Simmons NBA financial straits article

[Mufasa_Reloaded]

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/st ... ons/090227

Long, but one of his best in a very long time. Going to be an interesting couple years.

The special promos sidebar made me crack

Also here's the accompanying NY Times article about Falk's words that's mentioned, also excellent: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/23/sport ... basketball

[Tim_Hardawayy]

That was a decent article except for the part where he bitches about the refs, and then chooses to single out a game where the Celtics lost.

[ss1986v2]

That was a decent article except for the part where he bitches about the refs, and then chooses to single out a game where the Celtics lost.

ya, hes a celtic homer, but that doesnt mean hes not right about the officiating.

[Harison]

Good read

[Mahoney_jr]

That was a decent article except for the part where he bitches about the refs, and then chooses to single out a game where the Celtics lost.

That was a bad selection to prove a point, because every non-Celtic fan will have repercussions about this argument, as soon as he mentioned the Celtics as an example. But you know what? He's right. It just happens that the Celtics have been to town when he wrote this article.

On balance that was a great article.

[YourBestFriend]

Interesting article. Glad he mentioned the officiating. I'm sure most of the fans here agree that something needs to be done there. Until they do, me and many others that have stayed away from the sport, will keep on doing so.

[candy for lunch]

I've never been through a financial strait, but I can tell you that I sure enjoy the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

[pac213up]

Definitely a good article and he hit the nail on the head with the officiating - not for just the Celtics but all teams. It's horrible, horrible, horrible, and not getting better. Also loved him calling out McGrady - one of the games most overrated players ever without question. What a waste of talent and really how soft can a player be.

[He Hate Me]

Yeah, it's all about these contracts. In my opinion there should be a lockout until we can get an acceptable contract size and affordable tickets. It costs 125 bucks to get a good seat in my stadium, F that. Mike Miller doesn't deserve 9 mill a year. NOBODY deserves a 100+ million contract. It's all so annoying! I agree with three year deals, since owners are too vaginal to make trades at least the FA market will get shaken up with shorter length contracts. I like how in the NFL teams can come outta nowhere and make a run. As a non-powerhouse fan it would give me some hope and raise attendance levels throughout the country.

The parity in the NBA is terrible and have you noticed how terrible every national game on tv has been recently. It's boring! The 4th quarter hasn't mattered in the last 5 nat'l games I've watched on tv. To combat this they only play the top 10 teams, and even those games manage to suck. I haven't gotten to watch K. Durant once this entire season, and that's a shame.

[lakerfan10770]

That was a decent article except for the part where he bitches about the refs, and then chooses to single out a game where the Celtics lost.

That was a bad selection to prove a point, because every non-Celtic fan will have repercussions about this argument, as soon as he mentioned the Celtics as an example. But you know what? He's right. It just happens that the Celtics have been to town when he wrote this article.

On balance that was a great article.

It would help if he actually tried using an example of how a team other than the Celtics got hosed by bad officiating. He is a guy that writes about the NBA on a regular basis, so I would assume that he watches more than just Celtic games. C'mon, seriously, are the Celtics the only team in the NBA that has bad calls go against them? We all know that he is a Celtics fan, he doesn't hide his bias at all, in fact he practically celebrates it. But as a national sports writer he has to expect some criticism when he let's his bias show so blatantly.

[RoyceDa59]

That is an absolute must read for any NBA or sports fan. Great article that nailed the entire situation of the NBA and the economy right on the head.

[amb1ent]

Yeah, it's all about these contracts. In my opinion there should be a lockout until we can get an acceptable contract size and affordable tickets. It costs 125 bucks to get a good seat in my stadium, F that. Mike Miller doesn't deserve 9 mill a year. NOBODY deserves a 100+ million contract. It's all so annoying! I agree with three year deals, since owners are too vaginal to make trades at least the FA market will get shaken up with shorter length contracts. I like how in the NFL teams can come outta nowhere and make a run. As a non-powerhouse fan it would give me some hope and raise attendance levels throughout the country.

The parity in the NBA is terrible and have you noticed how terrible every national game on tv has been recently. It's boring! The 4th quarter hasn't mattered in the last 5 nat'l games I've watched on tv. To combat this they only play the top 10 teams, and even those games manage to suck. I haven't gotten to watch K. Durant once this entire season, and that's a shame.

what, only $125? wanna trade for my $70 nosebleeds?

[moofs]

Here's why this all worries me... I don't think the economy is "doom doom!" (as a coworker of mine stated she was sick of hearing), more that this is another contraction.

You used to actually be able to own land, that ability was taken away (property taxes, some other things - but this has always looked to me like it was a push almost from the founding of the U.S.).
You used to buy houses in cash if you even bought them instead of building them with your own resources. Then you bought houses on credit.
After that, you still bought cars in cash and they lasted a long time. Then they lasted less time and you bought them on credit.
Now there's a push to buy even small $1-3k items on credit, and a lot of people have to. If the contraction is successful, they may REALLY have to.
What's in the future, payment plans on a steak?

