The OtherArena

[jdw]

Sports leagues have always been cooking their numbers to the public, and to a degree what they give the players.

John

[JAG]

And the owners' lies begin to stack up. What this means is, the NBA took in more money then projected this season. So the comeback wasn't just on paper.

Escrow money withheld from all NBA players' paychecks each season will be returned to them this offseason for the first time, providing a $160 million infusion of cash in the midst of the league's labor lockout.

The escrow funds -- representing eight percent of each NBA player's salary -- are held back each season to ensure that the players' share of basketball-related income does not exceed the contractually agreed-upon percentage, currently 57 percent. This year, for the first time since the system was introduced in the collective bargaining agreement that came out of the 1998-99 lockout, the cut to players will fall short, sources with the NBA and the National Basketball Players Association confirmed.

When a final audit is completed later this month, the players will have been paid less than 57 percent of BRI and will be due the entire $160 million. It's the first time the players will have the full escrow returned, a union spokesman said.

[Rian]

Big market/successful teams vs small market/non-successful teams. Sure the league as a whole made money, it's still just like major league baseball where money rules (with a few exceptions either way).

[jdw]

Like MLB, it's a Revenue Sharing issue. The NBA needs to figure out how to share the Lakers new cable deal, not how to reduce the players cut below 57%.

But the NBA, much like all sports, don't want to admit that the problem is Revenue Sharing, not Salaries.

So they go to war.

John

[corrado]

http://www.nba.com/schedules/national_tv_schedule/index.html

The 2011 National TV schedule. Season starts with Bulls/Mavs and Thunder/Lakers. Heat/Knicks are the night after.

The Christmas Day fun is:

12: Knicks/Celts (ESPN)
2:30: Heat/Mavs. (ABC)
5:00: Bulls/Lakers (ABC)

So the main event of Christmas is the Bulls against the Lakers. Surprised that they didnt go with Heat/Lakers. No other games that night. Probably due to an NFL game Christmas night.

Knicks are heavily featured. Not since the late 90's have they been on national TV every few games. They're on ABC a lot.

Of course all this will be null and void if theres no season this year. Which there may not be. I give there being an NFL season a higher chance of probility now.

[JAG]

Odd that the league split up Heat and the Lakers.

Especially for the Bulls, at least make it the Celtics.

Hope the NFL finalizing things spurs the NBA on. I've been waiting for a trade since February.

;)

Jagdip

[jdw]

It's very strange how limited the NBA went with the schedule. I can only guess that some of the five games last year didn't draw enough ratings to make it viable.

The NFL only has one game on Christmas:

12/25/11 8:20 pm EST: Chicago vs Green Bay

While Week 16 is usually in the prime zone for the Flex Schedule, since it's the only game on 12/25, I'm guessing that there is no Flex that week and instead the Flex gets moved up one week earlier this year.

The NBA is clearly timing Bulls-Lakers to get over by that time. I'm also guessing that rather than One Monster Draw (Lakers-Heat) that they're trying to get two. Lakers-Bulls sucks in two of the top three markets, while Lebron draws in the earlier time zone. Knicks-Celts packages two major markets in a decent time: after presents are open and before people have to head off for Xmass diner.

Overall, a reasonably smart schedule. Do think they could have the Clippers-Blazers game that airs the next night into a 10PM EST game on ESPN that ends after the NFL, and acts as a "blow out alternative" if people want to tune out on the Pakers-Bears if it turns into blowout.

John

[Rian]

[JAG]

[Rian]

Nobody of any value eh? Many of them have their posse's to feed. Feels like 1999 all over again!

[JAG]

Wojo continues to throw haymakers at the Commish. My favorite passages from today's hammering:

The reason for the union finally scheduling a meeting with the owners on Monday in New York City is simple: Union officials are trying to convince the players they’re doing something, but it’s worthless. This is a show. There’s nothing to negotiate, nothing to discuss. The NBA commissioner has made sure of it. Stern promised a new crop of owners that should they buy into the NBA, he’d give them the most one-sided labor deal in the history of sports. No fan has sympathy for these two sides, nor should they. Just understand this, though: When the NBA goes silent for a full year following a most wildly successful season, Stern will deserve full blame for the sport’s shutdown.

