2011-2012 without the NBA

[Scout200]

Many people are saying that a lockout is inevitable for the 2011-2012 season. What impact will it have on the NBA, players, fans.. and in general, America? Also, if there is a lockout, who would be to blame?

[skangles]

The players will be to blame. The owners have all of the leverage right now and they need to get some control around the outrageous salaries/contract structure that we're currently seeing. I'd prefer for the owners to stay strong and not crack under the players demands even if this means that there is no NBA basketball next season. Getting the salaries under control will be much better for the league in the long term, even at the expense of the 2011-2012 season.

The interesting element is that the NFL is also at risk of a lockout next season. What type of impact would it have if both the NBA and the NFL were locked out next Fall/Winter? It's ironic that I would like the NBA to follow the NFL mold when it comes to guaranteed contracts. These contracts are crippling the league and players need to play every year as if it's a contract year.

[Kenneth23]

I think that many players could come Europe. It could take a while before there will be agreement. But I hope there will be no lockout and that the NBA season will be played like usual.

[stefans]

I think that many players could come Europe. It could take a while before there will be agreement. But I hope there will be no lockout and that the NBA season will be played like usual.

Brandon Jennings from Milwaukee said that if there is lock-out next season he will return to Italy.

[Raze Lupin]

The players will be to blame. The owners have all of the leverage right now and they need to get some control around the outrageous salaries/contract structure that we're currently seeing. I'd prefer for the owners to stay strong and not crack under the players demands even if this means that there is no NBA basketball next season. Getting the salaries under control will be much better for the league in the long term, even at the expense of the 2011-2012 season.

The interesting element is that the NFL is also at risk of a lockout next season. What type of impact would it have if both the NBA and the NFL were locked out next Fall/Winter? It's ironic that I would like the NBA to follow the NFL mold when it comes to guaranteed contracts. These contracts are crippling the league and players need to play every year as if it's a contract year.

Ditto! I'm with you for the most part. I think asking the players to take a 30% cut is not unreasonable for most NBA players. No matter what the situation is the players will take the brunt of the blame and scorn. Mostly because it's easier to put a face to players. Most owners are faceless to the masses. So the owners part in this mess is not considered by many people. In the present US economy its hard for many of us to have sympathy for athlethes making ridicoulous amounts of coin. It's a shame its come to this. The NBA is having a great season. 2012 looks to be promising as well. For the first time in awhile im really liking the NBA. The overall collection of talent and supertalents has reached critical mass. There are many positive things going on in the NBA.

Yeah if the NFL and NBA go on a lockout that would be an unreal year. I would expect mass suicides and acts of violence to occur. Thankfully NCAA can pick up the slack. Still Can you imagine a year without Monday night football??? No *duh duh duh duh DUH DUH!..NFL theme* No "All my rowdy friends are coming over tonight".

[Scout200]

I think that many players could come Europe. It could take a while before there will be agreement. But I hope there will be no lockout and that the NBA season will be played like usual.

I agree! I can envision a lot of players... (especially superstars like LeBron, Kobe and Durant) trying to expand their brand by expanding to Europe. This could end ugly for the NBA!

[Led00]

I wouldn't want to see any lock out, but NBA has turned into something that is going to far from sport... Something has to be done so we can all return and watch NBA with respect as once was...

[Kenneth23]

Andrei Kirilenko will go and play for a Russian team if the lockout will happen

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/sports/5103...s.html.csp

[Kenneth23]

Mehmet Okur will consider to play in Turkey if there's an NBA lockout

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/blogsjazzno...n.html.csp

[stefans]

If NBA lock-out happen.It will be ugly for NBA.Most Europeans in NBA will back to Europe.

[skangles]

If NBA lock-out happen.It will be ugly for NBA.Most Europeans in NBA will back to Europe.

These players would still be under contract by the NBA. The European teams would need to have short-term contracts with the players and when/if the lock out is resolved the players would return the NBA team who owns their contract. The only exception to this would be players who are a free agent at the end of the 2010/11 season. They would be free to sign with any team in the world for as long as they wish.

