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The Rules of Pacers Digest

Hello everyone,

Whether your are a long standing forum member or whether you have just registered today, it's a good idea to read and review the rules below so that you have a very good idea of what to expect when you come to Pacers Digest.

A quick note to new members: Your posts will not immediately show up when you make them. An administrator has to approve at least your first post before the forum software will later upgrade your account to the status of a fully-registered member. This usually happens within a couple of hours or so after your post(s) is/are approved, so you may need to be a little patient at first.

Why do we do this? So that it's more difficult for spammers (be they human or robot) to post, and so users who are banned cannot immediately re-register and start dousing people with verbal flames.

Below are the rules of Pacers Digest. After you have read them, you will have a very good sense of where we are coming from, what we expect, what we don't want to see, and how we react to things.

Rule #1

Pacers Digest is intended to be a place to discuss basketball without having to deal with the kinds of behaviors or attitudes that distract people from sticking with the discussion of the topics at hand. These unwanted distractions can come in many forms, and admittedly it can sometimes be tricky to pin down each and every kind that can rear its ugly head, but we feel that the following examples and explanations cover at least a good portion of that ground and should at least give people a pretty good idea of the kinds of things we actively discourage:

"Anyone who __________ is a liar / a fool / an idiot / a blind homer / has their head buried in the sand / a blind hater / doesn't know basketball / doesn't watch the games"

"People with intelligence will agree with me when I say that __________"

"Only stupid people think / believe / do ___________"

"I can't wait to hear something from PosterX when he/she sees that **insert a given incident or current event that will have probably upset or disappointed PosterX here**"

"He/she is just delusional"

"This thread is stupid / worthless / embarrassing"

"I'm going to take a moment to point and / laugh at PosterX / GroupOfPeopleY who thought / believed *insert though/belief here*"

"Remember when PosterX said OldCommentY that no longer looks good? "

In general, if a comment goes from purely on topic to something 'ad hominem' (personal jabs, personal shots, attacks, flames, however you want to call it, towards a person, or a group of people, or a given city/state/country of people), those are most likely going to be found intolerable.

We also dissuade passive aggressive behavior. This can be various things, but common examples include statements that are basically meant to imply someone is either stupid or otherwise incapable of holding a rational conversation. This can include (but is not limited to) laughing at someone's conclusions rather than offering an honest rebuttal, asking people what game they were watching, or another common problem is Poster X will say "that player isn't that bad" and then Poster Y will say something akin to "LOL you think that player is good". We're not going to tolerate those kinds of comments out of respect for the community at large and for the sake of trying to just have an honest conversation.

Now, does the above cover absolutely every single kind of distraction that is unwanted? Probably not, but you should by now have a good idea of the general types of things we will be discouraging. The above examples are meant to give you a good feel for / idea of what we're looking for. If something new or different than the above happens to come along and results in the same problem (that being, any other attitude or behavior that ultimately distracts from actually just discussing the topic at hand, or that is otherwise disrespectful to other posters), we can and we will take action to curb this as well, so please don't take this to mean that if you managed to technically avoid saying something exactly like one of the above examples that you are then somehow off the hook.

That all having been said, our goal is to do so in a generally kind and respectful way, and that doesn't mean the moment we see something we don't like that somebody is going to be suspended or banned, either. It just means that at the very least we will probably say something about it, quite possibly snipping out the distracting parts of the post in question while leaving alone the parts that are actually just discussing the topics, and in the event of a repeating or excessive problem, then we will start issuing infractions to try to further discourage further repeat problems, and if it just never seems to improve, then finally suspensions or bans will come into play. We would prefer it never went that far, and most of the time for most of our posters, it won't ever have to.

A slip up every once and a while is pretty normal, but, again, when it becomes repetitive or excessive, something will be done. Something occasional is probably going to be let go (within reason), but when it starts to become habitual or otherwise a pattern, odds are very good that we will step in.

There's always a small minority that like to push people's buttons and/or test their own boundaries with regards to the administrators, and in the case of someone acting like that, please be aware that this is not a court of law, but a private website run by people who are simply trying to do the right thing as they see it. If we feel that you are a special case that needs to be dealt with in an exceptional way because your behavior isn't explicitly mirroring one of our above examples of what we generally discourage, we can and we will take atypical action to prevent this from continuing if you are not cooperative with us.

