Mike Baco breaks down the 2011 NBA lockout that canceled over 200 games. Players had been getting 57% of basketball revenue; owners want to cut that to 47% and change the salary cap. Negotiators are working toward a 50/50 split while Commissioner David Stern pushes players to accept the owners' deal.
Questions this video answers
More than 200 regular-season games.
47%.
A 50/50 split.
57% of basketball-related revenue.
NBA Commissioner David Stern.
Chapters
Basketball association players and owners held another round of talks on Thursday. They're trying to break an impasse over a new contract. The deadlock has continued for more than a month and the NBA has had to cancel its pre season along with more than 200 regular season games. NBA Commissioner David Stern says the players union must accept his latest offer, which includes a salary cap, or his next proposal will be much tougher. Joining us for some analysis on that, we're joined by Mike, Mike Baker, he's sports editor for DailyNational.com do we look like we're getting towards some sort of deal?
It certainly looks that way. Both sides are talking right now. They've continued their talks and it looks like it's going in the right direction. There was a lot of talk from Commissioner David Stern about potentially breaking off talks or breaking back to a very hardball offer of only offering the players 47%. So right now it looks good, it looks promising because both sides are trying to get to that 5050 split.
The NBA has just come off its most profitable season in history. Why is there not enough money to go around?
Well, that's the problem. There is enough money to go around, but it's a matter of millionaires fighting against billionaires for those pieces of the pie. The players, if you keep in mind this last deal, they had 57% of the basketball related revenue coming into their pockets right now. They see the writing on the wall and they know that that's not a percentage that they're going to be having by now. In the NBA if you sign a five year contract, you're getting paid for five years. In the NFL you could get a five year contract, only one or two of those years being guaranteed. That's the model that the NBA want to go and put forth in this deal and the players are really pushing back on it. One of their reasons for saying it is we're not forcing you to give us this contract, we're not forcing you to give us this money that the owners almost want to be protected against their own self interest in terms of giving these players who in most cases don't deserve the amount of years or the amount of money that they're getting these contracts. So the owners want a provision in there almost to prevent.
But why do we need owners? The question's been raised before. I mean the owners get huge subsidies from the taxpayer to build most of their arenas. The players do all the playing. Why do we need owners anyway? Aren't they just sort of middlemen and all this?
Well, I think if you look at what happened this year, a lot of players tried to barnstorm and not form their own league, but certainly go out and give the fans a show. And certainly there was great reaction to that. And I'm sure that some of the players, like a Kobe Bryant or Dwyane WADE Or a LeBron James, think, hey, why? Why don't we go out and start our own league? But there's so much infrastructure in place in terms of taking TV contracts and arenas and places to play. You know, that might be something that's bandied about by some of the higher echelon players. There was talk about a decertification movement possibly, and that might be a move that might lead to something like that. But I think that that is so far off. That's something that some fans probably envision. But the reality of it, it seems like both sides now are at the bargaining table and they're getting really close to this 5050 offer.
