by Kevin L. Davis (@EsquireSports)
If you have not read this article from ESPN's Larry Coon I suggest you check it out now >>>> http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/column...ancials-110630. In his article that he wrote based on viewing financial records of two teams (2005-06 Nets and 2008-09 Hornets) he makes 2 main arguments 1) Since the Players can't share in the profit when a team is sold it is not fair that they are burdened with the costs associated with buying the team in the first place and 2) If they don't have a say in the team's management decisions, they don't want to pay the cost when those decisions go awry.
He went on to show that the figures the Owners have been reporting as their losses may be the result of an accounting fiction. While it is true that financial statements are prepared by external auditors, who are bound by their license to do things right and subject to review by the IRS, any person who knows a little about finances you know that depending on the method you use to account for your finances, the profit/loss figures could vary by tens of millions of dollars.
This insistence of bargaining from a position of using these figures and not true basketball-related expenses and revenue could be viewed as an attempt by the Owners to doctor the numbers to exaggerate losses. If Coon is correct, its very possible that instead of 20+ teams losing money only 7 or 8 are, and they seem to be losing less than $20 mil a year.
If this is true and it is happening throughout the league, the Players may have a leg to stand on if the legal route is pursued and they allege that the Owners are negotiating in bad faith. I could very well see a court ruling that The combination of utilizing these figures instead of basketball-related expenses combined with their offers which included taking away so many rights from Players (i.e. guaranteed contracts, hard cap, smaller contract lengths, etc.) in times of increasing viewership and attendance as negotiating in bad faith.
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