[Led00]

I think there is no way to lock NBA for the next season... There r so many ways to get things done proper before a lock-out happens...

[Raze Lupin]

Prep work

How Kevin Love is preparing for a possible NBA lockout

LAST YEAR, AFTER MY second season, I felt we were going to have a lockout, so I started thinking, How much do I have to put away if we miss a whole year? Every meeting we have with the players' union begins and ends with a reminder that you don't want to become that guy who's out there bagging groceries. I don't have the most to worry about, but losing a whole year of pay is a lot of money for anybody. We have a lot of young guys on rookie contracts without big shoe deals, so it's not going to be easy on some players. And a lot of guys have been living paycheck to paycheck, as if a lockout would never come. It's different for us compared to the younger guys at the last lockout, because they signed big deals coming in.

I started putting away money my first year in the NBA. My parents still live in the house I grew up in [in Lake Oswego, Ore.], so I bought it and renovated it over the past year. It improved my parents' quality of life, but it's also a great investment, much better than selling it and buying another house. So we basically gutted it: new roof, windows, plumbing, heating system, light fixtures. Now when you're in the house, it feels like 2011, not 1990. The only things left are my trophies and my old room. My parents wanted to keep it pretty much the same. I also bought them a couple of really nice cars. And I bought my first car -- a new 2009 Range Rover, the one I still have -- and got a nice apartment. Then I sat down with my agent, my financial adviser and my parents and told them I had a number in mind I wanted to put away every paycheck. They said I should enjoy myself a little and tweaked it down, but I still put away 75 percent of every check my first year, and the percentage has gone up the past two years. It's generating interest.

A year ago, I was planning to buy an off-season property in Southern California. I talked to Tyson Chandler about it when we were on Team USA together in Istanbul. He showed me photos and a video of his house in Rancho Santa Fe. I looked into a couple of houses in Santa Monica and Brentwood, but I decided to hold off until after the lockout and see what my options are. I don't know what's going to happen, and I want to see where I'm at financially before I invest. You just have to see where the numbers will be for the league. Are there going to be guaranteed contracts? Are they going to grandfather in existing deals? I look at some of the deals guys signed before the rookie salary scale and sometimes wish I were born earlier so I could've really cashed in.

But I've already set myself up for the summer and next fall. I'll get a place on a short-term rental near the beach -- I was born near the water, so it's in my blood -- work out with my trainer in Santa Monica, weight train at UCLA and do my yoga in Brentwood. I've talked to veterans who went through the last lockout. They all say you have to find a routine that is going to keep your mind and body solid, because you don't want to come back and get injured right away.

I don't have anybody on my payroll other than my agent, my trainer and my personal chef. I live by myself. With the threat of a lockout, I wanted to get my monthly nut down any way I could. I cut out some nonsense spending -- you know, going out to dinner three or four times a week with friends and picking up the bill. I hired my chef instead, which becomes a tax write-off. If people want to come over and eat, they're welcome, but this way I save money and I'm taking care of my body by eating all the right things. My agent says all the time, "You're so frugal." I know it's because he wants me to enjoy life too, and knows how responsible I am. And I do splurge a little. I buy first-class plane tickets whenever I fly, and I have two Rolexes, although I did get them at a heavily discounted price. But, otherwise, the things I like -- sweats, shoes, gear -- I get for free. I'm in sweats whenever I can be.

Jake Chessum for ESPN The Magazine

Love shows that doing laundry can actually be fun. I'm hoping that my endorsements help a little. My agent is working on my next shoe deal with the Chinese company Peak, and it's crazy how much more I might get now that I'm an All-Star. They're talking four times the value of my deal now, which would put me in the top 10 percent of player shoe deals. What a lot of people may not know about Minneapolis is that we have as many Fortune 500 companies here as any city outside New York. I have some local endorsement deals with Target and Best Buy and Right Guard, and some of those could go national in the next six to eight months. I'm set to shoot some commercials and sign some new deals this off-season. I have to play a certain number of games to get paid on my shoe deal, but on the other endorsements I get paid no matter what. That will help if there does end up being a lockout.

