At 12 a.m. on November 26, 2011, the NBA owners and players reached a deal on a new labor agreement, ending the 149 day lockout. The deal calls for a 66 game season in 2011-12, that will begin on Christmas Day, December 25, 2011 with the following games:
Miami Heat VS Dallas Mavericks
Boston Celtics VS New York Knicks
Chicago Bulls VS Los Angeles Lakers
Reading through the details of the new labor agreement, we think it’s pretty clear that one side got major concessions from the other. Here’s the winners from the new NBA labor agreement.
Owners Clear Winners in the Deal
The owners got major concessions from the players in the new deal. The biggest concession is that the players have agreed to a 50-50 revenue split of basketball related income (BRI). Under the the old deal, the players received 57% of the BRI. In dollar terms, the players are essentially giving back to the owners some $300 million a year under this deal.
That is roughly the exact amount of money the owners claimed to be collectively losing per season. The players are also giving back minor concessions like shorter guaranteed contracts and a harder salary cap to prevent richer teams from overspending.
Fans Also Win with the New NBA Labor Agreement
The new labor agreement will stretch for 10 years. This will be the longest labor agreement in NBA history. So NBA fans won’t have to sit through another labor impasse for many years, possibly up to 10. The deal will last for at least six seasons, then either side can opt out. So NBA fans will have labor peace, and no threat of another lockout for at least six years, and possibly lasting the full 10 years.
As an NBA fan, we cannot stand these labor problems and lockouts. If the NBA had played the entire season in 2011-12, they would have $4 billion dollars to split among the roughly 500 players and owners. Sometimes owners and players need to step back and look at the big picture. Your getting an incredible amount of revenue from the game to split among a very select few, and you can’t figure out how to split up $4 billion? Give me a break.
Cannot Call the NBA Players Losers
The NBA players went into the lockout as the highest paid athletes among the major sports in the United States. NBA players were paid, on average, $5.15 million per season. That is significantly more that MLB players make ($3.31 million), NHL players ($2.4 million) and NFL players make ($1.9 million). Even though the NBA players gave back some $300 million a year, they will still be the highest paid athletes in the United States by a huge margin.
You also know that the richer NBA teams, like the New York Knicks, Boston Celtics, Miami Heat, and Los Angeles Lakers will find ways around the salary cap, no matter how hard the owners say it is. That will also likely push the players salaries even higher than they are already projected to go
