TSN - Dave Kindred: Players Not Being Asked To Take A Pay Cut

[Way Of The Ray <wayray@ix.netcom.com>]

              TSN
              Where's that hollow ringing
              coming from?                     
              NOVEMBER 3, 1998                         

              ----------------                        
              Dave Kindred                              
              ----------------

              Because I have been so critical of   
              NBA players for their position in          
              the current labor-management war,      
              many readers of The Sporting News
              have asked a question that usually
              comes out like this: "With the NBA      
              in its boom years, why should
              players take a pay cut?"               

              That is a good question, and I agree
              with its basis. They should not be     
              asked to take a cut.                    

              And the fact is, they're not being       
              asked to. No player under contract       
              is being asked to give back money.       
                                                    
              Yes, the deal proposed by NBA owners    
              would affect future contracts. But     
              even those contracts will be for        
              more money than is spent now -- if       
              the league continues to increase its 
              revenue.                                 
                                                       
              For instance, say the league            
              prospers and Patrick Ewing's $20.5       
              million annual salary rises. The        
              owners now want to put a limit on        
              where that salary goes. Just picking    
              numbers out of the air here -- but       
              let's say Ewing's salary goes to $23  
              million. The owners say OK. They         
              just don't want that salary going to     
              $26 million.
                                                      
              So a player in Ewing's position is       
              being asked to agree to a deal that    
              might at some future date limit the     
              size of the raise he would get.       
              Let's say that instead of a possible    
              $26 million, he gets only $23            
              million.                                

              Is that bad? Is that the hell of      
              grinding poverty?                      
                                                      
              Of course not. And that is the basis
              of my reasoning. In a business where    
              nearly one-third of the employees        
              earn over $1 million a year and the      
              average salary is $2.6 million a     
              year, those employees should be         
              doing everything they can to make        
              sure that business keeps making        
              money.                                 
                                                     
              I don't care if I get 57 percent of      
              all the business' revenues or 48
              percent. As long as my paycheck is    
              something like $50,000 a week and      
              going up rapidly, I'm happy and I      
              want to keep my business owner        
              happy. How much money the owner
              makes, I don't care. Just stay in      
              business until I've saved a few       
              million dollars for a rainy day.
                                                      
              As for the idea that NBA owners        
              should "open the books" and prove to     
              the players that the league has       
              economic problems, I ask one             
              question:
                                                    
              When did any privately held business  
              ever open its books to its
              employees?                           
                                                       
              Never.

              It will not happen in the NBA's
              case. And it shouldn't happen. When
              the players make a capital
              investment in their teams, then and
              only then should they have access to
              the books. Then they would share the
              ownership costs and all the risks
              that come in American capitalism.

              Right now they are gifted athletes
              paid a king's ransom to play a kid's
              game operated by gifted
              entrepreneurs willing to risk
              hundreds of millions of dollars on
              an entertainment entirely dependent
              on the public's goodwill.

              When that goodwill is gone,
              everything is gone.

              And players crying poverty when
              making $20.5 million a year is
              corrosive of that goodwill.