Zachary GirsbergerFixing the NBA
March 1st 2011 22:35
Category: No Category
Small markets in the NBA are clamoring for an NFL-like franchise tag, but quick-fix for the NBA will just create holdouts, contract disputes, and resentment towards a franchise. Holdouts and contract disputes lead only to media problems and thus distract a team, and resentment towards a franchise leads to players losing interest (see Davis, Baron) and thus not performing up to their potential. No, this trend of superstars teaming up is not going to go away, nor is it a new problem, and thus a different change in the NBA is needed.
The NBA needs to get rid of the salary cap, or create a very soft cap if the owner's will not sign off. The NFL is a beast of its own, so the flux between seasons is unique, and thus a comparison cannot be made accurately. The NBA compares most directly to MLB, where individuals make a team that work together, rather than the focus being on a team. Major League Baseball functions, perhaps not as fairly as one would like, but when you look at teams like New Orleans and Sacramento, who are hemorrhaging money, why should they have to maintain a level of salary they cannot afford? The minimum salary for an NBA team is around $45 million dollars, which is calculated by taking seventy-five percent of the cap. When compared to MLB, there are several teams in Baseball who pay less than the minimum, like the Padres and the Marlins, which have each fielded winning teams in the past few years. Giving a team a minimum it has to spend does not mean that the teams will be even, it just means that their expenditures will be even. Joe Johnson of the Atlanta Hawks makes more than LeBron James, yet does he provide more for his salary than LeBron? Or, as I suspect, did he simply capitalize on the summer of The Decision, the current CBA, and the state of the league?
I like the state of the NBA right now, and apparently, the public does too. Ratings are through the roof right now, and it can all be traced to the hype of the Heat, which under a system with franchise tags and a hard cap could not exist. Changing the NBA to make small market owners happy will kill profits from other teams, so work like MLB and make a luxury tax, thus sharing the wealth. What an owner chooses to do with that wealth is up to the owner, they can improve their team by making it more attractive for big free-agents to want to come to, or, they can simply pocket the cash, as some teams in baseball do.
The NBA needs to get rid of the salary cap, or create a very soft cap if the owner's will not sign off. The NFL is a beast of its own, so the flux between seasons is unique, and thus a comparison cannot be made accurately. The NBA compares most directly to MLB, where individuals make a team that work together, rather than the focus being on a team. Major League Baseball functions, perhaps not as fairly as one would like, but when you look at teams like New Orleans and Sacramento, who are hemorrhaging money, why should they have to maintain a level of salary they cannot afford? The minimum salary for an NBA team is around $45 million dollars, which is calculated by taking seventy-five percent of the cap. When compared to MLB, there are several teams in Baseball who pay less than the minimum, like the Padres and the Marlins, which have each fielded winning teams in the past few years. Giving a team a minimum it has to spend does not mean that the teams will be even, it just means that their expenditures will be even. Joe Johnson of the Atlanta Hawks makes more than LeBron James, yet does he provide more for his salary than LeBron? Or, as I suspect, did he simply capitalize on the summer of The Decision, the current CBA, and the state of the league?
I like the state of the NBA right now, and apparently, the public does too. Ratings are through the roof right now, and it can all be traced to the hype of the Heat, which under a system with franchise tags and a hard cap could not exist. Changing the NBA to make small market owners happy will kill profits from other teams, so work like MLB and make a luxury tax, thus sharing the wealth. What an owner chooses to do with that wealth is up to the owner, they can improve their team by making it more attractive for big free-agents to want to come to, or, they can simply pocket the cash, as some teams in baseball do.
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