At 11:01 PM (in Texas) it’s on

by

Unfortunately, we’ve reached that point. At 12:01 AM eastern time, the current collective bargaining agreement between the NBA owners and players union will expire, at which point the owners will lock out the players.

Insert your favorite expletive here: ________

BREAKING NEWS: Matt Bonner on the NBA labor negotiations: “We did not reach a deal.”

More from Matt Bonner on NBA labor talks: “We’re going to keep working at it, and hopefully we can get something done.”

Team personel, including front office folks, coaches, trainers, etc. can no longer be in contact with the players or any of the players’ people. This includes family members, business associates and personal trainers. This means Chip Engelland won’t be helping Tiago Splitter with his shooting form for the time being. Chad Forcier can’t work with young players like James Anderson, Da’Sean Butler, Gary Neal, DeJuan Blair and Danny Green.

We can only hope that the Spurs coaching staff gave homework to each player and got them in contact with trainers to work with. Also, we have to hope everyone on the team has been saving their money the last few months. The last thing the Spurs, and the players union, need is for one of its players to go broke during the lockout.

48 Minutes of Hell will now be spending far more time talking about business news over the next few weeks than basketball. International ball can’t come soon enough.

←  Older Comments
 →
  • SAJKinBigD

    Fair points, but the Owners’ group (too many of them) want to put in protections from their own idiocy on the salaries afforded players. It IS a free market; if they don’t like the salary structures, quit paying ridiculous amounts of cash to mediocre talent, which then drives rates up for the truly exceptional. To my understanding, the NBAPA has made some pretty fair concessions, but there is a hard-line group of owners (co-NHL owners being the most vocal faction) that want the SYSTEM to protect them from themselves. It makes me mad. Just deal with it yourselves. Why does someone ELSE have to pay for your own mistakes? I’m NOT saying I agree with the salary structures, but if they’d stop going over the top with these salaries, it wouldn’t be such an issue.
    Another factor, I think, on the owners’ side is the Free Agent class of last year. All the “Wine Me-Dine Me” stuff and apparently the biggest FAs had already decided before all the trips what they were gonna do. On that, I can’t blame the owners for some angst.

    Anyway, the biggest hurdle to anything getting done on this is immediacy. There’s no rush to get anything done because the season’s so far off.

  • Tyler

    They only agreed to change the date by which his extension becomes fully guaranteed. They changed it from Thursday at midnight to the first day of free agency, a date yet to be determined. This doesn’t mean he’s retiring or coming back.

    I believe PHX did the same thing with Vince Carter.

  • Pingback: Antonio McDyess and Spurs delay retirement decision()

  • Tyler

    From Larry Coon’s NBA Salary Cap FAQ (killer source for everything NBA CBA related):

    8. What percentage of revenues do the players receive?
    Contracts are individually negotiated between players and teams, and several factors control the amount each player can receive. Collectively, the players are guaranteed to receive at least 57% of revenues in salaries & benefits. If it’s ever less, the league cuts a check to the Players Association after the season for distribution to the players.
    There is also an escrow system that helps to limit the money the players receive to a specific percentage of revenue. See question number 15 for details.

    So to answer your question - No, it is not on top of the $ they are paid in salary. It’s just a guaranteed % the players will get no matter what. And if it’s not met, the owners pay the amount to meet 57%.
    http://www.cbafaq.com

  • Rob

    Good stuff Tyler. Thanks for the info.

  • Mark

    Re: Blair. He didn’t do that well with Hill around. Maybe the trade will have given him religion.Â

  • Rob

    Whether it be $1 or 300 mil. A loss is a loss. If the majority of the teams are operating at a loss…then it’s unwise to continue operating under the same parameters. I’m sure there are some owners (Cuban) who could care less about a hard cap and probably would prefer there wasn’t one. That said…I don’t think owner’s are infallible either. And if a team makes bad financial decisions…players shouldn’t suffer from those decisions. But the players (and starting with guaranteed salaries) are as much to blame towards ownership having a difficult time operating at a profit and fielding a competitive team.

    Middle ground is the only way this will be solved. At this time, neither side wants to concede it’s major issues. I suggest the players start their own…player organized and operated franchise. Heck…after this last cba…they ought to be able to afford a league of their own. The NBA vs. the PBPA (professional basketball players association). It would be interesting to see which teams formed in each league would be the best and play against each other.

  • Rob

    “I’m NOT saying I agree with the salary structures, but if they’d stop
    going over the top with these salaries, it wouldn’t be such an issue.”
    And that is an issue when some teams can afford to pay in the 100’s of millions to “buy a title” compared to those who operate under tighter restrictions. And no…revenue sharing would not afford a small market team to compete in a salary war while trying to land top talent or operate at a profit. All it would do is ensure players throughout the league getting more money regardless of the level they are able to perform.

  • Rob

    If true…Italy will have a really good team.

    http://hoopshype.com/overseas.htm

  • Cjesterjb

    ESPN should do this with its programming: http://wp.me/s1EpJh-128

  • Rob
  • DBAGuy

    man why are these basketball players so greedy. They already make a ton of money, the economy is horrible. And their agreement is to increase their salaries even more, yeah right. The league is full of mediocre players and they want more money. What a joke

  • DorieStreet

    I believe outside income cannot be controlled by the league or the NBPA. That is why you never see current players do ads in their team uniforms.

  • DorieStreet

    Players proposals includes reducing salaries by 1/2 million over the next 10 years.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Tyler-Cameron/1440134598 Tyler Cameron

    I really hate doing this but i’m siding with the owners 100%. The last proposal they gave before the lockout was more than reasonable. The players want profit sharing but are any of them willing to do % Loss sharing with the owners? 22 of the 30 NBA teams last year lost money. How about this for an idea, Make luxury tax 3/1 instead of 1/1 and have all of luxury tax go into a pool. You take all the teams that lost money and kinda do a loss sharing lottery with that money. The team that lost the most money gets the biggest share of the luxury tax pool. Make 62 mill the soft cap but this way anyone over that has to pay more and all of that money goes to the money losing teams. Its kinda like Robin hood saving small market teams and make teams like the Lakers with like a 90 mill salary next season really pay for it. This is why i’m trying really hard right now to start a fans union. Our voices should be heard, after all where do they get their money from. Plus I’m getting a really strong “Taxation without Representation” vibe with the lockout. When are they talking next? Shouldn’t they at least have to have both sides working to resolve this at least like 40 hrs a week? Is it fair to the fans that they get to take week long mediation breaks? I say we band together and boycott 1 game for every 1 game they cause us to miss. We need unity!

  • DorieStreet

    I don’t believe 22 of the 30 teams lost money. If so, where’s the list? Someone find it-the listing of all 30 teams in the league in alphabetical order, or from those that made the most profit down to the franchise that lost the most. You read it in the paper and on the internet, you hear it on the sports talk radio stations, and you see it on the sports shows and networks. But where is the list?

  • Pingback: FIBA Eurobasket, Americas Championship boast some Spurs()

  • Pingback: 4-Down Podcast: Larry Coon talks about the NBA Lockout()

  • Pingback: Some NBA owners want lockout to end fairly soon()

←  Older Comments
 →