Winners & Losers in Labor Dispute

Comparing the new labor Agreement with the Previous Labor Agreement

ESPN broke down the new Collective Barginaning Agreement (CBA) agreement into the following categories summarized below.  I briefly paraphrase them to identify who were the winners and losers.

Generally speaking as most NBA pundits predicted the players lost and the owners won.  That what happens when millionaires do battle with billionaires.  The ones with the most money, the most leverage, win.


In the folowing CBA categories, the Winners and the Losers are:

Revenue

Owners – they win big by reducing the players share of BRI (Basketball Related Revenue) from 57% to 51.15% in 2011-12 and 49 to 50% in subsequent years.

Escrow

Players – no salary reductions exceeding 10%

Amnesty

Owners – can drop one contract without hurting cap.

Revenue Sharing

Owners, small market teams   -  triples the amount that is shared

Minimum Team Salary

Players -  Teams must spend 85% of salary cap.

Luxury Tax

Owners and players -  League parity should result as small market teams benefit from higher luxury taxes on over-spending teams.

Luxury Tax Distribution

League -  leads to league parity.

Other Limits for Taxpaying Teams

Owners, small market teams.

Stretch Provision

Owners – Can waive contracts and pro-rate the waived contract over 3 seasons.

Free Agents

Players and owners.  -  Restricted Free Agency

New Contracts

Owners, and 5^th year players.

Contract Extensions

Owners -  Limits extend and trade moves to 3 seasons.

Mid-level Exception

Owners, teams that clear cap room – reduces length and amount of exemption.

Trade Rules

Owners and players -  should facilitate player movement reduce trade requirements on salary

Base Year Compensation

Owners and players -  simplifies and limits base year compensation for traded players. 

For the exquisite details read the article linked to below.

Source:  ESPN -- Breaking down changes in new CBA