NBA CBA Expires Tonight New Lockout

When it comes to coming up with a desirable collective bargain agreement, players must understand that maybe the current salary structure was created to favor them in despite of how well their teams are doing monetarily (currently ten NBA franchises are considered money losing teams, and 22 are considered to be financially insolvent), and they should also embrace the idea that guaranteed contracts are not always in the best interest of the franchise that signed them, as even though they get injured, they will still be paid what they are owned.

Let’s take the case of two of the highest paid players at the league: Rashard Lewis from the Wizards and Gilbert Arenas from Orlando. These two guys have been often injured and have not been part of their first teams constantly, though they still get paid those juicy salaries thanks to the CBA negotiations from 1998 (that ended in a lockout), making more than $15 million per year.

And now the main discussion on the table is the split of revenues, which is currently at 57 / 43 favoring the players. When a lockout started to be a sound possibility, owners tried to negotiate that percentage, but they tried to move it far on their side, and that is why the player’s union released a bitter response.

The talks have moved closer to a definitive agreement recently, as both sides are looking for a middle ground where neither are going to lose substantial cash, but with the current CBA expiring tonight, they must decide quickly what is more important to them: the popularity of the league or big fat pockets.

Back in 1998 after the season was over, the lockout that followed prevented the following season to be played at full since negotiations took more than 6 months, with that CBA expiring in June and a deal being reached the following January, and we are now looking at an almost mirror-like scenario here.

Michael Jordan retired for the second time in 98, and even though the league lost some popularity because of his departure, it lost more followers due to the CBA, and it took the NBA almost a decade to regain such acceptance.

We are agree on the fact that players deserve big salaries, but when it comes to put in jeopardy the future of one of America’s top professional leagues for the second time, I guess they should try to show people that they play basketball because they love the sport more than anything else.