CBA/Lockout Discussion Thread

[WTF]

Re: CBA/Lockout Discussion Thread

WTF I totally get where you're going with the future talk. That said though man, this is putting all the blame for the league's failings on the players though. The owners still have to not be stupid ****s paying Darko the money he's making, or Rashard Lewis what he's getting or giving Eddie Curry the deal he got. The league could improve their revenue sharing to help with the problems they're having with these teams losing money but they don't wanna do that cause they're trying to take as big a bite of the pie that you're on the player's backs for taking.

Likewise, and I understand where you're coming from. Not confrontational at all, even though the text on the screen may come off wrong.

I just get heated about it because I was a police officer, and had to give it up because I couldn't support my family on the salary that I earned, which was not even near $50k. And for that job, I was shot at, nearly stabbed, went to court on your days off (probably for 4-6 hours each time/on my days off) working 10-14 hours ona regular day, worrying about my family, chipping into the community projects and being a positive face.

So when someone has to train, to play a game, and be forced into smiling for the cameras or going to a school to be a positive part of a childs life, but still make over $1mil per year... I feel they need a reality check.

The owners throw money around, no doubt. But even realizing the errors of their ways, I still look at the complaining players, and I'll point my fingers at them every time. You'll still be making over a million a year, for playing basketball.

I'll get off of my soapbox, as I'm spinning tires... but yeah. Not confrontational, just spirited when it comes to actors/entertainers making more than the men and women who sacrifice their lives for the lives that we're able to enjoy, both in the armed forces, and the police across the land.

[Dice]

Re: CBA/Lockout Discussion Thread

I'm on the players side with this and here's where I'm coming from.

If the NBA is loosing money as they say, I cannot put the blame on the players for it. Yes, there are over-sized salaries in the league. A LOT OF THEM. BUT why are the owners looking at the players to make concessions when it was the owners that put them there financially in the first place.

They need to look in your own camp and talk to:
- James Dolan on why he would sign Eddie Curry to a contract worth $20 million per year. Ask him why he hired Isiah Thomas to decimate his franchise.

- Go speak to the majority share holders of Atlanta Spirit LLC on why they would pay a guy like Joe Johnson a MAX contract. And while your at it, talk to them about their mishandling of the Atlanta Thrashers.

- To talk to Robert Saver on why his team isn't championship contenders when he had the building blocks about 6-7 years ago to build one.

- Go to talk Donald Sterling on why his team almost never competes for a title. I've been watching basketball for quite sometime and the LA Clippers HAS NEVER been listed as a 'championship contending team'. The ****ing Sacramento Kings at one point had a championship contending team!

- While we're on Sacramento, ask the Maloof brothers why they would threaten the city of Sacramento to move it's franchise from a city that actually loves basketball if the tax payers didn't take the burden of paying for a new stadium. How come they didn't make concessions on the deal? Your going to ask tax payers in a recession to carry majority of the cost for a new arena? Now the city in the November election told you to go **** off and now your taking your ball and going elsewhere? Classy.

The league being unbalanced. The financial mess. All these things are the owners fault. They are the ones running their franchises. They are the ones making decisions on their basketball teams that has nothing to do with winning a championship. They are the ones hiring idiots to run the actual teams into the ground. And for them to look at the players to make the sacrifice is some nerve. That's like getting your credit card stolen from you. Your report it in a timely fashion BUT the credit card company never deactivates it. The thief goes on a spending spree and then the credit card company turns around and tells you that you have to still pay for it.

And for those who want to compare being an NBA player to a regular working person...please stop right now. First, there is no comparison to regular working people. People fail to realize that NBA players have the power to do this because of the position they hold within the organization. Any regular person, works for a company that sells and promotes a product. In the dynamics of the NBA, the players are the product. Outside of organized sports and prostitution, what profession is setup where the employees are the product? If there is another outside of the ones that I mentioned, it's not many.

To me, I get what the players are standing for. I may not totally agree with it because in the end basketball fans will ultimately loose out. BUT this is about integrity. The owners we're the ones that claimed victory in the 99 CBA. And they still ran the league into the ground.

We talk about this as a necessity for the league and saving the owners from themselves. I say, go talk to someone else about that because I ain't buying it. I have a problem for rewarding or bailing out the responsible parties for the mess.

[Da-Man]

Re: CBA/Lockout Discussion Thread

I want the players to get all the money they want and i want the league as well as the small market teams to be profitable at the same time.

Cant we all just get along?

