to a game and still be able to buy food when they go home
———–
This economic model has been employed in a number of countries – Cuba, Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, etc. etc.
Najeh Davenpoop
October 26th, 2011
7:10 pm
In related news…
DAMN
Rod from College Park
October 26th, 2011
7:10 pm
So I guess most people without melanin assume that a black man with more than one tatoo is a thug. Times really have not changed much at all. LOL
Delbert D.
October 26th, 2011
7:11 pm
Professional wrestling is performed at a much higher intellectual level than NBA. I lost interest when they stopped calling “palming” and started wearing culottes.
MetroATL
October 26th, 2011
7:13 pm
I think it’s funny how some will call pro athletes greedy and thugs. These same people will then turn around and support politicians that lie, cheat and steal from hard working American citizens. Athletes are just entertainers. The real “thugs” are in Washington, accepting monetary bribes to control legislation that adversely the middle-class and poor.
moboman
October 26th, 2011
7:25 pm
I dont deny any skilled athlete the right to earn a good living. The issue here is that the current system doesnt provide a level playing field for all teams. It is ruining the game, and has to be fixed. Salaries are out of control because there is no hard cap that all the teams must abide by in order to have fair competition. Last years Heat spectacle could never have happened if the league structure were fair to all teams. The owners MUST stand firm until this is corrected. If they have to sit a year or even two, so be it.
blazerdawg
October 26th, 2011
7:55 pm
I miss the Omni.
Great bar on the mezz level by the big glass corner where you could watch the sun go down over MBC. Cool organ lady who wore a red blazer and knew the crowd. Seats in the lower level were close. Pizza was good. Concourse was narrow and real drafty. Acoustics were terrible for concerts, but awesome for basketball and that other sport. Hawks games in the 70s (Drew, Chris, Rollins, and Brown) and 80s (Nique, Doc, Willis, and Fratetlo) were a blast. That other team was alot of fun too – crowds were great.
The NBA has changed for sure, but sports fans have as well.
Jerome
October 26th, 2011
7:56 pm
The NBA is modern slavery, with rich white owners running the league like a plantation, trying to keep the players down. I’m tired of this—the government should step in and order the owners to pay the players what they want, or break up the league.
Najeh Davenpoop
October 26th, 2011
8:05 pm
“The issue here is that the current system doesnt provide a level playing field for all teams. ”
The only way the NBA will have a level playing field is if the number of teams is decreased to be more in line with the number of superstars. Six teams need to be contracted. The talent pool is too thin to support a 30-team league, and as long as basketball remains a height-dependent sport it will remain that way.
zorba
October 26th, 2011
8:30 pm
There are employers and employees. And the employees want 53%! Average salary $5 plus million. Bring on the scabs, lower ticket prices and let the greedy players go to Europe or where ever they want to try and get their 53%.
Barry
October 26th, 2011
8:31 pm
I love the NBA and the Hawks. But, other than for the team and arena employees who may lose their jobs, I think it would be a good thing for sports if the whole season is cancelled. The whole paradigm of sports needs to change. Who can afford to go to games anymore? Sports is going to collapse at some point. You can’t have this bad of an economy and expect salaries and prices to continue to go up. It’s a house of cards. A cancelled season might be a first taste of reality. We’ll survive without the NBA, for as long as it takes to get things in order.
doc
October 26th, 2011
8:43 pm
mark, what irks me is the owners are trying to spin this is to the fan as an effort to get competitive balance in the league. that is all the while they trip over their own feet trying to hammer out an agreement within themselves of a profit sharing plan. what they want is the players to take all the heat finacially and in the court of public opinion and try to side step that they are the ones with the problem of first not being able to work together to make sure there is a balanced competitve field financially among themselves, then to take that to the players.
the players know they are not for competitive balance and only want to take money from them to lift their coffers. they still wont ope their books to scrutiny because it would be the last fatal step and bring on cries from the fans that really foot the bill to realize how they are being duped and bilked not by the players but the owners.
