The NBPA has submitted its counter-proposal on a new CBA to the "owners’ negotiating committee -- with plenty of pushback on teams’ desire to reduce max contracts, institute a hard salary cap and change the financial structure of the sport," according to Ken Berger of CBSSPORTS.com. A source indicated that the player's proposal "aims to leave the current soft cap with exceptions and a luxury tax in place, while instituting more aggressive revenue-sharing system." The source said that "extreme measures proposed by the owners in late January -- including a reduction in the number of years that can be guaranteed in players’ contracts -- do not appear in the players’ counter-proposal." The proposal also "seeks to eliminate base-year compensation rules, which make it difficult for teams to satisfy the 125 percent rule in matching salaries for a trade involving a player who just received a significant raise." Hawks G Maurice Evans, a member of the NBPA Exec Committee, said that the owners' "spending spree the opening hours of free agency -- $449 million in the first 36 hours -- has only reinforced the players’ belief that the system as currently constructed is working fine." In addition, Berger noted a revenue-sharing plan, "absent from the owners’ initial proposal, is included in the players’ version." However, NBA Commissioner David Stern has said that the league's "position is to keep that system separate from the CBA negotiations" ( CBSSPORTS.com, 7/2 ). SI's Ian Thomsen notes Stern has predicted $400M in "losses when the books are reconciled this summer, and he has promised to create a new structure that reduces salaries and contract lengths to reward players less for potential and more for performance." And yet Stern’s owners are "fighting among each other to offer max deals to lesser lights." Thomsen: "The divide between the owners’ actions and their demands makes a lockout next summer very likely" ( SI, 7/12 issue ). HOW QUICKLY WE FORGET? In Boston, Gary Washburn noted the "early free agent deals don't exactly reflect poverty" among NBA owners. NBPA Exec Dir Billy Hunter is "carefully observing these early spending sprees," and Stern is "going to have a hard time explaining the declining earnings of owners with the amount of money being invested in lower-tier or role players" ( BOSTON GLOBE, 7/4 ). SI.com's Frank Hughes wrote, "Lost amid the feverish maneuvering of NBA owners and front-office personnel to recruit individual members of the best free-agent crop ever is that next summer these same men are going to claim they can't afford to pay the contracts that they will so proudly distribute over the next few weeks." Grizzlies Owner Michael Heisley, "who in the past has looked to sell the team," agreed to a five-year deal worth about $80M with F Rudy Gay, while the Hawks, whose Atlanta Spirit ownership group also is said to be looking to sell, gave G Joe Johnson a six-year, $120M contract. Hughes: "And yet, after these next few manic weeks of profligate spending, the joy of signing free agents will be replaced by furrowed brows that suggest the machine is broken and badly needs an overhaul" ( SI.com, 7/2 ). In Boston, Bob Ryan writes, "What was that about the 'impoverished’ owners gearing up to lock out the players a year hence? You’ll be hearing lots more about that depressing story as the 2010-11 season unfolds" ( BOSTON GLOBE, 7/7 ). LOOKING AROUND THE CORNER : ESPN.com's J.A. Adande wrote many of this summer's actions "are being driven by 2011." Amar'e Stoudemire's opt out from his Suns contract to sign with the Knicks and F Richard Jefferson's "surprising leap into the free-agent pool were made with the idea that it will be better to lock up a long-term deal" under the current CBA "than take your chances with the one coming next year, which could feature shorter lengths, smaller raises and perhaps a harder cap." Adande: "And don't think the lockout isn't playing into teams' signing off on some of these outlandish contracts already proposed." The $119M offered to Johnson by the Hawks "really won't be $119 million if, say, $5 million of it is lost while play and pay are suspended during the lockout" ( ESPN.com, 7/3 ). YAHOO SPORTS' Adrian Wojnarowski wrote NBA free agency "will never be the same again because the owners are determined to restrict freedom." This is the "perfect July circus for Stern: Everyone runs around, makes a big stir and ultimately returns home in the end. These days, it feels like Stern has much more control of a new crop of young stars than he does a new wave of owners" ( SPORTS.YAHOO.com, 7/6 ). In N.Y., Mike Lupica wrote the "irony of all this in the NBA" is that the "owners courting LeBron James and Dwyane Wade and Amar'e Stoudemire and Chris Bosh, the ones bowing and scraping in front of these young players like mid-level gangsters begging for approval from some godfather, are going to lock these players out the very first chance they get." This summer's free agency is why owners "will shut down the sport before they allow players to gang up like this on them ever again." Lupica: "To have the audacity to think they're the ones in charge" ( N.Y. DAILY NEWS, 7/4 ). THIS COULD GET UGLY : In Cleveland, Bud Shaw wrote the NBA "has a problem" because the "excess of these Free Agent Follies -- of which the media is complicit -- is turning people off." With a CBA expiring next summer and "our economy stuck in first gear, it's only going to get worse for NBA owners and players from a PR standpoint." Shaw: "Next July is almost sure to come with news of a lockout. NBA owners are going to give players the cold shoulder. Right after treating them like kings. As that drama unfolds on top of this July's, there won't be a wet eye in the house for either of them" ( Cleveland.com, 7/4 ). In Utah, Randy Hollis wrote, "If any NBA owners try to plead poverty any time soon, their whining will definitely fall on deaf ears. Of course, when they're paying out those kinds of salaries by the truckload, how long will it take before they do break the bank?" ( DESERET NEWS, 7/4 ). However, ESPN's Michael Wilbon said there has been "restraint at the top" this offseason. Wilbon: "I don't think any contract has been outrageous, maybe except Joe Johnson's" (" PTI," ESPN, 7/5 ).
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