[RebelHog]

Re: CBA/Lockout Discussion Thread

I'm really not on any side of this, I just want basketball in the fall. That said, I take issue with the constant arguments of getting paid to play a game cause that's not all these guys do. If I'm working at a bank, I maybe work, five, six days a week. I go to work, hand out some money, deposit some checks/cash, count some cash and maybe a few other responsibilities. When I'm done, I go home that night, I see my wife and kid, go to bed wake up and do it all over. I don't have to really do much of anything outside of that job once I leave those walls. If I'm a pro athlete, my job is literally my life. Some people won't even workout and get in shape to make sure they live as long as possible. You HAVE to stay in shape to be a pro athlete. Watching what you eat, what you put in your body and so on. I get up and go to practice, I may have a photo shoot to do, appear at some kid's school, make a visit to some army base or hospital or whatever other event the NBA Cares program has going on while things in my personal life may be complete **** and I don't feel like smiling at people all day. Nevermind the fact that for those six months of the season maybe eight if I'm deep in the playoffs alot of those nights I'm on the road away from my kid taking his first steps, hitting his first homerun, learning her first cheerleading routine or whatever the situation may be. Meanwhile I have to deal with jackasses who don't wanna work seeing me as an easy target to rob so my family's life is in danger EVERY SINGLE day moreso than the average guy and the money to pay for that kind of round the clock security people think I shouldn't get because I 'only play a game' and therefore am overpaid.

God forbid I wanna go out to a club or bar or something to unwind after work like the casual people everyone thinks I should be and live so much like. Cause when the jackasses there recognize me and decide they wanna get rich quick off picking a fight and suing I get crap for the rest of my career for being a trouble maker or an idiot for being in a club or uneducated or whatever other clever insults bloggers, sportswriters and internet message boarders come up with after hearing about the incident on the news.

Not a personal shot at anybody so don't take it that way. Just saying these guys have a lot more on they're plates than just 'playing a game' and it's annoying as **** when people bring that up for why they're overpaid. Greenberg made a good point this morning and it's one I ask all the time. Why is it, that no one ever raises a bitchfit about actor's salaries? Brad Pitt makes like...10-20 million dollars a movie for pretending to be something he's not. At least athletes have legitimate talent. No one ever goes on tirades about actors being overpaid whiners or CEOs that are living in million dollar houses when a lot of them all they do is sit on their asses and delegate they're work to someone making 80 thousdand dollars a year. When it comes to athletes though, especially basketball players, it's all in on dissing they're pay.

Well let me tell you about the guys and girls that should be earning this ridiculous amount of money. The men and women of the Armed Forces. That's right, you know the ones, that are dying for freedoms these jack wagons have so they can practice their craft. I'm sorry I don't feel sorry for these overpaid, over-rated, ego-tistic pieces of crap. They are paid to play a game, take a ball put in the goal (same goes for all other paid pro athletic sports). They don't have the stress of dealing with a combat zone, wondering if they will see tomorrow, if their family is alright. They don't have to deal with the fact, that the little money we make, while good versus the private sector, is still not enough to feed our families, pay the house payment, the car payment, ensure the kids have good things, nice clothes, etc...

[King_B_Mack]

Re: CBA/Lockout Discussion Thread

I feel you on the police. In that example I wasn't including that line of work. But and I have realtives that are police officers. Not all cops are making under 50K my man. Maybe that's just where you live but Chicago cops get some decent pay.

You're still also only saying they're playing a game and trying to relate things to other professions. They are generating the sales. It doesn't matter what you do for a living if your company is generating the kind of sales that NBA Franchises do you deserve to get what you're owed out of that. You're basically saying they should be happy to get a dollar cause everyone else is making 25 cents. I get it that **** is hard out there for a lot of people, hell I'm one of them, but I'm not going to sit here and bitch because LeBron James is making 14 million dollars a year. Or some scrub who only sees the court in blowouts is making 700 thousand or something like that. If people are outraged by they're salaries just stop watching sports and paying for jerseys and jackets and sports packages and all this other ****. It's worse than the owners crying about salaries and then turning around and signing over they're daughters to the Eddie Robinsons of the world. You don't like it, step up and put a stop to it.

[23]

Re: CBA/Lockout Discussion Thread

im sorry dudes get personal chefs too cook healthy meals for them everyday because they get hungry and have to eat right

im sorry these guys get personal trainers doctors and meds along with hot tubs
whirlpools and even a great dental plan because well they have to take care of their bodies

Im sorry that a dude making 12million a year is sitting at a conference table asking for a pay raise even if the company is bleeding, while the average family has to watch the game from home because the ticket prices are freaking 250 a piece where you can actually see whats going on

Im sorry that they have to worry about the lives of someone else's children, let alone their own. Guess the rest of us poor saps havent heard of me my four and no more yet



Ill put it to you like this from a former player

People don't understand, if you can't live the rest of your life off one year in the NBA, you can't live off 21." -- Keon Clark

[Cubfan]

Re: CBA/Lockout Discussion Thread

Im not on either side because the owners and players signed off on these contracts. Nobody put a gun to the owners head to over pay the players.

[King_B_Mack]

Re: CBA/Lockout Discussion Thread

What the hell do getting whirlpools and all this other **** have to do with anything? I guess I missed the part where dudes gotta go buy fax machines and computer mainframes to get they're jobs done everywhere else. Or how JoJo in the post office had to buy that letter sorter for work that day. C'mon with that stuff man.

