Category: NBA (Page 29 of 595)

Kevin Love: “…we’re going to miss games.”

Minnesota Timberwolves forward Kevin Love smiles during a timeout in the second half of their NBA basketball game against the Toronto Raptors in the Target Center in Minneapolis January 29, 2011. Love scored 21 points, and the Timberwolves won over the Raptors. REUTERS/Eric Miller (UNITED STATES – Tags: SPORT BASKETBALL)

Kevin Love commented on the recent NBA/NBAPA meetings, per ESPN…

The consensus coming out of an NBA players regional meeting attended by nearly 60 players Tuesday was that the current offer from the owners is unacceptable, especially the call for a hard salary cap.

“I want to play basketball,” Love said. “I want us — the players — to sign a great deal. I want us to make a compromise with the owners but not sign what they’re proposing. We’ll play hardball if we have to. I want there to be an NBA season but it’s also apparent that we’re going to miss games.”

Love said the players don’t want to see years cut off guaranteed contracts and are not pleased with a proposal that they could lose money if not playing up to their contracts. He also said that the proposed revenue split (50-50, rather than the 57-43 split in favor of players) is unacceptable.

Love said the main issue was the proposed hard cap of $62 million. Love called it a poor idea that would cause mayhem because only a few players would get a high salary, with everyone else getting the lower end of the wage scale or the league minimum.

Okay, so the players don’t want a hard cap (which works great in the NFL) or non-guaranteed salaries (which means players will lose money if they underperform — unacceptable!), and a more even revenue split isn’t going to work.

Sigh.

Will the Lakers keep Kobe?

Los Angeles Lakers Kobe Bryant walks off the court after Game 4 of the NBA Western Conference semi-final basketball playoff against the Dallas Mavericks in Dallas, Texas May 8, 2011. REUTERS/Mike Stone (UNITED STATES – Tags: SPORT BASKETBALL)

There’s an excellent overview by Henry Abbott on TrueHoop about the Lakers’ quandary once a new CBA is agreed upon.

Although new CBA rules will likely come with a phase-in period, and rollbacks of existing salaries may provide some relief to the team, there is no scenario on the table in the CBA talks where the Lakers will be able to keep outspending rivals as they have. A stated league goal is to level the competitive playing field, which can only be achieved by tweaking the market to permit less talent on teams like the Lakers, and more talent on teams like the Kings. Tough choices loom, complicated by the fact that though he continues to play like a star, Bryant, is poised to become so overpaid as to flirt with “bad contract” status.

The piece goes into detail about Kobe’s recent performance, the mileage on his knees, and how his contract will negatively impact the Lakers in the short term.

Kobe accused of assault

Los Angeles Lakers’ Kobe Bryant talks during a news conference after the Lakers were knocked out of the NBA basketball playoffs in Los Angeles, California May 11, 2011. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson (UNITED STATES – Tags: SPORT BASKETBALL)

Per ESPN:

San Diego police have confirmed to ESPN that they are investigating an incident involving Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant.

No charges have been filed.

According to multiple reports, Bryant was attending a service at a church in Carmel Valley, Calif., on Sunday when he thought someone was taking pictures of him with a cell phone. Bryant allegedly took the phone from the man, but when he didn’t see any pictures on it, he left the church.

The man said he had to go to a hospital for treatment after his wrist was injured in the incident.

Sounds like someone is looking for a payday, but we’ll let San Diego’s finest sort it out.

David Stern: “We’re not even on the same planet…”

NBA Commissioner David Stern holds a news conference before Game 1 of the NBA Finals basketball series between the Dallas Mavericks and the Miami Heat in Miami, May 31, 2011. REUTERS/Mike Segar (UNITED STATES – Tags: SPORT BASKETBALL)

David Stern appeared on the B.S. Report with Bill Simmons and had this to say about the state of the lockout.

This is the time to have a reset. This is a time for us to hold for the players what they have and sort grow our way out of this situation we find ourselves in. The players very strongly disagree and to this point, don’t even want to discuss it. We’ve said to them, the average salary is over $5 million dollars. We think we can keep your compensation including benefits at that number, that makes you the highest paid union in the world. And we’re gonna keep it at that level while we grow our way out of this…

We need a reset in the amount of compensation, we need shorter contracts so we can align pay with performance and we need to get a little bit more competitive. It’s not brain surgery…

They have a lot of education to do with their players.

We have asked the players to take an 8% cut…from the $2.2 billion dollar total. Our proposal was $2 billion, and hold it while we grow out of where we find ourselves. And if we do very well, and we grow more than, say, 4% a year…they’ll do better than $2 billion and it will start to grow… When they came back and said we’ve got a better idea — you give us a 35% increase over six years and it should go from $5.1 million…to $7.1 million, we said, “Whoa, we’re not even on the same planet much less the same ballpark.”

We’ve given them our books…

This is what the lawyer for the union told us: “We don’t think you should do better than break even. And we think your problem is that you’ve lost X and we’re prepared to help you by delivering half of X. You make up the other half and then you’ll be at break even.”

On contraction, Stern said…

Actually, it’s not a subject that we’re against… A number of teams have said that if you have a team that is perpetually going to be a recipient [of revenue sharing], aren’t you better off with the ability to buy them in, between the revenue sharing and the split of international, and the TV money, we could almost buy them in with their own money.

I am not exactly sure what “buy them in” means — I guess it means contraction — but those words sound a bit ominous for those franchises on the edge.

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