SportSport.ba

...In recent days, multiple people with direct knowledge of negotiations have identified the nine teams pushing the hardest for a draconian rollback of salaries and rules governing player contracts and team payrolls. According to those people, the teams holding the hardest line in negotiations have been Atlanta, Charlotte, Indiana, Memphis, Milwaukee, Minnesota, Philadelphia, Portland and Washington. These nine owners or ownership groups have been trying, with increasing success in recent weeks, to recruit more moderate owners to their cause. If the players reject the deal on the table, the NBA will be turned over to the Hard-Line Nine, and it won't be pretty. "Nuclear winter," as Kobe Bryant referred to it in an interview with Yahoo Sports, just about sums it up.

As the New York Times reported Friday, Bobcats owner Michael Jordan has emerged as the ringleader of this group of owners -- referred to by one **** briefed on the labor talks as the "original hard-liners." Though it may be surprising to some, Phoenix owner Robert Sarver and Cleveland owner Dan Gilbert have not been as hawkish in the negotiations as they have been portrayed, two of the **** told CBSSports.com. Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov, it turns out, also is not in the hawkish camp, according to two people who disputed a CBSSports.com report Sunday to the contrary. I wouldn't wager my mortgage on who's right about Prokhorov, but I would love to have him at the news conference when this is over.

"The season, it is dead. Now your families, they will one day return."

Joking aside, the demographics of the true hard-liners are hardly surprising; all but the Hawks, 76ers and Wizards are in small or, at best, mid-sized markets. But something else significant rings true about the Hard-Line Nine: all but one -- Milwaukee -- received public financing for construction of their arenas, according to data compiled by the Marquette National Sports Law Institute.

Five teams -- Atlanta, Charlotte, Memphis, Minnesota and Portland -- received public funding that accounted for more than 80 percent of their arena costs. The Timberwolves, one of the biggest economic drains on the league, received a perfect score in this dubious contest by receiving public funds covering 100 percent of their arena construction costs, according to the Marquette data. The Hawks, whose ownership transfer from the disastrous Atlanta Spirit LLC contingent that fell through last week, were a close second with their 91-percent publicly financed Philips Arena.

The least of the offenders are the Wizards (23 percent publicly financed arena), 76ers (11 percent) and Bucks (0 percent). Of course, when this is over and the owners get a far more favorable labor deal, brace yourselves for the continued push in Wisconsin to trick citizens into paying for an arena to replace the Bradley Center. To my knowledge, sports owners have never tried a cheese surtax to pay for their arenas, but there's a first for everything.

The public fleecing by sports teams is bad enough when economist after economist has found that the arenas and surrounding developments almost never provide enough economic impact to make up for the cost even when the teams are playing. But if the log-jammed negotiations stall by Wednesday, possibly resulting in a protracted legal fight that would imperil the entire 2011-12 season, citizens in the above cities will continue to be on the hook for debt payments to support arenas left dormant by the lockout. ...

Donnie Darko je napisao/la:

Posledice lokauta: Miler prodaje kuću

Košarkaš Majamija Majk Miler je prvi igrač u NBA ligi koji je zbog lokauta bio primoran da proda kuću i smanji troškove.Iskusni košarkaš Hita u gradu na Floridi ima u vlasništvu velelepnu kuću od 900 kvadratnih metara, ali je morao je da u oglase.Vrednost objekta je oko 9 miliona dolara, a Miler će uštedeti i 180.000 dolara, koliki je godišnji porez za pomenutu kuću.

LBJ MVP je napisao/la:
Nedostaje mi NBA,dosadno je

Kobe Bryant je napisao/la:Zao mi samo zbog Kobe-a ipak on sve stariji 33-34 , a propade mu sezona u kojoj bi mozda mogao osvojiti i 6 prsten
Lebronu i Durantu ovo vise odgovara , jer Boston , LA Lakersi , San Antonio , Dallas sa svakim danom imaju manje sanse , jer i ako bude sezone bit ce ubitacan raspored sa utakicama svaki 2 dan + dosta i svaki dan sto ce ubiti igrace sa + 30 godina