I'm not rooting for a lockout, but there is one thing I'd like to try that my current contract prohibits: I've always wanted to jump out of a plane and try skydiving. You might not know it, but I'm somewhat of a wild man. Now, I'm not going to do something illegal, and I won't do it if the contract terms still apply, but if they don't, I just might.

Who knows how long we'll be out. But I've got a Plan B, two of them actually. I'd like to pursue my broadcasting career. I'll probably go back to UCLA and finish my communications degree. Obviously there wouldn't be NBA games to call, but maybe I could work some college games. Or I might do a little Ochocinco route and go play another sport. When I was little, I wanted to be a pitcher. Maybe I'll go try out for the Twins. I still think I can do it. I last pitched when I was 15 and had a fastball [reportedly clocked at 90 mph], curve and changeup. I really thought that was going to be my sport. I'm sure I could still throw the ball around for a living if it came to that.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=6405632

[Black Urum]

How much is a minimum contract in NBA? I find it hypocritical for Love, or anyone for that matter, to "worry" about losing paychecks when USA is facing one of their biggest unemployments rates ever, with the most homeless people in the entire developed world etc...

Even his rookie colleagues have it good if compared to some American players in some European lower leagues who live with 3-4k euros per month paying rent, cars, air-tickets etc...

Also, there is always Europe and even South American, Chinese or other leagues...

Also buying your parents cars and renovating a house on a seven digit yearly salary and advertising it is lame... Mr Love, most people in the developed world buy a house and a car on a 1-2k euros monthly salary and in some country not even half of that... get off your high horse for once...

Just to show how fucked up taxes system is in the USA, in favour of rich guys, people who can afford a personal chef get a tax cut-off...

[Raze Lupin]

Interesting article about the possible NBA lockout. Here is the link and full article quoted below:

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/blog/ball_do...nba-wp2642

Thu May 05 01:10pm EDT

Shocker: David Stern wants to have his cake and eat it too

By Kelly Dwyer

This is Joe Johnson(notes), and to me he is the go-to warring (if not warning) story, as we enter a summer that will see the NBA locking out its players in order to re-structure a more palatable Collective Bargaining Agreement.

Last summer, with potential bidders from New York and Chicago calling outside Johnson's door, the Atlanta Hawks decided to go all-in with a massive contract for the free agent All-Star, handing him $123 million over six years. To hear sources around the Hawks tell it, they weren't thrilled with the deal, either, but they couldn't not sign Johnson again, right?

They had to keep the team together with Josh Smith(notes) already on his second contract and a great deal of veterans already dotting the roster. Plus, declining to re-sign Johnson wouldn't have resulted in any sort of cap space for the Hawks as it was, and Jamal Crawford(notes) would have probably ended up making some of that money back with a contract extension of his own.

Ryen Russillo, a basketball mind I trust a great deal, often talks on his NBA Today podcast about how the Hawks had no choice but to bring Johnson back, while stressing that the team's front office wasn't exactly doing backflips when Johnson put pen to paper. They knew it was a tough deal, too. But Russillo sticks with the idea that Atlanta had no choice. Had to bring the guy back.

Well, no. No they didn't.

I understand the basketball end of things, and how the lack of salary cap space following the Hawks declining Johnson's deal would have prevented Atlanta from adding to their team, but in financial terms there was absolutely no reason to bring Johnson back at this price. As dodgy as things would be in Atlanta's first year without Johnson, they wouldn't be nearly as bad as in the sixth year of a contract with Joe making, what, 45 percent of the salary cap?

NBA teams, by and large, are not operating as hopeful money-makers, or even break-even'ers. They want to win, even if it only means 45 wins. That's a nice sentiment, all that winning, until you realize that NBA owners and personnel bosses often make some pretty terrible miscalculations when it comes to building and/or sustaining a winner.

