Re: Charity begins at home

[damekmo@teleport.com]

>Others have pointed out to you before that you are being hypocritical
>when, on the one hand you criticize the owners for lack of control, and
>on the other blast Gaston for not wanting to pay Antoine $100 million
>dollars.  How do you explain these conflicting opinions?
>
>Jim
>

And maybe you aren't reading what I've been writing. I agree that something
needs to be done about the escalation of salaries. But I think the players
are under no obligation to ensure that the owners will never make a bad
investment again. Should they HELP the owners get their spending under
control? Absolutely. From what I've read, and none of us have been in the
room, the players have agreed to changes in the CBA. Have they gone far
enough? I'm not sure. However, it seems to me that the owners want a hard
cap and nothing else. It seems that they want to set limits on salaries
and, at the same time, be able to draw from a fund supplied by the players
if salaries still go over an agreed percentage of revenues. They seem to be
saying that the players need to carry all responsibility when it comes to
getting the owners spending under control. It sounds to me like the owners
are saying that they are and have been helpless when they walk into a room
to negotiate. For a decade they marketed the players as the whole show,
they marketed the game as just another form of entertainment...and
surprise, surprise...the players demanded to be paid as entertainers who
are the whole show. And the owners profited throughout. I wonder what
Donald Sterling pockets from all basketball related revenues? There's a guy
who's done a wonderful job. Are there any revenues not shared with the
players? Have the owners been honest about declaring revenues that had to
be shared with the players? Look, there's this constant barrage on this
list and in the media about the immoral behavior of the players. A lot of
them are idiots. But...the owners are any better? One more thing. The
players have asked for a third party to come in and mediate this thing.
This can hurt? What's the problem? This isn't a red flag signalling that
the owners aren't interested in settling this thing fairly? I have to go to
work. More later. Concerning Walker, it's unclear to me that they would
have to pay him $100 mil., and it's unclear to me that even if they did, it
would be a bad investment.

Paul M.