Also please be aware that you will not be given a pass simply by claiming that you were 'only joking,' because quite honestly, when someone really is just joking, for one thing most people tend to pick up on the joke, including the person or group that is the target of the joke, and for another thing, in the event where an honest joke gets taken seriously and it upsets or angers someone, the person who is truly 'only joking' will quite commonly go out of his / her way to apologize and will try to mend fences. People who are dishonest about their statements being 'jokes' do not do so, and in turn that becomes a clear sign of what is really going on. It's nothing new.

In any case, quite frankly, the overall quality and health of the entire forum's community is more important than any one troublesome user will ever be, regardless of exactly how a problem is exhibiting itself, and if it comes down to us having to make a choice between you versus the greater health and happiness of the entire community, the community of this forum will win every time.

Lastly, there are also some posters, who are generally great contributors and do not otherwise cause any problems, who sometimes feel it's their place to provoke or to otherwise 'mess with' that small minority of people described in the last paragraph, and while we possibly might understand why you might feel you WANT to do something like that, the truth is we can't actually tolerate that kind of behavior from you any more than we can tolerate the behavior from them. So if we feel that you are trying to provoke those other posters into doing or saying something that will get themselves into trouble, then we will start to view you as a problem as well, because of the same reason as before: The overall health of the forum comes first, and trying to stir the pot with someone like that doesn't help, it just makes it worse. Some will simply disagree with this philosophy, but if so, then so be it because ultimately we have to do what we think is best so long as it's up to us.

If you see a problem that we haven't addressed, the best and most appropriate course for a forum member to take here is to look over to the left of the post in question. See underneath that poster's name, avatar, and other info, down where there's a little triangle with an exclamation point (!) in it? Click that. That allows you to report the post to the admins so we can definitely notice it and give it a look to see what we feel we should do about it. Beyond that, obviously it's human nature sometimes to want to speak up to the poster in question who has bothered you, but we would ask that you try to refrain from doing so because quite often what happens is two or more posters all start going back and forth about the original offending post, and suddenly the entire thread is off topic or otherwise derailed. So while the urge to police it yourself is understandable, it's best to just report it to us and let us handle it. Thank you!

All of the above is going to be subject to a case by case basis, but generally and broadly speaking, this should give everyone a pretty good idea of how things will typically / most often be handled.

Rule #2

If the actions of an administrator inspire you to make a comment, criticism, or express a concern about it, there is a wrong place and a couple of right places to do so.

The wrong place is to do so in the original thread in which the administrator took action. For example, if a post gets an infraction, or a post gets deleted, or a comment within a larger post gets clipped out, in a thread discussing Paul George, the wrong thing to do is to distract from the discussion of Paul George by adding your off topic thoughts on what the administrator did.

The right places to do so are:

A) Start a thread about the specific incident you want to talk about on the Feedback board. This way you are able to express yourself in an area that doesn't throw another thread off topic, and this way others can add their two cents as well if they wish, and additionally if there's something that needs to be said by the administrators, that is where they will respond to it.

B) Send a private message to the administrators, and they can respond to you that way.

If this is done the wrong way, those comments will be deleted, and if it's a repeating problem then it may also receive an infraction as well.

Rule #3

If a poster is bothering you, and an administrator has not or will not deal with that poster to the extent that you would prefer, you have a powerful tool at your disposal, one that has recently been upgraded and is now better than ever: The ability to ignore a user.

When you ignore a user, you will unfortunately still see some hints of their existence (nothing we can do about that), however, it does the following key things:

A) Any post they make will be completely invisible as you scroll through a thread.

B) The new addition to this feature: If someone QUOTES a user you are ignoring, you do not have to read who it was, or what that poster said, unless you go out of your way to click on a link to find out who it is and what they said.

