NBA: New NBPA Director on the Player’s Side of Salary

There is a new National Basketball Player’s Association Director, and her name is Michelle Roberts.  She has a few choice words about the current state of affairs with the current Collective Bargaining Agreement.

"Michele Roberts, the NBA players’ union executive director, on Wednesday questioned several of the principles that for decades have governed owner-player relations in the league, objecting to the concept of a salary cap while making clear she’d push for much more than a 50-50 split of basketball-related income…The rookie wage scale, Roberts argued, is also problematic, as are max contracts, another entrenched restriction of the NBA’s free market that Roberts wants dissolved.“I can’t understand why the [players’ association] would be interested in suppressing salaries at the top if we know that as salaries at the top have grown, so have salaries at the bottom,” she said. “If that’s the case, I contend that there is no reason in the world why the union should embrace salary caps or any effort to place a barrier on the amount of money that marquee players can make.” – Pablo S. Torre – ESPN The Magazine"

Abolishing the salary cap and having a 50/50 split of basketball related income, puts the money back with the NBA players.  There has been plenty of talk about Kobe Bryant‘s contract.  There has been talk by Colin Cowherd that LeBron James could be considered underpaid by his current NBA contract considering his marketing power world-wide, as well.

This would simply even things out a bit.

Adam Silver defended the CBA in the link above.

But, to take a step back, if Michele Roberts has her ideas implemented, that simply means that players would get more pay overall, with a possibly longer season to minimize back-to-back games.  If this is the case, then the team salary cap has to increase overall just to compensate for the additional money put into players’ contracts.  Or better yet, the salary cap would be gone.

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The largest discrepancy of NBA salary occured back in 1996.  The veteran minimum was around $250,000 a year, while Shaquille O’Neal was pocketing nearly $17,000,000+ with annual increases over his $121 million, 7-year contract with the Lakers.  Players of the mid-90’s looking for contract extensions, were out for the $100 million mark.  Stephon Marbury, Kevin Garnett, Alonzo Mourning, Larry Johnson, and other players were all out for it.

What does this mean for the league?  Player salaries overall will increase, but superstars like LeBron James may get close to what they’re worth in the NBA market.

What does this mean for the Lakers?  While Kobe Bryant may be heading off to the sunset, team cap may rise, but player salary may rise as well.

Just maybe, there’s an outside shot of acquiring two superstars in one season, not just one.  If there is no salary cap overall, the Lakers would be willing to spend.