Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Excellent article on labor dispute by Ken Berger

 By Kevin L. Davis (@EsquireSports)

Anybody who reads my blog must check out Ken Berger's excellent article on the meetings between the Owners and Players which has been occurring in Manhattan yesterday and today >>> http://www.cbssports.com/nba/story/15249908/biggest-event-for-nba-this-week-is-tuesday-not-draft-day

The entire article captured by attention, but most importantly I took 3 things from that article.  First it seems a sect within the Ownership contingent are motivated to take everything they can from the Players in this labor dispute after they have "experienced life-changing losses in their core businesses, [and] watched franchise values rise at a slower pace than ever before." This faction within the Owners which Berger calls "rogue owners" includes Mark Cuban, Robert Sarver, Dan Gilbert, Wyc Grousbeck, Clay Bennett, and Ted Leonsis.  This intrigues me because I've been speaking for months of a possible rift within ownership, and Berger noticed it too.

Secondly no matter how the Owners try to categorize their offer as splitting revenue 50-50, this is not genuine when the first $900 million is not used in the calculation of revenues.  This point is pretty much spot on, and I have wondered why others haven't called the Owners out for this.

And finally the Players are dropping the ball with silly ideas like another MLE or awarding extra draft picks, instead of worrying about the true issue which is causing so many teams to lose money - insufficient revenue sharing.  The issue of small-markets not generating the money necessary to be profitable could be alleviated if the bigger market teams with huge local TV deals, are forced to share that revenue.  Billy Hunter and the rest of the leaders of the Player's union must put this idea front and center in hopes that it causes the supposed rift between owners to grow.

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