The following #NBAFanVoice Day submission comes from thewiz06, who has been one of our most consistent commenters on the site for quite some time. In this submission, thewiz06 lists all the ways the owners and players need to compromise to get this lockout solved.
What the players need to do.
- Accept the fact that a new system is coming in whether they like it or not. By evening out salaries among teams, the talent is overall going to be better spread out than before. A harder cap is necessary for that. If they don't like this system, they can take a hike. When an employee negotiates with his employer, sure some things can be changed here and there, but at some point, the employer will harden the hard lines. I've negotiated in my job for a few more bucks here and a benefit there, but if my employer had to make a systemic change, and I still want the old system, I'm gonna be the guy that's out of town at some point.
- Players have to understand that if the league and all 30 teams are profiting, then they are benefiting from this as well in the form of job security since no teams are in danger of folding.
- Players' talents will drive revenue up or down for their local teams due to their performance, and they too contribute to profit margins in that manner. The talents of the Miami Heat bring their revenues up, and the talents of the Minnesota Timberwolves drive revenues down.
What the owners need to do.
- Tie in the revenue sharing agreement to the CBA.
- Teams must be willing to take risks more often to try to improve, to the extent possible, especially when they are in "purgatory." It seems that in the NBA, maybe six to eight teams have at least a distant shot to win the Finals, and only three or four teams are truly rebuilding. Everyone else is either too good to be a bad team yet not good enough to win it all, or is a meddling team that still doesn't know what to do. Sure, the very bad contracts are part of the reason why teams are crippled, but even without them, there aren't enough teams who are willing to take risks on a regular basis.
- Guarantee that players' share of the pie increase in proportion with the revenues. I believe the owners are doing that, but they should continue that guarantee.
- Because the owners changed their demands considerably in their proposals, are they really losing so much money? The last system proposed was almost like the old one except for the tax.... Might as well keep the NHL cap.
- Since the lockout, unlike with the NFL, the NBA is trying to guilt trip the players by removing any and all pictures of them on the website and in the arenas, and the league apparently said something to the effect of "the players don't deserve to be on our site." This sends a very bad message as it implies that the league doesn't want to play basketball this year. If the league was serious about basketball, they should be keeping the site running as usual, but obviously there would be no player interviews, etc.