http://realgm.com/src_wiretap_archives/64370/20100130/league_wants_hard_cap_in_2011_cba/ I know it'll decrease players' salaries... but c'mon... can you imagine wade/lebron/melo being paid 8M a year? If that happened then the european teams would steal all the nba's best players.
Yeah the figure seems like an exaggeration coming from the owners. Look at all the teams preparing for this summer's free agent class. These owners are ready to spend max money to pry away or retain the likes of LeBron, Bosh, Amare etc.
No chance that this passes through the NBAPA. Players are far too greedy nowadays to ever take $8 mil, especially the stars.
yeah but stern and the owners have a history of breaking the union. remember last time when players undermined their own union when they went on national tv after a few months- complaining about not being able to make car payments on their multiple cars and mortgage payments for their baby mama's homes? the nba and nfl players union is a joke, same with the nhl to a lesser extent but they have less bargaining power with no national tv deal. the avant garte of players union is the mlb players union, who have a history of eviscerating the league at the negotiating table.
$8 million dollars gets you a mid-level player in Europe. I wonder how much a high-level player in Europe would get? Olympiacos? CSKA Moscow? Real Madrid? For 2-3x the money, players will go. It might be possible to replace the luxury tax with the hard cap, but I don't see any other way this works. Wishful thinking by the employers.
Beyond the union vetoing this, it'd be stupid for the NBA to do. I mean, sure, it might save some owners money, but they're going to be losing money as a company when the Kobe's, LeBron's and Dwayne Wade's of the NBA go to Europe to play for $35-40 million per year.
BOSTON -- In the strongest comments yet by a players' union official since NBA owners made a new collective bargaining proposal, first vice president Adonal Foyle of the Orlando Magic said the offer put forth last week by commissioner David Stern's office was "ludicrous." That was the first word out of Foyle's mouth when he was asked Sunday to characterize the owners' new labor proposal, which was given to the union late last week as the sides took one of the first major steps toward replacing the collective bargaining agreement that expires at the end of the 2010-11 season. "I think it's a proposal that's far-reaching," said Foyle, the union's second-in-command behind president Derek Fisher. "This [new proposal] has gone too far. It wants a hard cap, it basically will create no middle class, and which, in effect, means none of the Bird rules would apply," Foyle said, referencing the so-called Larry Bird exception that allows teams to exceed the salary cap to retain their own free agents. Foyle, who was a member of the union's negotiating committee during 2005 collective bargaining talks and was a player rep for the Golden State Warriors during the 1998-99 lockout, went on to call the owners' proposal "rash" and "unfair." In addition to a hard salary cap to replace the current system of a "soft" cap, with its accompanying luxury tax penalties for teams that exceed a certain payroll threshold ($69.9 million this season), owners have asked that contracts be shortened to a maximum of four years, Foyle said. "I think when you look at the current CBA as it stands, it benefits both the players and owners. This is an agreement where we can quabble with different things within it, but it's an agreement that gives some things to both parties involved," Foyle told ESPN.com. "A system like that would be too restrictive, and it doesn't jibe with what we think the league is. We have been willing to negotiate a guarantee that we don't get over a certain threshold, and no other businesses do that. We hold back 9 percent of our income so that the owners can make sure they are covered on the back end. We have given up a lot of stuff, and they have given up a lot of stuff, so I think to start off a negotiation in this rash a term, I think it's unfair," Foyle said. Foyle said the union was particularly taken aback by the gravity of the owners' demands after the sides had held several cordial meetings in advance of the league submitting the initial proposal. "That's what I think was what most surprising to all of us. The meetings, in our estimation, had been quite constructive. We were seeming to get a sense of where everybody was, and we went through why we think [the current agreement] should be extended," Foyle said. "But I think a proposal like this is the first time they're saying: 'This is the way we want to go with the league.' " The union's executive board will meet with team player representatives at All-Star Weekend to discuss the owners' proposal. The union's executive director, Billy Hunter, has declined to publicly comment on the owners' proposal since it arrived on his desk last week. Fisher, too, has declined substantive comment.
The NBA will put its marquee players on display in next weekend's All-Star Game in Dallas, but the party-like atmosphere is sure to be chilled when the stars learn the details of the collective bargaining agreement offer presented at the end of January by commissioner David Stern to players' union director Billy Hunter. The proposal, a source familiar with talks said, includes rollbacks that could reduce maximum guaranteed salaries, both for veterans such as Kobe Bryant and LeBron James, as well as up-and-comers like Kevin Durant and Derrick Rose, to almost a third of what they would have been eligible for under the current agreement. Perhaps the biggest shocker: The owners' proposal includes a provision that would require any pre-existing deals to be revised to conform to the new deal's limits. The current deal is set to expire as of July 1, 2011. The league's owners have the option to extend it one more year, but they've already made it clear they don't intend to. "The league has to be careful," said one agent who requested anonymity. "If the top players are united against David, that's going to make for a tough fight. It could get very ugly." Presenting a new proposal nearly 18 months in advance of the current deal's anticipated expiration is unprecedented, several sources said. Doing so right before All-Star Weekend also seems odd, particularly since Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, the weekend's host owner, has crowed about the event drawing a record 100,000 fans and a surrounding spectacle dwarfing that of the NFL's Super Bowl XLIV. "It's the most dire economic time, so they want to take advantage of that and scare the players now," the agent said. "It is a negotiation. This is what you do." The total value for a veteran maximum deal would be well under $60 million and for players currently on rookie salary-scale deals well under $50 million, the source familiar with the proposal said. Fully guaranteed maximum deals also could be a thing of the past, with the proposal allowing for less than half of any contract to be guaranteed. The mid-level exception and other devices that allow teams over the salary cap to sign free agents also would be abolished, several sources said, effectively creating a hard cap. Both the league and players association declined to comment on the source's details of the proposal, as did union president Derek Fisher. "David and Billy have decided not to comment until we get to All-Star Weekend and I'll fall in line with those two gentlemen," Fisher said Friday night. Stern and Hunter are expected to address where negotiations stand on a new labor agreement sometime during the weekend.
