The new NBAPA director is already making waves in her role. Michele Roberts is looking to eliminate the salary cap, eliminate age restrictions and get players more than a 50/50 revenue split.
“Let’s call it what it is. There. Would. Be. No. Money,” she added, pausing for emphasis. “Thirty more owners can come in, and nothing will change. These guys [the players] go? The game will change. So let’s stop pretending.”
“I don’t know of any space other than the world of sports where there’s this notion that we will artificially deflate what someone’s able to make, just because,” she said, talking about a salary cap — a collectively bargained policy that, in its current form, has constrained team spending in the NBA since 1984-85. “It’s incredibly un-American. My DNA is offended by it.”
Commissioner Adam Silver wasted no time in responding to Roberts and issued the following statement:
“We couldn’t disagree more with these statements,” Silver said. “The NBA’s success is based on the collective efforts and investments of all of the team owners, the thousands of employees at our teams and arenas, and our extraordinarily talented players. No single group could accomplish this on its own. Nor is there anything unusual or “un-American” in a unionized industry to have a collective system for paying employees – in fact, that’s the norm.
“The Salary Cap system, which splits revenues between team owners and players and has been agreed upon by the NBA and the Players Association since 1982, has served as a foundation for the growth of the league and has enabled NBA players to become the highest paid professional athletes in the world. We will address all of these topics and others with the Players Association at the appropriate time.”
The current CBA is up for discussion in 2017, but this is already looking very ugly. Hopefully, the two groups can manage to iron out these issues before then, but if the past is an indicator, the NBA is likely headed to a lockout.
[h/t ESPN]