That's what I'm worried about. That, and the time in the middle of that contraction won't be fun. But it should pull out, always has before. It's just a long, continual move to force everyone to use more and more credit and own less and less. Remember how Andrew Jackson loathed banks? I don't hate them per se, but the more I read, it seems like they've definitely been winning the power wars over the last century.

I've thought for several years now that the president (at the very least, recent presidents) didn't really run the country, just pulls some certain strings. This article makes it look like even a large group of the wealthiest men in the world are shuddering and losing their power. That's just... Is anyone else reading this differently? I've been known to be a bit paranoid at times, am admittedly a rookie in the realms of finance and banking, and am a straight-up nincompoop at macroeconomics.

(at least people aren't naming their kids Bob Cratchit yet)

[erudite23]

The closest thing he's ever done to a true blue piece of journalism, and I loved every word.

I do want to comment on what his predictions for the upcoming lockout will be. I don't see the MLE, ETOs or max salaries being that big of a deal. The easy way (and I've made several posts about this on the General Board) to eliminate most of the problems with the NBA is to simply eliminate the guarantee on contracts. Voila! Done. The biggest single problem right now in the NBA, bigger than the officiating, bigger than attendance numbers or dropping sponsors, is the fact that every decently sized NBA contract is 100% guaranteed, come hell, high water or recession.

Who the hell has job security like that? I mean, seriously. Does anyone here get to walk into their job and say "ya know, I don't feel like working this year, I think I'm going to grow a beard, hide out in my house 24/7, piss off corporate, rile up our customers and make them want to go somewhere else, put on 20lbs by eating fast food exclusively and mostly just drift whichever way! Just keep sending those paychecks along!"

How is this a system that works? We root for a league wherein a player is signed to a contract, and 70% of the time the team is looking to move that player within 1 year of the signing because he isn't worth what he is getting paid. Not just that, but even contracts that begin reasonably well almost always end up being bad contracts in their late stages. Look at Jason Kidd, or AI, or TMac, or JO, or Marbury or.....need I go on?

The result of this is two fold:

1) Team ownership is not a winning proposition. Most owners are happy just to not lose money. Yet everyone else in the organization is making a ton. Players, coaches, GMs, player personnel, VPs etc etc all make a killing. Yet the owner makes nothing? And we are surprised when owners act callous and careless towards the communities that they are part of, when they essentially get nothing out of owning a team?

2) Value has to come from somehwere. Most often, young players who are playing on the cheap make up for thier overpaid bretheren. When you have someone like Brian Cardinal taking up 7m of your cap space, you can't just bring in another 7m a year player to replace what you should be getting from him. Instead players like Craig Smith don't make jack **** compared to what they produce, and yet their money is going to someone else because they are attached to a rookie wage scale for multiple years that doesn't allow them timely raises.


This system is a mess. Players should get partially guaranteed contracts that provide incentive to actually, you know, earn a portion of their yearly salary. A system like the NFL's, except maybe allowing a slightly higher guaranteed percentage, would fix most of the problems with the NBA, and allow teams to make moves for the sake of basketball, rather than for the sake of finances. That way a big mistake would only kill your team for a year or two, rather than relegating them to hell for 5 or 6 straight seasons like can currently happen.

We need to make this happen.

[JDubJazz]

...I do want to comment on what his predictions for the upcoming lockout will be. I don't see the MLE, ETOs or max salaries being that big of a deal. The easy way (and I've made several posts about this on the General Board) to eliminate most of the problems with the NBA is to simply eliminate the guarantee on contracts. Voila! Done. The biggest single problem right now in the NBA, bigger than the officiating, bigger than attendance numbers or dropping sponsors, is the fact that every decently sized NBA contract is 100% guaranteed, come hell, high water or recession....

My sentiments exactly! Guaranteed contracts are the bane of MLB and NBA. I can understand a one or a two year guarantee, but, given the nature of sport and injury, anything longer than that is rediculous. Incentive clauses should make up the majority of a players yearly salary after two years. It rewards players for actually giving a crap, and doesn't ruin franchises if they fall apart.

The other thing I would like to see, is relegation. If a team finishes under 25 wins for three consecutive seasons, then the franchise should relegated to the D-League for one year. Its players would be dispersed in a contraction draft and the team would be allowed to return as an expansion team the following year. I know its a pipe dream that will never happen, but there needs to be consequences for underperforming owners as well as players.

[raptorsfan_04]

"The last "need" is easier said than done, as the Grizzlies would tell you -- owner Michael Heisley would leave treadmarks fleeing Memphis if he weren't tied to FedEx Forum through 2015. Then again, Hijack City owners McClendon and Clay Bennett showed us a nice blueprint for weaseling out of a lease in Seattle last year, a strategy best described as, "make up selfish reasons to leave, make your move, leave a trail of broken hearts, bastardize the integrity of the league, then make everything OK by just paying everyone off because the city will be greedy enough to accept a cash settlement right away over fighting you in court for the next six years." Thank you, fellas. You guys will be remembered as the Lewis and Clark of Scumbag NBA Owners."
- Bill Simmons

lol best part of the entire article... honestly hands down best simmon's articles and probably the best piece of journalism ive ever read