The NBA and the National Basketball Players’ Association could be headed for another lengthy battle in renewing the collective bargaining agreement in 2017. Both parties have an opt-out clause under the current CBA (the other party must be informed by December 15, 2016) and that could lead to another lengthy discussion and lockout should an agreement not be reached right away.
NBPA executive director Michele Roberts has already begun setting the basis of the discussions with an appearance on the Vertical Podcast with Adrian Wojnarowski. Roberts’ overarching point continued to be the fact that maximum contracts are harmful to the players as they cap their values at a number that is often not representative of their worth to the team and franchise. In fact, according to Roberts, NBA players are actually vastly underpaid.
The following transcribed by Pro Basketball Talk:
As long we understand I’m not negotiating, the answer is yes. And I don’t think that’s even debatable. These guys are enormously undervalued, and I hope that that’s not a secret, because it’s certainly the truth.
Basketball players are the most recognizable athletes, I think, on the planet. I’ve travelled now to a couple of games outside of the country, and I almost wish that people could see how these guys are rock stars – not just here, but they are rock stars all over the world. Now, television helps. […]
And so, someone asked me how much I thought LeBron was worth, and I said he was worth his weight in gold. And then someone pointed out how much gold and said far more than that. And I said, “OK, you’re right. Going to get me fired.”
But, yeah, they are.
Roberts certainly has a point. NBA superstars, in particular, are underpaid due to the current state of the CBA. A player like LeBron James is worth way more than what he is paid both on the court and off of it. Getting rid of max contracts in general is the quick solution to this.
Of course, that can have vastly negative effects as well. Most importantly, it would lead to mid-level players getting paid less as the majority of available team money would be funneled towards the stars. In that sense, the lower-tier players would be the ones that become underpaid.
This will be an interesting discussion next summer and it will surely cause plenty of debate between both the NBA and NBPA. There may not be a perfect solution, but hopefully both sides will find a compromise that benefits everyone, including the fans.