To utilize this feature, from any page on Pacers Digest, scroll to the top of the page, look to the top right where it says 'Settings' and click that. From the settings page, look to the left side of the page where it says 'My Settings', and look down from there until you see 'Edit Ignore List' and click that. From here, it will say 'Add a Member to Your List...' Beneath that, click in the text box to the right of 'User Name', type in or copy & paste the username of the poster you are ignoring, and once their name is in the box, look over to the far right and click the 'Okay' button. All done!

Rule #4

Regarding infractions, currently they carry a value of one point each, and that point will expire in 31 days. If at any point a poster is carrying three points at the same time, that poster will be suspended until the oldest of the three points expires.

Rule #5

When you share or paste content or articles from another website, you must include the URL/link back to where you found it, who wrote it, and what website it's from. Said content will be removed if this doesn't happen.

An example:

If I copy and paste an article from the Indianapolis Star website, I would post something like this:

http://www.linktothearticlegoeshere.com/article
Title of the Article
Author's Name
Indianapolis Star

Rule #6

We cannot tolerate illegal videos on Pacers Digest. This means do not share any links to them, do not mention any websites that host them or link to them, do not describe how to find them in any way, and do not ask about them. Posts doing anything of the sort will be removed, the offenders will be contacted privately, and if the problem becomes habitual, you will be suspended, and if it still persists, you will probably be banned.

The legal means of watching or listening to NBA games are NBA League Pass Broadband (for US, or for International; both cost money) and NBA Audio League Pass (which is free). Look for them on NBA.com.

Rule #7

Provocative statements in a signature, or as an avatar, or as the 'tagline' beneath a poster's username (where it says 'Member' or 'Administrator' by default, if it is not altered) are an unwanted distraction that will more than likely be removed on sight. There can be shades of gray to this, but in general this could be something political or religious that is likely going to provoke or upset people, or otherwise something that is mean-spirited at the expense of a poster, a group of people, or a population.

It may or may not go without saying, but this goes for threads and posts as well, particularly when it's not made on the off-topic board (Market Square).

We do make exceptions if we feel the content is both innocuous and unlikely to cause social problems on the forum (such as wishing someone a Merry Christmas or a Happy Easter), and we also also make exceptions if such topics come up with regards to a sports figure (such as the Lance Stephenson situation bringing up discussions of domestic abuse and the law, or when Jason Collins came out as gay and how that lead to some discussion about gay rights).

However, once the discussion seems to be more/mostly about the political issues instead of the sports figure or his specific situation, the thread is usually closed.

Rule #8

We prefer self-restraint and/or modesty when making jokes or off topic comments in a sports discussion thread. They can be fun, but sometimes they derail or distract from a topic, and we don't want to see that happen. If we feel it is a problem, we will either delete or move those posts from the thread.

Rule #9

Generally speaking, we try to be a "PG-13" rated board, and we don't want to see sexual content or similarly suggestive content. Vulgarity is a more muddled issue, though again we prefer things to lean more towards "PG-13" than "R". If we feel things have gone too far, we will step in.

Rule #10

We like small signatures, not big signatures. The bigger the signature, the more likely it is an annoying or distracting signature.

Rule #11

Do not advertise anything without talking about it with the administrators first. This includes advertising with your signature, with your avatar, through private messaging, and/or by making a thread or post.
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The NBA's next labor war is here:

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  • The NBA's next labor war is here:

    Hopefully the NBAPA is better prepared for this battle. They've been soundly getting their asses handed to them by NBA owners. Looking back now, it was high way robbery what the owners did to the players in 2011.

    In the end- it always seems to be that the players lack of greed works in the owners favor- They all love their checks so they just want to get back to playing ball. They're warned to fight for what they're owed because it isn't exactly fair. The players are NOT getting paid what they should. Just look at salaries from every other major sports league. LeBron should be making minimum double what he's making right now...


    http://deadspin.com/the-nbas-next-la...ere-1703832294

    When NBA owners locked out the players four years ago, it didn’t come as a surprise. For months before the league shut down in July 2011, both sides engaged in all sorts of public posturing meant to increase their negotiating leverage and convince the public of their righteousness. Some of it worked.