He won’t stand up to these owners, and why should he? He has the greatest job in sports, and someday soon he’ll be the highest-paid player in the NBA. Stern doesn’t need to push his owners on revenue sharing – the most viable solution for long-term league solvency – when it’s so much easier to go after the players and shut the sport down. He’s taking the easy way out, but it’s understandable considering the staggering salary these owners pay him.

Strange, but the union never has the courage to bring up the mystery surrounding Stern’s salary. Many owners don’t even know what Stern makes. “I’d say three or less know,” one NBA owner told Yahoo! Sports. Several believe it’s somewhere in the range of $20 million to $23 million a year, but no one knows for sure. Maybe it’s more than that, but the fact that some owners don’t know the answer is beyond belief.

So, yes, everyone waits on (Derek) Fisher now. He has big aspirations post-basketball, big possibilities. Stern knows it, too. It’s no accident that Stern’s deputy, Adam Silver, fawns over Fisher in stories. Oh, it’s so great to have him across the negotiating table. Yes, that’s just what the union rank and file should want to hear.

Will Fisher ever try throwing haymakers with the commissioner? He’s the consummate politician, but reason will get the union nowhere with these owners. The NBA doesn’t want negotiation, it wants capitulation. That’s why Monday’s talks were a waste of time, why nothing will happen until November and December when the players start missing checks. That’s when these owners – whatever they pay Stern – expect him to come for the kill, come to take everything back. If the players put up a fight, there’s no basketball this season. And that will be on David Stern, always and forever. There’s a case to be made in public now, the case of the commissioner, and now is the time to find out whether the union has the stomach for it.


http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=aw-wojnarowski_nba_labor_talks_080111

[JAG]

This is just for Rian. ;)

From Chris Sheridan, who used to be AP's top NBA guy and one of ESPN's before quietly leaving this summer. He posted this on his new site, sheridanhoops.com. Key tidbits below sans the numbers which you can find in the entire thing:

Here’s the dirty little secret about the NBA lockout, despite what both sides — the owners and the players — would have you believe:

They are a lot closer to a settlement than most people realize.

I know this because I talk regularly with a bunch of important people who tell me important things, and I am going to explain why I believe a settlement will be reached that will not only save the season, but also enable the NBA to have an “all is forgiven” honeymoon period (similar to what the NFL just experienced following its labor settlement) in which the frenzy of free agents signings, trades, training camps and exhibition games will make everyone forget all of the doomsday talk they’ve been hearing all summer.

Here is a projected timeline that pushes things about as far as you can push them:

Oct. 1: An agreement is reached on aggregate dollars.

Oct. 4: All remaining issues are settled.

Oct. 5-19: The agreement is put into writing.

Oct. 20: Free agency opens and players already under contract are allowed to report to their teams.

Oct. 21-31: Training camps are held, and each team plays two exhibition games.

Nov. 1: The season opens on time, with three games: Bulls-Mavericks and Thunder-Lakers in a TNT doubleheader, along with Rockets-Jazz.

So a settlement is coming, and I am here to tell you that it’ll likely come a lot sooner than most everyone else has been predicting. It’ll take a lot of back-and-forth over the remainder of September, but it can certainly get done when both sides can identify the middle ground and move there simultaneously.

http://sheridanhoops.com/2011/09/05/nba-lockout-update-sides-are-closer-than-theyre-saying/

Anyway, back to football...

Jagdip

[Rian]

Pretty much his last sentence invalidates everything he wrote previously, he'll miss his professional basketball this year just like everyone else.

[JAG]

You're ignoring the tea leaves:

The NBA and players' union held a five-hour bargaining session in New York on Wednesday.

The two sides have agreed to meet again on Thursday and possibly on Friday.

"I think there is" time to get a deal, union chief Billy Hunter said.

Derek Fisher said negotiations have evolved to a point where compromise is close, though both he and Hunter said that it wouldn't happen "until deal is done."

David Stern, Adam Silver and Dan Rube were present for the meeting representing the owners.

Via Ken Berger/CBS Sports http://twitter.com/#!/KBerg_CBS

Jagdip

[Rian]

"Derek Fisher said negotiations have evolved to a point where compromise is close, though both he and Hunter said that it wouldn't happen "until deal is done." "


I think this proves my point. Nothing is put on paper until the deal is done, no compromises, no nothing. Wake me up, when September ends.