The NBA Lockout: EXPLAINED

After a season filled with drama of epic proportions captured the attention of sports fans worldwide last year, the NBA is back for another season in full force.....or maybe not. Correction: the NBA lockout is here in full force to ruin our already miserable lives full of heartless politicians and ego-driven celebrities. The collective bargaining agreement, which is a legal contract that the players and the league sign to set up that rules in which they operate under, has expired after being re-done in 2005. In the previous collective bargaining agreement, otherwise known as the CBA, an agreement was reached for 57 percent of Basketball Related Income (BRI) to go to the players with the remaining 43% going to the owners. This includes any income that the NBA receives such as ticket sales, TV rights agreements, parking and concession sales, arena club revenues etc. The agreement also established a salary cap which is the limit to the total amount of money NBA teams are allowed to spend on their roster. A soft salary cap was enacted on which meant teams could exceed their salary cap through different exceptions such as the Larry Bird Rule, which allows teams to re-sign their own players. Are you confused already? I hope not because we just got started.

With the previous CBA expiring after last season, the owners and the players had to come to a new agreement to re-establish what the rules and regulations of operation in the NBA were, but owners and players were unable to come to an agreement which caused the players to essentially “lockout” meaning that they wouldn’t report to camp or play in games unless a set of rules for the finances of the league were decided on. The owners argued that they have lost as much as $370 million combined last season, but the players argue that it’s not their fault that the owners have lost money when they pay players more money than they are worth such as Eddy Curry who made $11 million even though he missed over 60 games just two seasons ago. The players have also questioned the accusations by the owners when the Warriors were recently sold for a record $450 million last summer. Deadspin recently exposed the Nets using accounting tricks to make a $7 million profit look like a $28 million loss. The owners have proposed to split up BRI 50 percent a piece but the players are not budging and have said they will go as low as 52 percent. Who do you think will blink first? Stay tuned to this developing story.

Check out my other blogs from today:
Random Ramblings: http://bit.ly/pmkIFQ
College Experience, so far: http://bit.ly/pPVHTZ