    In an April press conference that proved surprisingly effective at setting the terms of the debate, then-deputy commissioner Adam Silver claimed that the league was $300 million in the red, and that 22 of the 30 teams were unprofitable. By the time the National Basketball Players Association got around to filing a National Labor Relations Board complaint, later withdrawn, alleging that the league was “failing and refusing to provide relevant financial information,” the public had already sided with the owners.

    Before this season, the league was still pushing that same message, with now-commissioner Silver asserting that “roughly a third” of teams were losing money. The difference this time lay largely with new union director Michele Roberts, who responded, “the NBA’s cries of poverty will not work this time.” And looking at the evidence, Roberts is clearly correct. No one actually believes that the NBA is in anything other than excellent financial health.

    In October, the league signed a new national television contract that will nearly triple the amount of money paid to each owner annually, from roughly $15.5 million to $44.4 million. Just before the playoffs began, the league announced that the 2014-15 regular season set a new attendance record. And, of course, franchise-selling prices are increasing exponentially. Silver, notably, made no mention of teams losing money at his February state of the league address.

    Roberts’s response to Silver was one of the many combative statements she has made since being elected executive director 10 months ago. Given a chance to back her words with action at the All-Star break, the union unanimously rejected the league’s “cap-smoothing” proposal. Now the NBPA has decided to once again undertake an action sure to displease the league’s owners, telling Deadspin that it plans to exercise its option to audit the books of up to five teams later this summer. The union has held this right since at least 1995, but has rarely, if ever, utilized it.

    The collective bargaining agreement, or CBA, that governs the league doesn’t expire until 2021, but either side may give notice by Dec. 15 of next year that it plans to opt out after the 2017 season. Roberts herself has said that it is a “pretty good bet” that the union will opt out, and independent experts don’t think she’s bluffing.

    After speaking with sports economists, lawyers, and sports business reporters, as well as reviewing league documents, court documents, and SEC filings, it is apparent that the players have a strong argument that they are currently being screwed out of money that is rightfully theirs. Under the CBA, the money allocated to players comes from a pool of what is known as basketball-related income, or BRI. Players get half of this revenue, which was almost $4.5 billion last season, and the definition of it under the terms of the CBA is woefully out-of-date—to the detriment of the players. Their strongest argument, simplified, is that the owners are putting money in both their left and right pockets and saying, “Well, we only agreed to split the money in my left pocket.”

    The 2011 NBA lockout was a fight between the owners and players over who got a bigger slice of the league’s revenue pie. The coming strike will be a fight over what goes into the making of that pie in the first place.

    Owners Can Cut Deals With Themselves to Hide Money From Players

    When the most recent lockout finally ended, just in time for an abbreviated 66-game season, the owners were clearly victorious. Among dozens of comparatively minor changes to the CBA, the key modification was an enormous reduction in the percentage of basketball-related income that went to the players, from 57 to 50 percent. (Technically, the players’ share of BRI can fluctuate between 49 and 51 percent. Two seasons ago they received 49.96%, and last season they got 50.09%.) Based on the future revenue forecasted in the CBA—and this was grossly underestimated, as it didn’t anticipate the new national television deal—this change amounted to a $3.5 billion loss for the players over the agreement’s 10-year lifespan.

    The BRI section of the CBA outlines exactly how much of which revenue streams the players are entitled to. This includes obvious sources like local and national television deals and tickets sales, and also more obscure founts of money like fixed arena signage and mascot appearances. But the BRI section of the 2011 CBA looks remarkably similar to the BRI section of the 1995 CBA, with the main changes being additions to the list of things excluded from BRI. This can only be described as an enormous oversight by the union during the bargaining sessions in 1999, 2005, and 2011, all of which were overseen by then-director Billy Hunter.

    In a recent profile in The Atlantic, Roberts was characteristically blunt about her predecessor’s performance. “The formula has been: after a few months when the checks don’t come, the players cave,” she said. “I can’t say with certainty what Hunter did wrong. But he clearly failed.”

    The most obvious failure was in agreeing to that seven-percentage point drop in the players’ share of revenues. The less obvious but perhaps even more damaging one was never significantly renegotiating the definition of basketball-related income. Not having kept up with trends in sports ownership, the obsolete language fails to properly account for the increased entanglement of NBA teams and related businesses. Ten team owners, for example, also own the arena their team plays in, and five have an equity stake in the regional sports network, or RSN, that broadcasts the majority of their games. But the CBA has little to say about these issues.

