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Saturday, February 4, 2017
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Players can’t be dictators
FOR the past several games, the defending NBA champion Cleveland Cavaliers has been losing badly, and with their whiner supernova letting out his management views, the team has been sent into some sort of turmoil. He wants the team to spend more money beyond the luxury tax limit. The end result has the 6-8, 250-pound cry baby in conflict with management and team owners.
A luxury tax, briefly defined, is a penalty given to professional sports teams when they go above the predetermined total salary level set by the four major US professional leagues. In the case of the NBA, there is actually no limit as to spending on players’ salaries but an assessment is collected from a team on the excess amount spent above the maximum set by the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) between the players union and the league.
This is to prevent big market and large income teams from cornering a majority of the talents available. For every dollar spent above the league limit, a team must pay a fraction as penalty. The revenue derived from the luxury tax will then be divided among lower market teams to help them spend for and acquire impact players. This arrangement hopes to prevent high value teams from overspending and maintain a balance of competition within the league. I still see no balance in the current picture.
The NBA levies teams going over the salary limit based on the following rates:
• Below $5 million is taxed $1.50 to the dollar
• $5m to $9.99M is $1.75 to the dollar
• $10m to $14.99M is $2.50 to the dollar
• $15m to $19.99M is $3.25 to the dollar
• Above $20M the team is assessed $3.75 to the dollar plus $.50 per $5m
Therefore, as an example, if a team is $5 million above the agreed salary limit, they will pay the league an additional $7.5 million in luxury taxes, spending a total of $12.5 million.
Cavaliers team owner Dan Gilbert and general manager David Griffin clashed with LeBron James on this matter. Before bringing back his abilities to Cleveland, LBJ as a condition, wanted Gilbert to surround him with talents regardless of going way over the lux tax limit. Eventually, Cavs management relented to LBJ’s wishes and signed him.
The Cleveland Cavaliers spent more than any other NBA team during a 3-year period since the second coming of LeBron. During the 2014-2015 season, the team spent $82M in salaries and $7M in lux tax. From 2015 to 2016, they had then shell out a payroll of $107M and $54M in lux taxes. This season, salaries ballooned to $127.6M with $27M in taxes.
We understand management’s reluctance toward spending but LBJ has other ideas. He’s thinking the Cavs are getting thrifty because they have finally won a championship, suggesting that the team does not want to improve anymore. This has pissed Gilbert because after spending more than $300 million in players’ salaries, his biggest investment is still whining.
LBJ wants the team to add another ball handler. With his unnatural God-given gifts, the king of flop can handle the ball very well and facilitate plays. Goodness freaking gracious, just what exactly is Kyrie Irving and Iman Shumpert doing with the Cavs?
He’d done this thing on his first tour of duty with Cleveland, did it with Miami and is doing it again. It would be better for LeBron if he buys a team. Only then will he have complete, absolute and dictatorial powers.
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NBA TRIVIA
The Atlanta Hawks is the only NBA franchise to win three quadruple overtime games. A few days ago, they prevailed over the New York Knicks, 142-139, after almost four hours of basketball. The Hawks won their first 4OT beating Seattle, 127-122, on Feb. 19, 1982. Thirty years after, they won, 139-133, over Utah on March 25, 2012.
Paul Millsap had the distinction of playing in two of these multiple OT games. Then playing for Utah in 2012, he was on the losing end, scoring 25 points with 13 boards before fouling out. This time playing for Atlanta, Millsap starred and logged 60 minutes, 37 points and pulled down 19 rebounds.
The Hawks-Knicks 4OT game was the 11th in league history. Prior, on Dec. 1, 2015, Chicago dropped a144-147 4OT loss to Detroit./PN
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