Comments on: NBA lockout: Oklahoma goes mainstream

By: Crow

Crow — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 20:26:24 +0000

If the players, a TV network, a shoe company, an interested billionaire or some combination wanted to start a new league they could. If it was well designed and funded then the NBA bosses would not “control the whole sector” and would not have a monopoly. Those are current conditions, not immutable .

By: Crow

Crow — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 20:22:02 +0000

“The bosses control the whole sector”

[they have a lot of control but to say they control the whole sector is just an opinion, not an objective explanation]

“Since the merger with the ABA in 1976, the NBA is a monopoly…”

[they currently have a near / effective monopoly of the market but there are other leagues]

By: Jax

Jax — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 18:47:13 +0000

Daniel, you gotta remember that a fair deal is a fair deal, doesn’t matter if you’re splitting up 4 cents or $400 or 400 million dollars. Maybe you and a buddy split 4 cents in half, each getting 2 cents, and you’re cool. Maybe you’re cool if he gets 3 cents and you just get 1. I mean, it’s just a penny, you don’t care. Maybe you don’t care if you split 400 million between you and your buddy and he gets 210 and you get 190. You think you can live on 190 million just as well as you can live on 200 million. But, just because we’re willing to accept an uneven split because the money is too big or so small, that doesn’t make the deal fair. It just means you agreed to it.

Secondarily, asking the players to take less money since they already make so much is your prerogative. But, why can’t you ask the same of the owners? They make so much money too.

How much money players and owners make should have nothing to do with establishing a fair split, or provide any sort of ‘normal’ person perspective. This isn’t the law of ‘the rich get richer’ at work, it’s the law of ‘supply and demand’ at work. I wouldn’t pay 50 cents to watch you weed your garden, or play pick up basketball. I wouldn’t pay 50 cents to watch KD weed his garden. I would pay $50 to watch KD play pickup basetball. I’d pay double that to see him play in a meaningful game. I’ve done both. And I’m not the only one. There are literally tens of thousands of people with that same opinion. And as long as there are, KD should make millions. Not because of some ethereal law of the universe that constantly compares people to ‘normal’ situations and grades of the curve, but because the principal at work is the free market. In fact, if the league and the players didn’t forfeit their right to an anti-trust, KD in a free market would make 10 times what the owners are allowed to pay him. In that sense the players are already getting far, far less money than their overall value to their economic system.

The players, after all, are not employees nearly as much as they are the product.

By: Jay

Jay — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 22:21:58 +0000

I have to wholeheartedly disagree, Daniel. Some of the superstars today are playing at a level that the NBA hasn’t ever seen. Yet, the owners want the players to take pay cuts.

Let me ask you this: If you were really good at something…and I mean REALLY good—the best at what you do. And after performing at such a high level, your employer called you in and said that he was going to cut your salary, would you be happy about it, regardless of what amount of money you were making?

The answer has to be “no.” I understand the players’ side. If the owners make bad business decisions, it’s on them as far as I’m concerned. It’s not the players’ fault.

By: Daniel Felan

Daniel Felan — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 22:07:17 +0000

Ok, so the guys in that article say that what the owners are offering is not fair. I say bull****. The players are getting millions of dollars a year (ok, some players may not make that much, but they are still getting six figures)to play a game. I and many other like me would play for minimum wage if they let us. Get over your-selves. Be happy that you are talented enough to play a game you love for a living. A much better living than most of us “normal” people could ever dream of.