If By “The Difference” You Mean The Absurd Advantage, Then Yes.

Posted by on Friday, February 5, 2010 1 Comment

But what he says next popped out at me. It wasn’t that salaries must decrease, or that the arena financing system is broken. He said in upcoming league reforms — negotiating through the CBA — he’ll seek to “compress the difference” between the teams which make the most money and those who lose it.

That’s either code for “better revenue sharing,” or it’s willful misdirection on the salary issue. (Because, technically, crushing payrolls would serve to boost the net revenue of the low-end teams, which might actually “compress the difference.”) I choose to believe it’s the former, because I roll with Rousseau, and revenue sharing is the right thing to do, so long as James Dolan and Donald Sterling get fat and happy because of their zip code rather than their teams’; competitiveness.

via Stern: NBA to ‘Compress the Difference’ Between Rich and Poor Teams — NBA FanHouse.

I firmly believe we’re at a critical point for the NBA. We could be looking at a talent realignment the likes of which we’ve never seen in the next six months, and even if we don’t, we’ll still at least have a pretty good look at the future. We have more stars than we’ve had since Showtime, many with crossover appeal. Sports is becoming, somehow, incredibly, more of our daily life with new media than it ever has been. And the CBA represents a golden opportunity for Stern to shape the future of the league in such a way as to allow a boom to put them in competition for the 2nd most popular sport in the country. A revenue sharing deal that puts smaller communities in contention and breeds the idea that your team, no matter who you are, really has a chance at a championship would change everything.

Even with owners that would take advantage of such rules like the Royals and Pirates do, it would still open up for smaller teams to become household names. As it stands, there are really still only about four household name of teams, teams that really cross over into the mainstream. Lakers, Knicks, Bulls, Celtics. Do you have any idea how many people have asked me in the last two weeks, “Wait, Charlotte has an NBA team? When did that happen?” And when I reply “It’s their second, they had the Hornets, too” their minds are blown.

Stern taking that initiative to bring a system where the smaller teams are rewarded is in everyone’s best interest except those four teams. And those four teams will never be at a disadvantage. This isn’t about punishing any one team. It’s about raising up the rest. I’m hoping Tom’s right and Stern’s ready to take this on.

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About Matt Moore: Matt Moore is a Senior NBA Blogger for CBSSports.com's Eye on Basketball blog, weekend editor of Pro Basketball Talk on NBCSports.com, and co-editor of Voice on the Floor. He lives in Kansas City due to an unbelievably complex set of circumstances and enjoys mid-90's pop rock, long walks on the beach and the novels of Tim Sandlin.

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Charrua

Stern and the league have been trying to help small market teams for a long time; after all, most of the CBA rules are there to help them. The draft, the salary cap, the luxury tax, the shorter contracts, all of it is there because of them. And it doesn't matter much, because in the end, if there's not enough people or interest in the team there isn't much you can do. ¿What can you do in Atlanta, where even when they have a really good team, they still can't sell out the arena? Or Memphis, where they could win 50 games, go to the playoffs and still sell less tickets than they did losing 55 games in Vancouver.
Yes, you could take money from the teams who sell a lot of tickets and give it to them, but guess what? People in Atlanta still won't care that much about pro basketball.

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