Columnists :: The Boston Sports Beat
A work stoppage would be disastrous for the NBA by Brandon Simes
Managing EditorMonday Feb 8, 2010 Owners, players union would be wise to keep negotiations private and swift
Apparently, the previously amicable Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) negotiations between the NBA’s owners (i.e. billionaires) and players (i.e. millionaires) have soured.
Adonal Foyle, a 6’10" center with a career shooting percentage of 47.7 from the field and under 50 percent from the free throw line who has benefited greatly from the current CBA, having taken home over $40 million in his pathetic career, just threw this salvo to the media after the owners made their first offer for a new deal, to start in 2011-2012 season: "This [new proposal] has gone too far. It wants a hard cap, it basically will create no middle class and which, in effect, means none of the Bird rules would apply."
He continued on.
"I think when you look at the current CBA as it stands, it benefits both the players and owners. This is an agreement where we can [quibble] with different things within it, but it’s an agreement that gives some things to both parties involved," Foyle told ESPN.com. "A system like [the new proposal] would be too restrictive, and it doesn’t jibe with what we think the league is. We have been willing to negotiate a guarantee that we don’t get over a certain threshold, and no other businesses do that. We hold back 9 percent of our income so that the owners can make sure they are covered on the back end. We have given up a lot of stuff, and they have given up a lot of stuff, so I think to start off a negotiation in this rash a term, I think it’s unfair."
Well, there goes that bout of harmony. But before the situation devolves into a shouting match and a work stoppage, let’s offer these rich men some advice.
Adonal and amigos, shut up. You probably are right. The owners are richer than you for a reason. They’re very good at making money by trimming costs and boosting profits. You are their biggest cost. But for a man who has more money than he could ever spend (OK, that’s not true, as Antoine Walker showed us), such talk is most likely not going to resonate with fans struggling to buy expensive tickets in the midst of The Great Recession. I know very few people who consistently perform as poorly as work as you do who get to keep their jobs, and you do it while being unconscionably overpaid. Keep it quiet, keep it classy, and keep it behind closed doors.
Next, I have some advice for you owners. DO NOT overplay your hand. Yes, the players will give in on lots of your requirements in this round of negotiating because of the state of the economy. But a work stoppage will end up costing you even more, and next time around, when the economy isn’t in the dumps (assuming it ever picks up), the players won’t forget your tactics. They’ll in turn hold out, and you’ll either have to give in to their terms or face a strike. Once again, no one wins there.
So, you titans of industry and premature millionaires, don’t screw this one up. The NHL has come a long way since it lost a year to foolish negotiations, and it’s still a distant fourth among the major sports. A very distant fourth. If you want to go down that path, and give people a chance to find other interests, ones that cost less and take up less time, you’ll only have yourselves to blame when talk of contraction enters the fold in a few years.
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