[da ThRONe]

Re: CBA/Lockout Discussion Thread

im sorry dudes get personal chefs too cook healthy meals for them everyday because they get hungry and have to eat right

im sorry these guys get personal trainers doctors and meds along with hot tubs
whirlpools and even a great dental plan because well they have to take care of their bodies

Im sorry that a dude making 12million a year is sitting at a conference table asking for a pay raise even if the company is bleeding, while the average family has to watch the game from home because the ticket prices are freaking 250 a piece where youngest can actually see whats going on

Imagine sorry that they have to worry about the lives of someone else's children, let alone their own. Guess the rest of us poor saps havent heard of me my four and no more yet



Ill put it to you like this from a former player

People don't understand, if you can't live the rest of your life off one year in the NBA, you can't live off 21." -- Keon Clark

The players aren't asking for anything they like the current CBA. And this way of thinking excuses the owners and their poor management skills. If the company is losing money due to employers incompetents I wouldn't want to be held responsible.

[23]

Re: CBA/Lockout Discussion Thread

The players aren't asking for anything they like the current CBA. And this way of thinking excuses the owners and their poor management skills. If the company is losing money due to employers incompetents I wouldn't want to be held responsible.

Those are luxuries afforded to them on top of pay.. .making excuses about them having to eat right it hardly a burden

most people wish they could afford personal chefs and all that.

I have no love for the decisions the owners have made over the years...but the players definitely are blinded to what goes into their bank account this very day

im not saying screw them over, but its time for a reality check on both sides

[King_B_Mack]

Re: CBA/Lockout Discussion Thread

You're confusing the issues though 23. You're making it seem like the players are asking for more money when they're trying to not take a paycut. I'm not saying they can't live off less money, but arguing that they get whirlpools and can afford personal chefs is meaningless. I don't care that people would love that luxury. They don't have jobs that generate the cash that the players do. Exactly what the hell are the owners going to do with all the money they save from the massive paycuts the players take? Suddenly the Cavs are going to win a championship? Suddenly tax payers are never going to have to pay for a new stadium every ten years or so when a team is threatening to leave a city? Suddenly Donald Sterling is going to be a basketball virtuoso? Just like every other job in the world since we're obsessed with comparing them, the players don't wanna take a paycut. I'd love to know how many people here would just take a paycut with no problem.

[SPTO]

Re: CBA/Lockout Discussion Thread

Guys like WTF and 23 speak the truth so I don't need to add anything. As you can tell i'm on the owners' side on this one. Yes, some of the problems are of their own making but things have escalated to the point that there needs to be some kind of balance. I mean when you have Charles Barkley of all people calling for some sanity then you know the players don't have much of a leg to stand on.

[da ThRONe]

Re: CBA/Lockout Discussion Thread

Guys like WTF and 23 speak the truth so I don't need to add anything. As you can tell i'm on the owners' side on this one. Yes, some of the problems are of their own making but things have escalated to the point that there needs to be some kind of balance. I mean when you have Charles Barkley of all people calling for some sanity then you know the players don't have much of a leg to stand on.

So everybody else is lying?

I don't understand the logic that these guys should just shut up and take whatever we give them. That they some how are where they are by luck. That they don't deserve their millions because they play a game. That's like saying Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg shouldn't be billionaires all they did was steal other peoples ideas.

[SPTO]

Re: CBA/Lockout Discussion Thread

So everybody else is lying?

I don't understand the logic that these guys should just shut up and take whatever we give them. That they some how are where they are by luck. That they don't deserve their millions because they play a game. That's like saying Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg shouldn't be billionaires all they did was steal other peoples ideas.

I wouldn't go that far but I would say that there needs to be some buckle tightening and you know, a cap that is actually a real cap rather than almost every team being over the cap with the now antiquated Larry Bird Rule. One thing is certain, the people that go to games are losing money as each year goes by but the players are getting bigger and bigger contracts. At some point the league is going to collapse on itself by over spending on player salaries.

In short, there needs to be cost certainty.

[da ThRONe]

Re: CBA/Lockout Discussion Thread

I wouldn't go that far but I would say that there needs to be some buckle tightening and you know, a cap that is actually a real cap rather than almost every team being over the cap with the now antiquated Larry Bird Rule. One thing is certain, the people that go to games are losing money as each year goes by but the players are getting bigger and bigger contracts. At some point the league is going to collapse on itself by over spending on player salaries.

In short, there needs to be cost certainty.

I agree the situation for whatever reason requires them to take a big pay cut. I think it's silly of them to think they will get around it by holding out, and ultimately will cost them more in the long run because the majority(if not all) of the owners are willing to cancel this season. The players can't afford to lose a season pay so they will break 1st.

This is completely different than the mindset that because nurses and cops are underpaid some how NBA players should take ever pay cut no matter why without contesting.