While the NBA and NBPA can't opt out of their current collective bargaining agreement until the summer of 2017, the pre-negotiation posturing has already begun in earnest.
Michele Roberts began her tenure as the union's new executive director - and the first female ever to lead a pro sports union in North America - in September, giving the NBPA a clear leadership structure for the first time in ages. Known for her success as a trial lawyer, Roberts has wasted little time questioning some of the fundamental principles that govern the player-owner relationship in basketball.
In an interview with Pablo Torre of ESPN The Magazine published on Thursday, Roberts took aim at the current structure, specifically the 50-50 split of basketball-related income that was negotiated in the last round of collective bargaining:
Why don't we have the owners play half the games? There would be no money if not for the players.
Let's call it what it is. There. Would. Be. No. Money. Thirty more owners can come in, and nothing will change. These guys go? The game will change. So let's stop pretending.
Those are firm words, and the player populace is surely happy to have a strong voice ready to go to work for them at the helm. Her comments are a little concerning for fans, however, as her early discourse is suggestive of a contentious round of negotiations in 2017.
Roberts also took aim at the salary cap, a wage restriction she takes personally:
I don't know of any space other than the world of sports where there's this notion that we will artificially deflate what someone's able to make, just because. It's incredibly un-American. My DNA is offended by it.
...
I contend that there is no reason in the world why the union should embrace salary caps or any effort to place a barrier on the amount of money that marquee players can make.
The reality is that the salary cap probably isn't going anywhere. The NBA, NHL and NFL all operate under team spending limits, with the NBA's being the softest of the caps. Fighting the owners on such a fundamental piece of the CBA would likely mean a long, drawn out process, one the players may not have the stomach for after losing part of the 2011-12 season to a lockout.
Among other things, Roberts also took issue with the idea of smoothing out the impact of the new media rights deal on the salary cap, the proposed increase in the rookie age minimum, and the length of the season.
In other words: there are a lot of elements of the CBA that the union is going to want to discuss if (when) they opt out of the current CBA in 2017. It makes all the sense in the world from a negotiating perspective for Roberts to take a hard stance on these issues now. The hope has to be, though, that common ground can be found before the league loses any games in 2017-18.
