The 3 Stories No One is Talking About

This NBA season has been pretty entertaining thus far. I got to thinking about stories that have been largely under reported, and not being talked about that much. Here are the 3 that come to mind.

The 2011 restructuring of the Players Agreement: David Falk beat me to the chase. Yesterday, TrueHoop quoted Falk about the restructuring of the Players Agreement. Here is the quote from the New York Times story by Howard Beck that I took from TrueHoop:

"In his view, the union botched negotiations in 1998, which led to the three-month lockout, the only labor stoppage in league history. The union tried to stave off a luxury tax and maximum player salaries but ultimately had to accept both in order to strike a deal in January 1999 and save the season. 'The players lost 40 percent of their salaries, and they got a worse deal in January,' Falk said. 'So as we approach 2011, my overwhelming feeling is, let's not make the same dumb mistake as in 1998.' The players, he said, must recognize that the owners have the ultimate leverage. Many are billionaires for whom owning an N.B.A. team is merely a pricey hobby. Some of them are losing 'enormous amounts of money' and would rather shut down the league for a year or two than continue with the current system. So Falk is urging the union to take a more cooperative approach. 'And if we don't do that, in my opinion, there's an overwhelming probability that the owners will shut it down,' he said."

I have given this issue some thought before Falk brought it up. Falk obviously got a little more in depth than what I initially thought about, but it is a very dark cloud hanging over the NBA. So the Players Union is going to ask for a lot more flexibility in terms of player contracts and some other things, including the "1-year out rule" and other such things. The reality is, owners don't care. The league administration and players do care. When it comes down to signing specific players and getting players, the player has leverage. When it comes down to decisions that affect everyone, the owners are the ones that matter. That is why the NBA is so careful about who they let own teams. I don't know how many of you have recently tried to buy a team, but the line is long. The league goes through a very extensive screening process in order to get "the right fit". They do that precisely for things like this. The owners have the final say for virtually every major decision when it comes down to it. In all honesty, the owners could almost overturn any decision if they collectively came to an agreement. The owners in any professional sports league have the leverage to do anything. Players want more money. Owners say no. That is the end of it. Well, that means the players don't play. Who does that hurt? The players and fans. The owners will go on about their lives. In the end, the 1999 lockout season could have as much of an impact as an unmade college dorm room bed compared to what the 2011 renegotiation could bring about.

The New Orleans Hornets changing cities: The city of New Orleans has made is clear that their $20+ million that goes towards the investment of their teams (Saints and Hornets) will all go towards the Saints. Initially, the city said that the Hornets needed to meet an attendance quota for the season in order to renew their lease. Well, they have done that, and more. They are actually winning! Of course, they have the best point guard in the league in Chris Paul that drives ticket sales up. They also have a deep playoff contending team to help their revenues. Now, the city has just asserted they won't invest in the Hornets any longer. A team that had to move to Oklahoma City during the Katrina period in New Orleans, and then back to New Orleans, is now faced with another strong possibility of having to move cities. Among the cities, the two most talked about cities are Kansas City and Anaheim. My personal opinion is that LA probably doesn't need a third team, but I'm such a huge basketball fan, I would love it. Kansas City could use the Hornets. Kansas City has shown that they have the market for a pro sports team, as evidenced by the Chiefs, and Kansas City has been the home to professional basketball teams in the past (Kings). They have traditionally been viewed as a college basketball town, but Oklahoma City was the same, and we all know how that has turned out. They also have the Sprint Center that is looking for a team. Despite all of their ability to host a basketball team, the city has stated that they are "uninterested" in acquiring any NBA team. David Stern basically discounted Kansas City as a possible destination for any NBA team in the future, but did say that a European city, such as London, is ready for a team. Keep an eye on this story because it will heat up in the summer for sure. (note: picture is of the inside of the Sprint Center)

