The NBA late Friday released results of its '10-11 season audit of basketball related income that showed a 4.8% increase in BRI this past season to $3.817B compared to $3.643B in the '09-10 season. The league also announced that total player compensation also grew by 4.8% to $2.176B from $2.076B during the '09-10 season, the sixth consecutive season of salary increases. The average player salary was $5.15M this past season and salaries grew by an average of 16% over the six-year period of the previous CBA. The audit results comes as the league enters the fourth week of its lockout. The league did not comment on its release of the financials (John Lombardo, SportsBusiness Journal). CBSSPORTS.com's Ken Berger cited sources as saying that the players "will receive all of the 8 percent of salary that was held in escrow for the first time under the six years of the previous CBA." The BRI audit "confirmed what key figures on both sides have expected for months: salaries fell short of the players' designated percentage by more than the $162 million that was held in escrow." As a result, the owners "owe the players money for the first time under the previous CBA's escrow system." Sources said that the owners will be "writing checks totaling $26 million on top of the $162 million in escrow that will be returned." The "entire 4.8 percent increase in player salaries was due to the negotiated 57 percent guarantee -- which the players have offered to reduce in a new CBA -- and the full escrow withholding being returned to the players." Berger wrote the audit results show "that owners became more judicious in the contracts they doled out." In addition, it means "many teams ... simply folded up the tents in anticipation of the lockout or a looming ownership change, or both" (CBSSPORTS.com, 7/23).
READING BETWEEN THE LINES: CBSSPORTS.com's Royce Young wrote in releasing the results of the audit, the NBA "wants you to see that while yeah, the league is making a crapton of money the system clearly needs fixing because player salaries have also gone way up" (CBSSPORTS.com, 7/23). In N.Y., Marc Berman cited a source as saying that the Knicks "did not pay a luxury tax for the first time since" the now-expired CBA was reached in '99, adding that the team's '10-11 payroll "finished at $67 million -- $3 million less than the luxury tax threshold." The source also said that the Lakers, Magic and Mavericks were subject to the luxury tax, "each paying around $20 million" (N.Y. POST, 7/23).
HUNTING FOR A FIGHT: YAHOO SPORTS' Adrian Wojnarowski reported the NBA's most powerful agents on Friday "left an unmistakable impression" on NBPA Exec Dir Billy Hunter, indicating that they "want to decertify, file an antitrust suit and throw some fear into the owners." Hunter "wants to wait out the rulings on the union's filings with the National Labor Relations Board in Washington, but there's little hope that's gained traction." Hunter does not "seem willing to go the decertification route until after the union and NBA meet again in August, and probably not prior to September." Wojnarowski: "Most of the agents see a union with no strategy, and NBA owners simply waiting until the players' checks stop arriving in November so they can hammer the most one-sided collective bargaining agreement in history down the players' throats." Hunter is "selling diplomacy, but the agents want to commence fighting." Diplomacy "has gotten the union nowhere, and the agents believe trying much more is a waste of time." The owners "want what they want -- hard cap, rollback on salaries and guaranteed profits -- and they aren't interested in compromises." The longer the union "waits to decertify and file an antitrust suit, the less chance there is of getting a reasonable agreement and saving the season." Wojnarowski: "The way the agents see it, Hunter can stay in an advisory role after decertification the way DeMaurice Smith did. ... Sooner than later, powerbrokers Arn Tellem, Mark Bartelstein, Bill Duffy, Andy Miller and others want a stronger, more direct hand in the fight. They can get the votes needed to decertify the union among their players, and do it with or without Hunter's blessing" (SPORTS.YAHOO.com, 7/23).
COST OF STOPPING BUSINESS: BLOOMBERG NEWS' Soshnick & Levinson reported NBA owners "must pay the players they locked out $37 million even if the season is canceled." Owners owe the players the money "under marketing agreements that allow the NBA and its sponsors to use the players' likenesses in advertising." NBPA Dir of Communications Dan Wasserman said that those payments "will help fund the union's lockout war chest" (
BLOOMBERG NEWS, 7/22). CBSSPORTS.com's Moore & Berger on Friday wrote under the header, "Should The NBA Contract? A CBSSports.com Debate." Moore & Berger: "We decided to debate just some of the many issues surrounding contraction" (
CBSSPORTS.com, 7/22). In Charlotte, Rick Bonnell wrote under the header, "If The NFL Can End Its Lockout, Why Can't The NBA?" Bonnell: "It could be a month between full-scale bargaining sessions, and that frosts me" (
CHARLOTTE OBSERVER, 7/23).