This is what you have to keep in mind when the league locks out its players this summer, and when David Stern complains to Steve Aschburner last night about teams losing money, and about how unacceptable this is:

"We're not going to lose any money," Stern said. "I'm not going to be commissioner of a league that is comfortable [losing money]. Because I don't have a group of owners who find it acceptable for me to have that conversation with them."

That sounds nice and tough and all, but when a confluence of events (like several teams dumping cap space to go after LeBron James(notes), then being left with plenty of space to go after second or third-tier stars like Johnson) leads to the decision to double the amount that a guy's probably worth in order to keep him in the fold, or to let him go without compensation, you have to just take it for what it is, and admit defeat at the hands of some bad timing. Stern wants to ensure that teams can choose to refuse to admit defeat, throwing money all over the place, while getting to cry to the league later in order to be bailed out.

While the league's fans, and the thousands of people that make their living depending on games being played every other night, suffer. All so the Hawks can save face, toss a ton of money at Joe Johnson, and still have the negotiating rules altered on the back end to service them.

(While forgetting that the rules are already in place to create a great team based on smart personnel choices and intelligence guided by experience when dealing with payroll. Look at a team like Memphis, that refuses to use restricted free agency to their advantage, and needlessly extended Zach Randolph(notes) last month when they could have done so for three-quarters the price following the lockout. They'll be at the vanguard of bitching about how things are set up for the owners to lose money, even though it's their own pay-now-when-you-don't-have-to decisions that have put the Grizzlies in the place they will be, financially.)

It's a joke, and the game will suffer for it. David Stern's not interested in the game, though, at this point. He's interested in his 30 owners, and their bottom lines.

And Joe Johnson? He's not your problem, here.

[Black Urum]

After yesterday's offer by NBA owners for a $45 hard salary cap I'm confident that there will be NBA players moving to Europe, no matter what happens.

First case if players reject the offer and there is a lock-out. This obviously will be the easiest case for European teams to lure some players. But even if the players accept the deal it means NBA teams will have to spend 25% less on players, so some players who won't got for a 25% pay cut will go to Europe anyway.

[Raze Lupin]

After yesterday's offer by NBA owners for a $45 hard salary cap I'm confident that there will be NBA players moving to Europe, no matter what happens.

First case if players reject the offer and there is a lock-out. This obviously will be the easiest case for European teams to lure some players. But even if the players accept the deal it means NBA teams will have to spend 25% less on players, so some players who won't got for a 25% pay cut will go to Europe anyway.

Man I hope There is no lockout. If there is a lokks out I hope it doesnt effect the NBA season. This has been a very sucessful season for the NBA. The intrest in the NBA has grown significantly this year. It began with a gold at the world cup and now with an amazing playoffs. A lockout couldnt come at a worse time. NFL lockout is messy and costing taxpayers money becuase its becaome a legal issue in the courts. The players always give in I hope they fold early. Not becaise I think the owners are right BUT because I just want to watch more basketball....No NBA would be a tragic.

[prisonersbreak]

i can't image!!?? no 2011-2012 NBA...

They will definitely go back to their respective countries!!!

[basket]

in basketball and other sports is too much talking about the money. we should talk just about the sports, about the basketball. saleries must be limited. so many of basketball players around the world are too greed and we must stop this.

[TeoTheGreek13]

I don't think that the lock-out will have any major impact in the league. It's the same for the fans.

Ofcourse it will not have an impact to the players. In addition some of them will have the opportunity to play in europe just for the experience. Not bad!!!

If there is someone to blame then it's definitely the owners.

Two years ago, the players with the biggest salaries were Jermaine O'Neal(!!!) and Tracy McGrady(!) with around 25m dollars!!!

And last year was Rashard Lewis(!!!!!!!!!).

You can't blame the players for accepting these deals.

And don't tell me that Lewis demanded (around)23m dollars from the Orlando Magic especialy by the time that the bigggest superstars of the game are below 20m.