An insight into the reasons behind the NBA lockout: NBA Labour dispute Special Report – Part 1
Just like the National Hockey League (NHL), the National Basketball League (NBA) hasn’t been able to come up with any agreement between the players and the owners as yet. After months of relatively friendly talks between the franchise
owners, league officials and the representatives from the player’s union, it all came to a boil on June 30, when the NBA was forced into a lockout.
The argument has now come to a dead lock; one which has it restricted any sort of contact between players, coaches and team managements.
What were the reasons that led to this dreaded stoppage? Why are the mastermind owners and their veteran consultants still unable to find a solution? Let’s have a look at these reasons.
First reason - Money.
The owners have claimed to have lost around $300 million in the last season and have claimed that 22 out of the 30 teams in the league have endured heavy financial losses. The owners are of the view that the players are taking
a lion share of the basketball related revenue and to counter the losses, the money should be distributed equally among the players and teams, rather than a 57:43 distribution in player’s favour.
The owners have suggested that the players should receive $2 billion revenue each year, quite an unfair proposition to the players as it is only 45% of all the present basketball related income or BRI and it does not cater for
the financial growth of NBA in the years to come. The president of NBA Players Association, Derek Fisher, in return suggested a distribution of 54.3% to the player pool and 45.7% of the total earnings to the owners.
This was not what the owners had been looking forward to and hence, the argument ended with no outcome.
The players have also made it clear to the owners not to blame them for the losses the franchises bears. Players have no hand in the business related affairs of a franchise and so they should not be punished or blamed if the franchise
is facing a loss. The franchise front desk decides whether or not they should take up loan to pay the players. As a result, the loss they face in the form of interest on that loan is also their own problem.
Why should the players be restricted by a ‘hard cap’ if they can possibly earn more due to their own personal skills?
This question has become somewhat an ego-issue for the players and they are sure about not giving up this fight so easily. This introduces yet another issue - the player power.
The players are the ones, people come to watch play and so basically the players are the ones earning for the franchise. It is, henceforth, the organization’s duty to make sure they always keep a nice big smile on the players’
faces. Off course, nobody loves to talk about David Stern and as Stan Van Gundy put it ‘his minions’.
Also, when LeBron James decided to ditch the Cleveland Cavaliers and announced that he was joining Miami Heat on a television show, he introduced yet another aspect of player power. It was an eye-opener for the league that when
a player decides to put his foot down, the league and the owners can’t do anything about it.
Cavaliers’ owner Dan Gilbert after having done all in his grasp was still not able to stop LeBron James and the Heat signed LeBron James at around a $110.1 million dollar contract and James is just one of the many big players out
there in the league.
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