League at a crossroads
NBA on shaky ground as owners, players fight over money
Posted: Friday October 30, 1998 02:37 PM
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NBA commissioner David Stern is aware of the damage a work stoppage causes CNN/SI |
By John Donovan, CNN/SI
ATLANTA (CNN/SI) -- On the surface, it's hard to see what's eating at the
NBA.
The average player's salary is upwards of $2.2 million a year. Beginning
next season, owners will begin to reap the windfalls of a new $2.6 billion
television contract with TNT and NBC. The league is fresh off an exciting
NBA Finals, with Michael Jordan
and the Chicago Bulls
winning their sixth championship of the '90s.
Beneath all the glitter, though, behind all the catchy slogans, something
is very, very wrong. - In a league filled with
multi-million-dollar contracts, a huge percentage of the players are
working for, essentially, the NBA minimum wage.
- The owners are
claiming, incredibly, that they are losing money, saying as many as 15 of
the 29 teams are operating in the red.
- The league itself, in the
wake of a player choking his coach and other public problems, is struggling
to maintain its well-polished image of a fun, youthful and clean
sport.
And so the sides are drawn for perhaps the most difficult labor talks the
league ever has faced.
On one side are the players, led by NBPA executive director G. William
(Billy) Hunter, a former U.S. attorney who has represented the likes of
newspaper heiress Patty Hearst and NBA badboy Latrell
Sprewell, whose choking of coach P.J. Carlesimo was the biggest black
eye in a tumultuous NBA season.
On the other is the league and its owners, represented by commissioner
David Stern and his right-hand man, deputy commissioner Russ Granik, who
has had a hand in every major contract the NBA has been involved in since
1980.
On the line: Billions of dollars and the NBA's history of relative labor
peace.
"There's no need to
underplay or downplay it," Hunter told CNN/SI. "The reality is, it's gonna hurt the league. And, ultimately, if it hurts the league, it hurts the players."
The NBA is the only major sports league in America that has never lost a
regular-season game due to a work stoppage, a 52-year streak that everyone
would like to keep intact.
"As much as we prize that streak," Granik told NBC last month, "I don't
think that's going to be a determining factor."
There are at least a half-dozen points the two sides will bandy about as
they try to come up with a new collective bargaining agreement. The talks
began in April, shortly after the owners voted to scrap the old collective
bargaining agreement. Those lasted about three weeks before they broke
down. The two sides have met only sporadically since.
When the talks resume in earnest, issues as diverse as putting marijuana on
the banned substance list and the disciplinary power of the commissioner
all will be discussed.
But the real issue -- no surprise here -- is money.
The owners want a meaningful salary cap to control costs. They want to keep
rookie salaries in check and lengthen the term for rookie contracts. More
than anything, they want to eliminate a provision that allows teams to pay
their stars whatever is necessary, regardless of the cap.
The players are dead-set against a salary cap and say the provision -- the
so-called "Bird exception" -- must stay.
"My sense is that it's going to take a little while," said agent Bill
Strickland, who represents, among others, Allan Houston
of the New York
Knicks, Jeff
Hornacek of the Utah
Jazz and Rasheed
Wallace of the Portland Trail
Blazers. "I get a strong sense that the players have an absolute
resolve about not acting hastily this time.
"I can see the two sides being fairly entrenched. But I'd also like to
believe that there are some creative people on both sides that can come up
with an answer."
Before anything is settled, there will be plenty of finger pointing, a lot
of angry words, a few threats and so much misinformation that only those
inside the negotiations will know exactly what's going on.
Michael Jordan is a perfect example of the Larry Bird rule AP | |
And there will be at least two versions of that, too.
"There is a lot of, you wave your sabers, you posture those swords and
then you push, you demand, you sue, you countersue, you denounce and then
you say 'If all that is happening, then there must be a labor negotiation
going on,' " NBA commissioner David Stern said before the season even
began. "I can't remember in a potential strike or in a potential lockout or
some combination of them ... when it didn't get down to some fairly
aggressive name calling. The big question is how does it end?"
Most insiders figure the league can safely go through most of the summer
without an agreement, though that would throw off summer leagues and create
some problems for free agents. The NBA doesn't really have to begin to
worry about a threat to the 1998-99 regular season schedule unless the
negotiations drag into late September or early October. The season begins
in early November.
Before that, though, there is one problem both the players and owners agree
must be fixed. While the superstars make their money, and the rookie stars
make theirs, there is a growing class of veteran players who are making the
NBA minimum wage.
"The NBA has had enormous growth, globally even," said Atlanta forward Tyrone Corbin,
a member of the union's executive committee. "The players just want their
fair share."
According to NBPA salary lists, at least 85 players -- a bit more than 20
percent of the league -- make some sort of NBA minimum salary. (There is a
rookie minimum, a veteran minimum and a minimum for veterans who have
stayed with the same team for a length of time.) The number of players
making between the minimum and $1 million a year jumped last season from 72
to 91. That makes 37.5 percent of the league making less than $1 million.
Though the average NBA salary is about $2.2 million a year, the "mean"
salary -- half of the league earns above it, half below -- is $1.4 million.
In the outrageous world of NBA salaries, then, the rich certainly are
getting richer. And, while no one's poor ...
"There are ways the wealth can be redistributed and still pay players
market value," agent Strickland said. "But why should the employees be
forced to manage the owner's problems?"
That is a set union position: If there is pay inequity within the ranks, if
owners have financial problems in paying approximately $1 billion in
salaries to players, it's their own doing.
"We don't see any need to change the current process," Hunter said. "Our
position is, if you don't want to pay it, don't do it. Just say 'No.' "
Stern -- no surprise here -- insists it's not just a problem for the owners.
"If you're willing to pay a billion dollars on an industry that grosses
less than $2 billion," Stern countered, "then there should be a way for the
employees and the management to come up with a system that divvies it up in
a fair way.
"I don't consider it to be the players being asked to protect the owners
from themselves."
How this all will be settled is anyone's guess.
"There is some doubt creeping into my mind now," admitted Steve Kaufmann,
the agent for, among others, Rony Seikaly of
the New Jersey Nets.
"But I have to think that the two sides are just too bright and too
reasonable to let this things affect the season."
This summer's negotiations will shape how the NBA does its business for
years to come, how it's perceived by fans and advertisers and, ultimately,
if it will continue to prosper.
With billions out there to be split up, the stakes can hardly be higher.
"All I know," said Corbin, "is basketball was a lot more fun when I didn't
know about the business side of it."
The NBA Labor Talks
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