UGA75
October 26th, 2011
8:49 pm
Mark: I sincerely believe that if the whole NBA Season were canceled that most people wouldn’t notice. The NBA game is such that most fans I know all agree that all you have to watch is the last two minutes of a game if you care at all. I personally wouldn’t attend an NBA game if I were given floor season tickets, I will go to Georgia Tech or Georgia to see College hoops though. You are correct the players are the product, the problem is the product sucks from an entertainment point of view. JMHO, of course.
Skeezix
October 26th, 2011
8:50 pm
Don’t agree Mark. I think the owners hold the better hand here. If they are willing to shut down for the entire season, I believe they’ll get most of what they want.
Skeezix
October 26th, 2011
9:03 pm
I wonder what % of the population even cares about what whether there will be an NBA season this year? I’m sure devoted NBA fans are upset-especially teams with a long storied history like the Lakers, Celtics, etc. I don’t hear a lot of folks fretting about games being cancelled. From where I live, the closest pro team is the Bobcats–even in Charlotte, they don’t have a strong a fan base. Now if they were talking about cancelling the ACC season, people around these parts would be protesting in the streets.
Walton
October 26th, 2011
9:16 pm
Sorry Mark, but I beg to differ………I lost interest in the NBA years ago, and from what I’ve heard and read, so have MOST of the folks in this country. This could be the end of the league…and if it is….for the most part, no one will care……….they screwed that proverbial “Golden Goose” themselves
beone
October 26th, 2011
9:24 pm
Mark, It is lunacy to believe that a league in which the majority of teams lose money annually will survive. The players are wrong on this one and if you side with them, so are you.
Hillbilly
October 26th, 2011
9:42 pm
“This could be the end of the league…and if it is….for the most part, no one will care……….”
The NBA isn’t going anywhere . . .
A lot of people are still interested in the NBA – just like the last strike or strikes in any pro league – eventually the fans will come back.
I still don’t understand why people on here who claim to have no interest in the NBA still take the time to read the article and respond. You have been exposed!
duronimo
October 26th, 2011
9:42 pm
The problem with the NBA is that virtually the only real basketball played is in the playoffs.
Walton
October 26th, 2011
9:54 pm
You have been exposed!
@Hillbilly…………Understand this……………I’m someone who loves sports! That’s why I read Bradleys articles and respond with my opinion….yeah, exposed as a FAN……….a very dissapointed fan with the way the NBA has turned out…….I”ve already stated that I gave up on the NBA years ago, but I always hoped things would turn around…………unfortunately, things have gotten worse. I’ll watch the occasional College game , but for ME…I’m DONE with the NBA in particular and pretty much basketball altogether…………it’s no longer a game but some kind of warped exibition..Hopefully brother, you now understand
GwinnettDad
October 26th, 2011
10:33 pm
Jerome above calls a fellow earning 5 million a slave. If that what passes for an NBA fan, that’s all the more reason to stop the brain damage that is apparently caused by the NBA, and permanently put the game out of business. Apparently it causes ultimate stupidity mixed with arrogance, which spells Jerome. I hope he seeks medical help.
Ed
October 26th, 2011
10:40 pm
Am I the only one who understands the meaning of the word “OWNER” ? Mark Bradley of all people should know that. Look around yourr office. There’s no one left and the sports page of a major market newspaper is 4 pages. That’s the product of owners not making any money. NBA owners have the right to make money. They didn’t get where they are in life by being stupid. I say shut it down for a year and save the salaries. I think it’s rather comical that a guy like Kevin Garnett (with a High School education) is showing up and mouthing off to the likes of Paul Allen, Mark Cuban, Jerry Buss etc….I go to work everyday praying the owner of my company is making money so I can go back tomorrow. Let these guys go away and start over. The league survived when Bird, Majic, and Jordan moved on and they’d be just fine in a few years without this present group of inked up overpaid thugs.
Hillbilly
October 26th, 2011
11:42 pm
ok – a lot of posters are saying they prefer the college game to the NBA – mind you, these same players you love in college eventually make it to the pros.
One question, were they thugs in college or did they become thugs after they joined the NBA?