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Chapter 867 867 537 I Will Always Like
Chapter 867 867 537 I Will Always Like
?Chapter 867: Chapter 537 I Will Always Like Chapter 867: Chapter 537 I Will Always Like “`
If the real contradiction for the owners lies in the uneven development between large and small markets, with large markets becoming increasingly wealthy and having the capital to surpass the luxury tax threshold, thereby achieving both market profits and championships and leading to long-term imbalances in the NBA, then what is the contradiction within the players’ camp?
The answer is clear.
It is the unequal status between star players and those on minimum salaries.
This is a secret that can’t be spoken, as the players’ union was established with the mission to advocate on behalf of the players.
The players’ union was needed at its inception—during Bob Cousy’s era, when the NBA was just an average professional league, and professional players couldn’t support a family on their basketball income alone, so many star players had other part-time jobs during the offseason.
Because of the poor benefits, they needed a union, and because the owners controlled everything, they needed a union; at the beginning, the union was a platform for players to air their grievances, and only later with the involvement of what could be called the NBA version of “The Greatest Generation” like Oscar Robertson, did it gradually become a platform for the struggle between the workers and the capitalists.
There was the uprising before the All-Star weekend, the antitrust lawsuit to prevent the NBA and ABA merger, and the fully free players—today, players no longer have to sit out a peak year to gain free agency.
The real change in the nature of the players’ union’s struggle occurred in 1983, when the two sides fought over the introduction of a salary cap.
In the end, the owners won, and the salary cap was introduced, but some players also won—the savvy agents had left a bug in the system when the salary cap was introduced.
That was the no-limit maximum salary.
This bug, which caused the owners great pain, spawned Jordan’s contract with the Bulls in the summer of 1996, a one-year, 30 million dollar agreement, and Garnett’s infamous max contract with the Timberwolves, which directly led to the 1998 lockout in the summer.
From then on, the nature of the players’ union struggle changed.
On the surface, they were fighting for the interests of all players.
In reality, it was a struggle over interests between star players and the owners, because no matter what, the lower-tier players were only getting a small amount of money and were never seriously considered.
So, when Derek Fisher wanted to look at the big picture and reach an agreement with the league for a 47% share, he received support from the lower-salary players, and then was seen as a traitor by the mid-to-upper-tier players.
The agents who held the rights to the star players were beyond furious.
This is not a fair world.
The interests of the lower-salary players are not the primary concern of the union.
Yu Fei’s agent, Arne Trem, strongly opposed Fisher’s attempt to compensate for the poor management of small-market teams by sacrificing the interests of star players.
“Listen, we are not slaves!” Trem told an Associated Press reporter, “If the final agreement is 50:50, I have no objections; numerically, that’s fair. But if the distribution ratio in the agreement is 47:53, I’m sure someone made concessions to the league that weren’t planned! We will never accept such compromises!”
Trem’s stance was supported by other agents who managed numerous star players.
Among them, former NBA top agent David Falk made the most intense and thorough statement.
“In my view,” Falk said, “a player like Frye deserves to get paid a hundred million dollars a year. He’s the reason this league has thrived and grown over the past few years, and no matter how much he gets paid, it’s never too much. And now someone wants to reach a new CBA through humiliating compromises? Whoever made this decision, I am ashamed for him!”
Consequently, rumors began to circulate that Fisher had been bought off by the owners and had struck a private deal with Stern to betray the collective interests of the players’ camp for his personal gain.
The catalyst came from the internet.
A Fox Sports columnist named Jason Whitlock published an article titled “Has Derek Fisher been bought out by Stern?”
Whitlock pointed out clearly that the uncertainty between the two sides lay in the distribution of basketball-related income.
The players’ camp wanted a fair 50:50, while the owners, with the big-market owners fully supporting the small-market ones, were adamant about reducing the players’ share of the revenue to 47%.
Whitlock wrote: “The reality is, NBA Players Association president Derek Fisher has been bought off by commissioner David Stern, and has promised that he can get the union’s support with a 47-53 split. This belief led to the executive director of the players’ union, Billy Hunter, and at least one member of the executive committee confronting Fisher at last night’s meeting, demanding that he reevaluate his plan.”
Afterward, Whitlock began to contrast Fisher with his predecessor, Michael Curry.
Curry had 11 years of NBA experience and earned approximately 15 million dollars during his career. He served as the union’s president from July 2001 to the end of June 2005. At the age of 36, he played 18 games for the Indiana Pacers in the 2004-05 season, which was his last. NBA and the union reached a deal in principle on a CBA agreement on June 21, 2005—torn up by the owners this summer.
What’s unsettling is that a week after the labor agreement was reached, Curry announced his retirement and resigned from his union position. A few months later, David Stern announced that this tough opponent during the labor negotiations would become the vice president of the NBA Development League, responsible for player development.
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