OT - Gilbert Arenas Breaks Down The NBA Lockout

[SlyPokerDog]

Agent Zero breaks down why we might not see basketball this season:

For the people who don’t know why the’yre lockin out… I’ll explain it in real people terms. Lakers, Dallas, Miami, Knicks, Magic, Bulls, Boston, and a few others always have the best chance at the top free agents due to city and money. So the smaller cities team can’t compete. So they can never get better and they’re always losing money. So since they cant control each other spending money on players, they want us to do it for them by signing a new deal. It’s that simple.

All the older owners have made their money and selling to new buyers, and the new buyers are getting killed in these small cities. But no matter what deal gets done, free agent are gonna go to the same cities ANYWAY. That’s why the same teams stay good and the same teams stay bad. The owners with the most money will try to buy the best players.


So like the lakers just signed a 175 million dollar TV deal. But they don’t want to share that with the rest, they want US to do it. I know people are like, “You make 20 [million] and are not worth it…” TRUE. But the man who paid me thought I was too him. You’re worth what someone gives you.

I haven’t been to one meeting but I know when unrealistic people are trying to make a statement they’re gonna do it. It’s like me saying I wanna play 52 minutes-a-game every night. “Well there’s only 48.” WELL find me 4 more minutes then. If not, LOCKOUT. Lmaooooooo.
So when you hear your team say we’re REBUILDING all they’re saying is buy our tickets watch us lose. The Clippers have been rebuilding for 20+ years and made one playoff series. You can be like Oklahoma City and have young talent but eventually you’re gonna have to pay all those players and you can’t. And then what happens? Umm the famous REBUILDING.

Lol it’s a rat race they’re tryin to get out of, and they need us to do it for them. SMH.

I see people saying teams like Spurs and Detroit did it. Well, the spurs had a great team that got hit buy the injury bug and got the number 1 pick and got Duncan. So from there they just built around him. The Pistons got lucky. All the free agents they got was very cheap but good players. And that’s why they broke up. They were worth more then they were before.

So i don’t see it ending sooner. Trust me, they’re gonna sit back and let us kill ourselves like last time. So I’m gonna tell y’all the truth but no disrespecting anybody. There’s no need for all that. If you’re boss wants to pay you less he has a right to try and do so. [But] even if they have pay cuts then what? Are they gonna give out free food with all the extra money they’re gettng? Ummmm no. They’re gonna get a new 20 million dollar scoreboards and still scream we’re losing money…

The reasoning’s a little questionable in places, but on the whole, a lot of what he’s saying makes sense. In any case, it seems like a pretty raw distillation of the players’ perspective in the lockout.

Did the owners address the media?

They will never talk about it because 22 out of the 30 have no idea about basketball.


http://www.mediabistro.com/sportsnewser/gilbert-arenas-breaks-down-the-nba-lockout_b11341
​

 

[HailBlazers]

Expanded Revenue Sharing Please.

 

[Minstrel]

I like it. From now on, I'm only reading Gilbert Arenas' reports on the lockout.

 

[3RA1N1AC]

I know people are like, “You make 20 [million] and are not worth it…” TRUE.

 

[BBert]

Expanded Revenue Sharing Please.

Absolutely.

 

[HailBlazers]

Absolutely.

http://msn.foxsports.com/nba/story/NBA-labor-revenue-sharing-still-in-dispute-062711

Players contend a revenue sharing plan belongs in the new collective bargaining agreement. Commissioner David Stern says the plan is coming, but only after the CBA is settled.

We know who's side the comish is on.

 

[maxiep]

And some players sign a $100MM+, bring a gun to the lockerroom to threaten someone and expect their contract to still be fulfilled instead of being fired...

 

[barfo]

Damn, Gilbert needs to make an HBR article out of that. That's insight right there.

barfo

 

[jlprk]

Arenas says that small cities will always lose money compared to big cities because of the local TV revenue difference, causing small cities to always lose players to big cities, after a self-destructive intercity competition of overspending. He says revenue sharing is the permanent answer. Cutting player salaries leaguewide is only a temporary answer, and doesn't address the cause of the problem.

Stern wants to first get a lot of player money, and only then address the cause of overspending, which is the competition between financially unequal teams. Of course, the more player money he gets, the less he'll have to deal with the underlying problem.

I read yesterday (can't find the link) that the owners are proposing only a small increase in revenue sharing, from about (rough memory of what I read) the current $150M to $230M. Here's a link I CAN find that I read yesterday. Larry Coon (of the Coon CBA site) agrees with Arenas.

It is also interesting to note that the league considers collective bargaining and revenue sharing to be two separate, parallel discussions, while the players included revenue sharing as an integral part of their proposal...The owners could be promoting revenue sharing to assuage the players' arguments about revenue inequity, while at the same time leveraging an agreement that is based on the worst aspects of that inequity. Or it could be that they are just doing what any good negotiator does -- leaving room for movement. Their subsequent offer to reduce the portion of revenues that go to salaries over the lifetime of a 10-year deal appears to suggest the latter.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/columns/story?columnist=coon_larry&page=NBAFinancials-110630
(near the bottom)

 

[Nikolokolus]

I can't say for sure, but I think it was Coon on his twitter feed awhile back who gave the actual revenue sharing numbers and it's closer to something like 60-70 million, split 30 ways ... in other words, "whoopdee fucking doo."

 

[jlprk]

I read yesterday (can't find the link) that the owners are proposing only a small increase in revenue sharing, from about (rough memory of what I read) the current $150M to $230M.

I can't say for sure, but I think it was Coon on his twitter feed awhile back who gave the actual revenue sharing numbers and it's closer to something like 60-70 million, split 30 ways ... in other words, "whoopdee fucking doo."

230 - 150 = 80 increase. You got it. The League officially says the current amount is $60M but it's really $150M. Yesterday I read why it's really $150M and I wish I could find it. I'm starting to build a library of articles so I can talk about it, since that's what the board will be about for the next year.