NBA Teams Still Spending Cash Despite Rumored Thrifty Summer

The current NBA offseason was "supposed to be the one in which teams began holding the line financially," but rumors of "tightening wallets around the league have been greatly exaggerated," according to ESPN.com's John Hollinger, who examines the current free agent season. Contending teams are "locked in a massive arms race." Moves by the Spurs, Wizards, Magic and Rockets -- "none of which have been huge spenders in the past -- have put them over the luxury tax for the coming season." In addition, deals by the Mavericks, Celtics, Cavaliers, Lakers and Knicks "figure to keep them well over the line, too, and it's possible the Nuggets and Heat will be joining them." Conversely, the Bucks are the "only team that seems to be actively cutting salary." The Suns, Jazz and Hornets "could be in the same boat by the end of the summer, but at the moment those three teams also project to be well over the tax line for the coming season." Hollinger wrote NBPA Exec Dir Billy Hunter "has to be doing a jig right now," because it is "hard for the league to plead poverty when potentially 14 of its 30 teams will be going over the luxury tax threshold, giving the Players Association some much-needed ammunition heading" into the upcoming CBA negotiations. However, "despite all of this, restricted free agents still can't get squat" (ESPN.com, 7/6).

Kidd, Other Noteworthy Players Have Taken Pay Cuts Befitting Economy

SUMMER OF SLAM: In N.Y., Howard Beck notes this offseason "may be remembered as the year when the richest teams got richer, the richest players got squeezed and the middle class got crowded." Eight "noteworthy players" have agreed to terms on new deals since free agency opened last week, and "befitting the nation's economic climate, most of them took pay cuts," including F Rasheed Wallace with the Celtics and G Jason Kidd with the Mavericks. The economic recession and a "projected drop in the salary cap have made owners more conservative," while about 12 teams are "saving cap space" for next summer's free agent class. As a result, "players from every point on the talent spectrum are signing for the midlevel exception, the equivalent of the average player salary," and that in turn has "allowed the rich teams to get richer" (N.Y. TIMES, 7/7).

AT WHAT PRICE? The GLOBE & MAIL's Roy MacGregor wrote the "foolishness is so over-the-top" during this NHL offseason that it "feels like Bernie Madoff has broken out of his cell and is running professional hockey." Yet hockey salaries "sometimes seem the equivalent of valet tips when compared to the amount being paid" in MLB, so perhaps it is "time for some courageous politician to step forward with a promise to do something about this madness." If not for the "corporate writeoff -- companies large and small, as well as individuals who know their way around the tax system, writing off a portion of ticket purchases and suite rentals against taxable income -- there would be no NHL, NFL, NBA or MLB as we know them." MacGregor: "In a financially strapped world where the average North American taxpayer can rarely, if ever, afford to attend these games, where is the justification for allowing those who can afford the tickets to be subsidized by those who cannot? It is, simply, wrong" (GLOBE & MAIL, 7/6).