Allen Iverson retirement/free agency: This story has been touched on by various sources, but no one has actually taken time to look at this. Iverson is a free agent this year. What is he going to do? AI's numbers tell part of the story, but if you just watch him, he looks slower coming off screens. Remember, this is a guy who has played as much as Kobe Bryant, but has taken a lot of injuries. He has played through pain, and has been a true warrior when playing basketball, but one can't help but wonder how much of a toll that has taken on his body. He is making some serious money, but he might actually be hurting the Pistons more than he is helping them. For Detroit, it is fine because AI's contract is up after this year, but we can't think that a team is going to pay him anywhere near what he is going to ask. AI is making $21.9 million this season. I suspect that whatever team picks him up after this season will pay him about half of that. It may be a serious blow to AI's ego. He still commands a lot of respect, but every so often, you will see AI put up a single digit night in the points category. Bad shooting night? Well, this is a guy who used to put up 30 shots a night on a consistent basis, shoot in the mid 30% range and still get 30+pts. He just is not the same player as he used to be. Maybe he just isn't inspired to play? I hope that is the case. Nonetheless, we may be seeing the final days of Allen Iverson's career. I do think he may retire if he cannot come to terms with a contract that he asks for. If not, I think Allen Iverson may go to a championship contender for a much lower contract. He has made enough money up to this point to set him and his 5 children up for life. I think that the one thing missing from his resume is a ring, and he knows that, and has admitted it. Wouldn't surprise me if he took the paycut for the ring.

Izzy

Capitalism and Josh Childress

We have heard about the reports that Josh Childress will leave for the famous Greek team, Olympiacos. The deal includes incentives such as a house and tax breaks that will earn him a bit over $20 million dollars. That is more than any NBA team could pay or would pay for Childress. This is a little worrisome for the NBA in the short term, but hopefully the problems will be fixed after this.

We have seen 7 NBA players go overseas this offseason including relevant players such as Juan Carlos Navaro, Bostjan Nachbar, and Tiago Splitter. This has to be a little bit of an eye opener for the NBA. The NBA is half right that there is no competition for the league, in America. We have now seen two very high profile players go overseas in Brandon Jennings and Josh Childress. Jennings is a little different because he is expected to return after a 1 year stint. As much as we want the "1 year rule" to change, it won't because it does not hurt the NBA. Childress' case does. Here is a reason why this hurts the NBA right now, but allows for a progressive change in the league.

Collective Bargaining Agreement: If any of you have ever read the CBA, it is extraordinarily complex. There are many restrictions on players and teams. As a whole, it is pretty fair. The problem is that it assumes no league can compete with the financial power of NBA teams. The league has been right on this issue since the ABA merger, until now. The growing power of European basketball is driving players and their agents to explore the offers from foreign teams. The reason is simple and obvious. We can use Josh Childress' case as an example. Childress was a restricted free agent this season which has meant that players usually don't get many offers from other teams because the owning team will just match the offer. The Hawks did not give Childress an extension last offseason and did not come at him with a strong enough offer this offseason. There are other teams in the league with the cap room to make an offer at Childress, but the CBA prevents this from happening. The CBA is a restrictive capitalist tool (in this case it is the salary cap) that creates a great competition among NBA teams, and until now, that domestic competition was all that mattered. Now, seemingly out of the blue, Olympiacos has made an amazing offer at Childress that he accepted and sent him on his way. This will hopefully be an eye-opening experience for the NBA and the players union, and hopefully this will be changed in the near future to prevent players like Josh Childress from going overseas. Clearly, NBA teams are going to pay almost whatever is necessary for superstars to stay here, but the cap prevents them from paying valuable swingmen such as Childress top dollar. The times have changed and the NBA must adjust to this evolution before we have every superstar complaining about the lack of support around him because all of the role players went to Europe.

The restrictive nature of the CBA allowed Josh Childress to be bought at a much higher price than he ever would have received in the NBA. The NBA, as well as other professional leagues, are incredibly bad at preventive measures. It is perplexing to see how many lawyers, economists, marketing experts, etc. be employed by the NBA and not foresee that Euroleague teams could compete with the NBA. That is only one example of how the NBA did not prevent a potential problem from happening. Surely the NBA could have taken preventive measures from something like the Palace Brawl from happening, or at least minimizing it. The 'players cannot enter the stands rule' could have and should have been in place before November of 2004. The NBA could have minimized a Tim Donaghy scandal by allowing referees to talk to media after games, and especially after controversial calls, or even raising salaries. Sadly, there are changes that should be made, but won't because it takes a long time to make any sort of change, but with finances like player salaries and league revenue at stake, you would think the NBA would at least study the competition to the league. It takes a long time for leagues to predict or even react to changes. This is no different, but when the NBA prides itself on saying it has the best basketball players and athletes in the world, it better do all it can to keep it that way.

Izzy

Links:

Very fitting to the topic. The NBA and MLB combined are not even worth as much as the NFL.