NBA Commissioner David Stern states the case of NBA owners in the Labour dispute
NBA Commissioner David Stern spoke out for the NBA owners on Friday, October 15, and said that the principle reason behind the enforced NBA lockout was the league’s desire to make all NBA franchises competitive.
The NBA owners and players are in disagreement over a new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) and with the lockout deep into its third month, no solution still seems to be in sight.
The NBA has cancelled 100 regular season games and more could follow if the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) and owners do not come to a compromise solution soon. The two sides are set to resume talks on Tuesday, this time with a federal mediator, George Cohen, overlooking the process.
Before that however, David Stern took time out to speak and make clear just what he wanted of the players,
"[The players] need to tell us we can have shorter contracts so that under-performing contracts can be replaced by high-performing contracts," Stern told 710 ESPN in Los Angeles on Friday. "And they need to tell us that the luxury tax can be considerably harsher than it already is."
Those are very core issues of the labour dispute, even though much attention has been paid to the Basketball Related Income (BRI). Although it is true that money is the principle issue here, the salary structure and contracts play a part in it and are a major bone of contention between the sides.
It is hard to see how the players would agree to Stern’s demands, especially considering the fact that NBPA executive director Billy Hunter labelled salary caps a “blood issue” and reportedly, offered the NBA economic incentives for leaving the system untouched.
Stern and the owners though are also sticking to their guns, and explained that the underlying objective he was pursuing was a just one; to level the playing field for all NBA franchises.
"I would like the league to be more competitive, and to in some ways diminish the [Los Angeles] Lakers' advantage in having that much income in order to pay their players more when you include the luxury tax than other teams," the NBA commissioner said.
Los Angeles Lakers are the most profitable team in the NBA, the second most successful in history and naturally the more glamorous. It goes without saying that the big stars often want to come and play in teams like the Lakers, and these teams also have the financial resources to pay their bloated salaries.
That puts a majority of NBA teams, especially those based in small markets such as the Minnesota Timberwolves, at a significant disadvantage.
The owners and David Stern want to fix this problem and make the league more competitive.
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