    As written, the deal between players and owners essentially assumes that an NBA owner doesn’t own any related businesses. Since players receive half of BRI, they have a strong preference for owners to negotiate the most lucrative possible deals with third parties like arenas and television networks. Most of the time NBA owners share this preference, and everything is fine. But when an NBA owner also owns a related business, suddenly their incentives aren’t necessarily aligned with those of the players.

    Assume for a moment that the same person owns both an NBA team and the network that holds its local broadcast rights. If the owner’s media company pays the owner’s NBA team $15 million to broadcast the games, the players receive $7.5 million of that. But if the owner pays himself a dollar to broadcast the games, the players only receive 50 cents. To the owner, it’s all just a matter of accounting and shifting money from one ledger to another. To the players, it matters dearly.

    Such situations are regulated by the CBA’s related party section, which is as dated as its BRI definitions. In fact, the 2011 CBA simply refers to the 1995 CBA for the definition of a related party, and that definition isn’t particularly clear. A related party is considered to be a third party “owned or controlled, directly or indirectly, by the persons or entities owning or controlling the NBA Team.” Proceeds received from related parties that fall under the BRI definition are considered BRI, and there is also a procedure for utilizing independent accountants in the cases where “such net proceeds cannot reasonably be determined for transactions entered into with an entity related to an NBA Team.”

    To an extent, the related party clause protects players, and they want it in place. In Brooklyn, for example, Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov owns 80% of the Nets, while real estate developer Bruce Ratner owns 20%. Meanwhile, Ratner owns 55% of the Barclays Center, where the Nets play, and Prokhorov owns 45%. While both entities are entirely owned by the same two men, by the NBA’s definition, the Nets and Barclays Center are not related parties. If they were to engage in any revenue-shifting shenanigans, the players would be helpless to collect their money. They would prefer the Nets and Barclays Center to be considered related parties.

    But back in 2000, sports economist Andrew Zimbalist explained how arena deals can be massaged to benefit owners. In an article in the journal The Economics of Sports, he wrote this in regards to arena signage:

    Suppose you are an owner negotiating an arena lease and are given a choice: pay $2 million in rent and receive 50 percent of a projected $4 million in signage income or pay no rent and receive no signage. It might seem that this is a choice between equals, but since the CBA gives 40 percent of signage income to the players, the owner would do better with the second option of no rent/no signage. Lease agreements offer manifold opportunities for such juggling, especially when the arena and team are owned by the same person or entity.
    While the related party clause can protect players, it can also be used to harm them, and nowhere is this a bigger concern than with the New York Knicks.

    The Knicks Are Headed for a Showdown With the Union

    The Madison Square Garden Company owns the Knicks, Madison Square Garden, and the MSG Network. This presents a host of problems in the abstract, but since at least 1995 the league and players have dealt with them in a relatively elegant way. For local media rights, the value of the Knicks’ deal is assumed to be the same as the Lakers’. From the 2011 CBA:

    BRI for the Knicks for each NBA Season covered by this Agreement shall include an amount equal to the net proceeds included in BRI attributable to the Los Angeles Lakers’ sale, license or other conveyance of all local media rights (including, but not limited to, broadcast and cable television and radio) for such NBA season.
    The CBA also has a specific workaround to determine the value of the Madison Square Garden signage:

    BRI for the Knicks for the 1999-2000 NBA Season shall include $3,750,000 for signage. In each subsequent Season covered by this Agreement, this amount shall be increased (or decreased, as the case may be) by the League-wide percentage increase (or decrease) in signage as determined in accordance with Section 1(a)(1)(v) and (a)(1)(vi) above.
    While these are adequate solutions to address a complicated problem, they’re not perfect. The NBPA could, and probably has in the past, argued that in both cases the players are losing money from these workarounds.

