Remember the lockout during the 2011-2012 campaign?
Well, prepare yourself for another potential lockout soon. The NBA agreed to a huge television deal worth $24 billion over nine years, which has players scratching their heads.
This conflict solely comes down to owners versus players and there’s no secret that the owners are winning financially in a major way.
There’s this notion that players should be willing to take pay cuts in order to win. Lakers legend Kobe Bryant wholeheartedly disagrees.
“It’s very easy to look at the elite players around the league and talk about the amount of money they get paid,” said Bryant. “But we don’t look at what the owners get paid, or how much revenue they generate off the backs of these players.
“Now you have a TV deal that comes out and you look at it almost being up a billion dollars from the previous one,” he continued. “It’s going to be interesting to see what happens in this next labor agreement…. I’m sure they’ll try to lock us out again, and harden the cap even more.”
It’s the perception of athletes that Kobe wants to change.
Soon after, Bryant gave his thoughts on Twitter, “Players are ‘encouraged’ per new CBA to take less to win or risk being called selfish+ungrateful while [the NBA television] deal goes UP by a BILLION #biz”
“I think people get that confused very easily in understanding that players should take substantially less than their market value, in order to win championships,” said Bryant. “I think as players, we need to hold our ground, and not be afraid of what the public perception is, but instead try to educate the public.”