NBA Lockout Watch, Day 6: Teams Deal With Effects Of Work Stoppage

In Milwaukee, Don Walker noted the Bucks in an e-mail to season-ticket holders “laid out a contingency plan” if a new NBA CBA “isn't reached in time to avoid missing games.” The Bucks are offering season-ticket holders two options. One option is a “so-called MVP Loyalty Option in which fans would keep their money on account while earning interest at a 5% annual rate beginning Oct. 1 until games resume.” The second option allows fans to “receive refunds on any missed games plus a 1% annual interest rate on amounts remaining on deposit.” Under this plan, refunds “will be issued monthly based on the number of games missed” (JSONLINE.com, 7/1).

THE END OF THE ROAD: ESPN L.A.’s Ramona Shelburne reported Lakers Assistant GM Ronnie Lester’s 24-year run with the team “will end when his contract expires this month.” In addition, “at least 20 other Lakers staffers, including almost all of the scouts who work under Lester in the basketball operations department, will have already packed their belongings and headed home” by the end of this month. Those employees have “been told little by the team, except that employees whose contracts expire on or after June 30 would not have their contracts renewed, and their jobs may or may not open up again down the line” (ESPNLA.com, 7/2).

SPURRING THE EFFECTS: In San Antonio, Tim Griffin noted the city’s “unique position as the strongest NBA market in terms of fan interest should make the Spurs less susceptible to fallout from the lockout than other league franchises.” Scarborough Sports Marketing VP/Sales Bill Nielsen said that the Spurs “have traditionally dominated his company’s measurements of fan awareness and support in the NBA.” Nielsen indicated that with that level of support, a lengthy lockout will not “erode local support and interest for the team.” Nielsen added that the Spurs “shouldn’t feel a lockout-related pinch that might be inflicted on other NBA teams once the league’s labor differences are settled” (SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS, 7/2). Listed below are the top five and bottom five teams from Scarborough Sports Marketing's report on the percentage of adults in NBA home markets who have watched, attended or listened to a local team game over the past year. Data excludes Toronto (THE DAILY).

TIME ON THEIR SIDE: In Detroit, Bill Shea notes the Pistons are “entering the Tom Gores ownership era in search of a head coach, a CEO for business operations, better players and profitability amid a labor dispute that has put the 2011-12 season in jeopardy.” Gores last Thursday “ousted” Palace Sports & Entertainment President & CEO Alan Ostfield, and it is “unclear whether more turnover is on the way.” Gores' firm, L.A.-based Platinum Equity LLC, “typically inserts a transition team to study an acquired company's management and business practices -- and that sometimes results in personnel turnover.” Two of Platinum Equity's Boston-based partners “have been at the Palace to act as Gores' senior executives in charge of the operation.” One is Robert Wentworth, a “former Ernst & Young CPA and a former CEO, and the other is Phil Norment, Platinum's senior executive responsible for evaluating investment initiatives.” Wentworth and Norment are “running Palace Sports until a replacement for Ostfield is named,” with Pistons President of Basketball Operations Joe Dumars “running the team” (CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS, 7/4 issue).

MOST DAMAGED? In Boston, Gary Washburn noted the NBA lockout “will damage some teams more than others, and one of those on the most-damaged list could be the Timberwolves, who just drafted Derrick Williams, signed Ricky Rubio, and traded Jonny Flynn.” The T’Wolves are “very young and could have used the Las Vegas Summer League to give their young core some seasoning” (BOSTON GLOBE, 7/3).