August is actually better. It's like fighting with your girl for 3 days and needing a break before you see her face again. If they did it any sooner, there is a good chance they would piss each other off until they don't talk again until October.
The owners have their heads up their ass really. They want their money back but who gave the players the money? OWNERS. They want a system that makes small market teams competitive. How? The Utah Jazz traded Deron Williams at random to rebuild. How is that bigger markets faults?
How is it the players fault that some idiot owner gave Joe Johnson 120 million contract and your team is losing money and can't draw fans consistently? If Joe was a superstar people would pay to see a PLAYOFF team. But again, they are losing money but signing high salary contracts. While teams like the Knicks sign Amare and Melo and sell out 2012 tickets in less than 20 minutes of the Melo trade.
The new system would ruin Lakers, Mavs, Magic, Knicks from building a contender which is totally unfair. The flex cap would ruin any teams from signing role players. And the role players would have to accept 1 million dollar deals which is a slap in the face.
I hate the NBA. It's the least of my favourite sports out of the big 4 in North America. I heard someone in another post say the NBA was the second most popular sport of the 4. I feel it has lost that distinction to MLB, years ago even, but that's neither here nor there. I'm bring this guys post to question. The owners aren't at fault in this mess (entirely at least). Hard pressing agents and whining ass players are as much the reason. It's not Atlanta's fault that some suit is telling them unless they sign this player to this amount of money, he'll go and sign with NY or LA for 20 million less. It's not the owners fault that certain players compare salaries as much as they compare stats. Yes, no player is going to walk away and say no when 20 million is on the table, but it's usually the players and their agents that try to squeeze every dollar they can from the owners.
Lebron, Wade, Kobe, Rose, Howard, etc, none of these players are going to sign with a mid or low market team like Atlanta, so who else is Atlanta going to go after? You ask why they signed Johnson if he wasn't going to draw fans, who the F- else would Atlanta have signed? None of those guys would've, Amare and Melo wouldn't have, and I'm sure many others around their talents wouldn't either. Reasons why Atlanta felt obligated to sign secondary players to top player salaries, reasons why Utah needs to trade their star players, is big market franchises fault. To try and compete with them, to ensure they get something. As we've seen with Miami, as we seen with Boston, they can build contenders at will and sell out tickets, but how does that help the league as a whole? These teams, given their urban populations and sport heritage, should sell out tickets, regardless. Lakers, Mavs, Heat, Knicks, they do sell out tickets, they do make money, off year or championship year. It's the other 22 other teams that need help. They need to be able to sign quality stars so their fans have reasons to come. Stars won't take a sniff at Atlanta or Minnesota or Portland. You know why Toronto, a large enough market compared to most NBA cities, can't make money and compete? Because Vince Carter doesn't want to play in TO. Tracy McGrady didn't either, and now Chris Bosh left. How is Toronto supposed to make money and compete if, the star players simply go to the highest bidder or biggest market. How is Toronto supposed to bring in fans if they have to wait until Miami, LA, Boston, or some other star laden team comes to Toronto to play them because no casual fan wants to see some players that would be riding the bench elsewhere play.
I don't see how implementing a new salary system where 6 or 8 cities can't build a championship team every season is unfair. Who cares if Knicks or Lakers can't build championship teams. At the end of the season, they will make money, win or lose. It seems more unfair that Golden State, Sacramento, Oakland, Memphis, Utah, Milwaukee, etc, will never amount to anything unless they draft exceptionally well for 3 straight years, and thus can never make money or contribute to the league as a whole.
Recession is everywhere. I don't see why sports athletes shouldn't expect a pay cut. Role players should expect a million a season or more. They play 6 or 12 minutes a game. I know they're on the road and practice daily, but to say you toss around a ball for about 10 minutes 4-6 days a week and get paid millions is absurd.
The players need to get their asses out of their heads. They're being played millions doing something they've enjoyed doing for years. There playing in a league they dreamed about since they were in school. They play in a sport with the fewest amount of players on a team, thus have opportunities for every player on the team to make at least 1 million and the stars 10 million, and their team salary would still be under that of most NFL, MLB, and NHL franchises. The owners say their losing money, if the NHL lockout taught me anything, they ain't bluffing. The players are only hurting themselves more by refusing to compromise. At the end of it all, it's the league that gets hurt because the fans feel they will be cheated out of a season and that in turn hurts the players more. The owners will not budge on this matter until they can ensure a system of revenue sharing and controlled salaries where they can make money, just as the NHL did a few years back. Sports is a business and in order to do good business, both sides must be seeing green and not red. The players, regardless, will be paid better than any doctor, police officer, solider, politician, lawyer, investment advisor, repair man, and just about any other job that's more important, so they need to do what's best and listen to what the owners are trying to tell them. They have to think about the betterment of the league 10 years down the road and ensuring every owner makes money, cause when every team makes money, every player will make more money.
Isn't that all worth ensuring the future of you league and your own financial wealth?
