Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Training camp, preseason games in jeopardy



(Wilfredo Lee/ AP)
I wonder where the Heat will hold training camp this year...

            At this point, it's basically a done deal. Based on the current pace of talks, training camp will be missed, as will preseason games. This is seriously starting to look scary. There are guys signing overseas that won't be coming back, whether we have a season or not. China is accepting free agents who are willing to play the entire year overseas, and J.R. Smith and Wilson Chandler have already signed. If games start to be missed, I have a feeling that a lot more players will pursue employment in China, one of the biggest basketball markets in the world. If that happens, what will NBA rosters look like once play resumes? I bet the D-league has a record year for call-ups.
         
            There is a meeting scheduled for today between some of the staff members from each side, and league officials would then attend a follow up meeting on Thursday. Honestly, I know this is getting extremely old to anyone who follows basketball, but it's quite interesting to see how the league operates behind the scenes. Never have I been so interested in revenue sharing and the mid-level exception.

             The NBA needs to figure out how it's going to share revenue among it's teams. Players are going to want to know how that affects them before they can agree to a new CBA. However, owners are going to want to know what kind of money they are working with before agreeing on how to split revenue, so really, I can see why the negotiations are at a standstill. The good news is that it's rumored that the players have agreed to come down from their previous 57% of basketball related income to a number closer to 53%. 
           
             If you have an hour that you really want to dedicate to this issue (which I seriously doubt you do) then check out this Bill Simmons interview with NBA Commissioner David Stern.

             Go Eagles.

1 comment:

  1. Great post! Your writing keeps getting better and better. Keep it up!

    ReplyDelete