Michael Jordan elaborates NBA owners’ take on the labour dispute – CBA Update
Michael Jordan might have been one of the greatest and most popular basketball players of all time, but these days MJ is an owner. He runs the Charlotte Bobcats and therefore in the ongoing owners players dispute over a new CBA,
you can imagine which side Jordan is on.
The living legend spoke to a newspaper recently to give the owners point of view at a time when more and more players are coming out to bash them.
Michael’s franchise, the Bobcats, is a small market team that has trouble making ends meet. Jordan has gotten a reputation of a particularly spend thrift owner who is constantly looking to cut costs and unwilling to pay major money
in contracts.
He is therefore a staunch supporter of a new CBA that will see costs cut, including player salaries. Here is what Michael had to say on the subject,
“The model we’ve been operating under is broken. We have 22 or 23 teams losing money, (so) I think we have gotta come to some kind of understanding in this partnership that we have to realign,” Jordan said.
His assertion that the previous CBA and the financial system it imposed was not working is not entirely without merit. The league claims to have been losing money for quite a few years now and reported a $300 million loss for just
the last season. Although the players dispute the numbers, no one has questioned the fact that the NBA indeed is losing money.
In the said scenario, it is only natural to expect the owners to want to change things. The players accept that as well, and have agreed to bring their share of the revenue down too. However the sticking point between the two sides
is the amount of sacrifices the players have been asked to be made.
The owners want to put all the burden of the losses on the players’ shoulders. The players on the other hand want a new system that puts some strain on the owners as well, with measures such as revenue sharing.
From what Jordan said, the owners look pretty determined to hold out for some time in order to get a good deal,
“I can’t say so much … but I know the owners are not going to move off what we feel is very necessary for us to get a deal in place where we can co-exist as partners. We need a lot of financial support throughout the league as
well as revenue sharing to keep this business afloat.
Michael also used the example of an NBA player to make his case.
“We have stars like (Andrew) Bogut who are entitled to certain type of demands. But for us to be profitable in small markets, we have to be able to win ballgames and build a better basketball team.”
Andrew Bogut of the Milwaukee Bucks was mentioned by name, which is against the ban imposed by NBA Commissioner David Stern. So despite making the case of the owners heard, MJ might be hit with a fine.
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