Dear Players, We Can't Pay You Like We Used To

[Sam]

This isn't an original idea but the current FA frenzy has got me on the Player's Union's side when it comes to the upcoming CBA negotiations/likely lockout. How unfair will it be for the players to have had this wild spending spree (Joe Johnson, Rudy Gay, Drew Gooden, Amir) followed by Stern telling the Union that the owners just can't afford to pay them like they used to? And assuming the CBA ends up as tight as it's predicted to end up, there are going to be a fair number of teams waking up in 2011 or 2012 wondering how they got themselves into a potentially-huge financial mess.

Shouldn't Stern have been giving financial prudence lectures to the owners for the past 12 months? And now they'll turn around and play hardball with their employees to save them from themselves.

Workers of the world unite!

[Quixotic]

Yeah, it'll be interesting to see how the owners back up their FA signings, most of which have been way higher than expected considering the upcoming new CBA.

[Bendit]

Workers of the world unite!

Hope that was sarcasm! (multi millionaires tend not to understand the sociological nor historical context of that slogan).

[Apollo]

Excellent points Sam. The NBA came to the table screaming about losing money, claiming over half the league needed help via a loan last year and now FA opens and everybody is dropping crazy coin on guys that have no business making max dollars. If the NBA really wanted to standby their message they would be running a thrifty free agency period. That's not happening and as such this whole thing is making their position look more and more weak. I still believe they'll get what they want though.

[Sam]

Apollo, I don't doubt the owners will get what they want and normally I wouldn't really care when it comes to millionaires fighting with billionaires. Obviously, these aren't Chinese factory workers getting paid peanuts. But when I'm sitting in my den in the winter of 2012 and there's no ball to watch, it's the owners I'm blaming.

[Mess]

Yep, the owners need a new CBA to save them from themselves.

[Buddahfan]