HomoSapien wrote:Zaslav sucks. Big reason for why the Hollywood strike lasted as long as it did and also robbed us of more Michael Keaton as Batman.
https://youtu.be/_HctNawsHww?si=m93cpKh7DfMZDY8f
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HomoSapien wrote:Zaslav sucks. Big reason for why the Hollywood strike lasted as long as it did and also robbed us of more Michael Keaton as Batman.
jnrjr79 wrote:Holy guacamole:
I can't actually open the article it b/c it's paywalled, but a screenshot posted to Twitter of an article on Puck News says that the total rights deals are anticipated to go from $2.7 billion/year to "around $7 billion."
I know there is cap smoothing now, but hoo boy, salaries are going to get insane.
SalmonsSuperfan wrote:jnrjr79 wrote:Holy guacamole:
I can't actually open the article it b/c it's paywalled, but a screenshot posted to Twitter of an article on Puck News says that the total rights deals are anticipated to go from $2.7 billion/year to "around $7 billion."
I know there is cap smoothing now, but hoo boy, salaries are going to get insane.
that's **** insane. why? that's too much money.
Still, you know what would be cool? If they took a chunk of that change and created a proper minor league system. The Gatorade league is cool and all, but it's treated like a joke and nobody cares about it, NBA teams or fans. It and could actually serve its purpose to help develop young players who aren't ready to go against seasoned pros. Or to take flyers on NBA-adjacent players who might turn into good role players if given the opportunity. If salaries were competitive enough, the Gatorade league (rebranded to something that isn't a **** joke) could probably poach Euroleague talent, it would be nice to integrate that into the NBA, make teams more competitive, give them more flexibility while giving opportunities to more players. Could also bring a more enjoyable live basketball experience to the host towns of Gatorade teams and potential for expansion. Seems like good business to me. Also, frankly, player salaries are high enough. Rather than further inflating the absurd salaries of the likes of Zach Lavine, how about distributing that money on the lower end of the salary spectrum to attract more (marginal) talent to the NBA.
dougthonus wrote:SalmonsSuperfan wrote:jnrjr79 wrote:Holy guacamole:
I can't actually open the article it b/c it's paywalled, but a screenshot posted to Twitter of an article on Puck News says that the total rights deals are anticipated to go from $2.7 billion/year to "around $7 billion."
I know there is cap smoothing now, but hoo boy, salaries are going to get insane.
that's **** insane. why? that's too much money.
Still, you know what would be cool? If they took a chunk of that change and created a proper minor league system. The Gatorade league is cool and all, but it's treated like a joke and nobody cares about it, NBA teams or fans. It and could actually serve its purpose to help develop young players who aren't ready to go against seasoned pros. Or to take flyers on NBA-adjacent players who might turn into good role players if given the opportunity. If salaries were competitive enough, the Gatorade league (rebranded to something that isn't a **** joke) could probably poach Euroleague talent, it would be nice to integrate that into the NBA, make teams more competitive, give them more flexibility while giving opportunities to more players. Could also bring a more enjoyable live basketball experience to the host towns of Gatorade teams and potential for expansion. Seems like good business to me. Also, frankly, player salaries are high enough. Rather than further inflating the absurd salaries of the likes of Zach Lavine, how about distributing that money on the lower end of the salary spectrum to attract more (marginal) talent to the NBA.
The money is what the money is. The owners are a much smaller group than the players and get 50% of that new money too, split it into far fewer pieces, and are also already orders of magnitude wealthier. Like Steve Balmer has 200x more money than the richest player in the world. Why are you upset about the players getting more and not the owners?
Also worth noting, anyone is free to invest in a minor league system if they want to with their share of the money given that they are billionaires and all and (and some players and owners have). But I don't think a minor league system would be any major benefit to the NBA. Most teams already have like 5 prospects on their roster that will never be meaningful players with the advent of the two way contract, and those guys already can play in the G-League to improve.
SalmonsSuperfan wrote:it's too much money for the owners AND the players, Doug. That's what I wrote. Reinsdorf can net a billion shoving gambling down children's throats and Pat Williams can net a couple million marketing products made in a sweatshop in Bangladesh. This isn't some analogy for a labor struggle, the "laborers" are also some of the wealthiest men who have ever existed on this planet.
it's too much **** money and no it's not "it is what it is" the money comes from somewhere. or in this case, it probably doesn't come from anywhere. it's fake money. NBA viewership has declined, overall interest in the sport has too. So these people responsible for producing an inferior product over the years should be rewarded with a 300% raise? they might profit more than $7bil but it won't be because of sports. It will be because professional basketball will have gone the way of horse racing. it already has, but expect more DraftKing and Ozempic ads targeted at 13-year-olds.
of course, while the reality of the situation is that professional sports is broken, a fake industry where it's impossible not to turn a profit at a higher rate of return than any index fund; an industry that has no business being controlled by any private individual, I still enjoy watching them. I've offered an idea that could take that ~$4bil and use it in a way to make the sport better, a better experience for the fans, maybe even a vehicle for economic development (evidence that minor league ballparks have a positive effect on local economies) not to line the pockets of "working class" NBA players. I think this gets lost in the labor analogy between ownership and players, that the fans, the public, are the actual "workers" in the equation, consequently we don't have any say in creating or improving these public goods (sport is definitely a public good) that are controlled by wealthy elites.
Ice Man wrote:The NBA old timers must be wincing. Charles Barkley made $37 million in his entire career. Once this new deal kicks in players at the level of Coby White and Pat Williams will be making that much each year.
Ice Man wrote:The NBA old timers must be wincing. Charles Barkley made $37 million in his entire career. Once this new deal kicks in players at the level of Coby White and Pat Williams will be making that much each year.
prolific passer wrote:So when are we going to hear the news about all this?
kodo wrote:prolific passer wrote:So when are we going to hear the news about all this?
Bill Simmons said it's done, Zaslav (TNT) didn't outbid to retain the NBA. He's been making this kind of noise for a long time, so no investors should be surprised. Most likely they don't want to announce anything until the POs are over because TNT is still hosting them.
Not official obviously.
prolific passer wrote:Be nice to see NBA on NBC again but not at the cost of tnt. ESPN/ABC? Sure.
dougthonus wrote:It would be interesting if TNT sold the rights to inside the NBA to NBC as part of the transition.
They'd have no use for anyone on the staff anymore or to keep the show, NBC would do well to buy the brand to get immediate love and widespread adoption. TNT would be better off getting the money than not getting the money. No one involved in the cast likely has anything immediately better lined up or could line up something better.
It seems like a move that would work well for all parties, but I haven't heard anyone talk about it.
League Circles wrote:I can't imagine there's much incentive for NBC to pay for this. They could likely recreate the show to whatever extent they want by just picking the bones of the show's personnel. Hard to imagine any contractual elements preventing people from signing with NBC once TNT is out.
dougthonus wrote:League Circles wrote:I can't imagine there's much incentive for NBC to pay for this. They could likely recreate the show to whatever extent they want by just picking the bones of the show's personnel. Hard to imagine any contractual elements preventing people from signing with NBC once TNT is out.
I thought about that too, but I think there is value in these ways:
1: it's an emmy award winning brand that has wide spread recognition even with casual fans as the best NBA show there is.
2: Ernie Johnson is reportedly tied to TNT long term and can't move if they don't pay
3: You just paid 2.5B for the NBA, why would you not want to pay say 10M more per year to buy this show and give your massive investment the best chance at success? It's pennies relative to what you have spent already
It does depend on the cost of course, if TNT is bitter about the whole thing and is like FU, 500M for the rights to Inside the NBA, yeah, you aren't doing it, but if a reasonable cost can be worked out, I'd do it if I'm NBC.