    According to the latest Nielsen estimates, there are 7.44 million television homes in the New York market, and only 5.52 million in the Los Angeles market. Other factors, like media market competition and the strength of each team, are similarly unaccounted for in the workaround. It’s quite possible, perhaps probable, that the Knicks’ broadcast rights are more valuable than the Lakers’, yet they’re assumed to be of equal value. And until the recent signing of a huge local broadcast deal with Time Warner, the Lakers were locked into a surprisingly below-market deal. The players were thus doubly screwed by the poor Lakers deal.

    There is an interesting catch in this arrangement. If and when the Knicks are no longer “related parties” with Madison Square Garden or the MSG Network, the CBA stipulates that the workarounds will be thrown out the window:

    At such time as the MSG Network and/or the Madison Square Garden Arena are no longer Related Parties, BRI for the New York Knicks in the categories described in Section 1(a)(7)(iii)(A) and/or (B) above, as the case may be, shall not be determined in accordance with the foregoing and will instead be determined by the applicable provisions of Section 1(a)(1) and (a)(7)(ii) above.
    In March, the Madison Square Garden Company announced in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing that sometime before the end of 2015 it will spin off its sports and entertainment properties—the Knicks, Rangers, Madison Square Garden itself, and so on—into their own company. These holdings will thus be separate from its media properties, like the MSG Network.

    But whether the Knicks—which according to the SEC filing will be owned by a new company called MSG Spinco—and the MSG Network will still be considered “related parties” is a very complicated question to answer. MSG Spinco’s SEC filing says that “Charles F. Dolan, members of his family and related family entities will elect up to 75% of the new company’s Board of Directors.” This is the same group that owns the majority of the Knicks, and they will clearly have more than half-control the new company. For the NBA’s purposes, it would seem, these two new companies will be considered related parties, keeping the Knicks’s specific BRI workarounds in place.

    According to a corporate governance lawyer I had review the CBA and SEC filings, it’s not so cut and dried. The CBA’s definition of related parties, for instance, doesn’t actually define what “owned or controlled, directly or indirectly” means. Does a person or corporation have to own or control the corporation’s votes, or value, or ability to name directors, or something else?

    The practical importance of this vagueness is that while the two companies will probably still be considered related parties, if the NBPA and its lawyers wanted to challenge that, they’d have the basis for an argument. And since there is a credible argument that the players are losing money because of this related party arrangement, they probably will. (When asked whether the Knicks and MSG Network will still be related parties after the spin-off, an NBA spokesperson tells me “we are still reviewing the specifics of the deal and how, if at all, it will impact the Collective Bargaining Agreement.”)

    If the Knicks and MSG Network will soon be owned by separate but connected companies, what will happen to the Knicks’ local media rights? According to the SEC filing, as part of the spin-off, the two companies will immediately sign a new agreement:

    In connection with the Distribution, we will enter into media rights agreements with MSG that will provide our fans with the ability to watch locally televised home and away games of the Knicks and Rangers, as well as other programming related to our teams, on MSG’s award-winning regional sports networks. The media rights agreements will have terms of [—] years.
    This is the point at which the union will begin to suspect ill intentions, and at which their lawyers will demand every single document relating to this already agreed upon deal—especially since there have been numerous reports (here’s one) suggesting that the real purpose of the spin-off is to facilitate a sale of the MSG Network.

    In an admittedly far-fetched scenario, assume that the Dolan family and Fox Sports have already struck a deal. When MSG Spinco sells the Knicks’ local media rights to the MSG Network, it will do so for $1. Then Fox Sports buys MSG Network, doing so for an inflated cash price because it holds the Knicks’ broadcast rights for just $1. The Dolan family would be receiving a higher sale price for the MSG Network but only a $1 annual rights payment from Fox, instead of receiving a lower sale price for the MSG Network but getting millions of dollars a year in annual rights payments. To the Dolan family it is just a matter of accounting and choosing which pocket the money goes into. The money that goes into one of those pockets counts as basketball-related income, though, which entitles players to half of it. The other doesn’t.

    You don’t have to be a conspiracy theorist to see why the Players Association will object to MSG Spinco’s stated plans. The New York sports media market is one of the most vibrant in the country, with the MSG Network, YES Network, and SportsNet New York all owning sports broadcast rights. But instead of soliciting bids from these wealthy media conglomerates for the right to broadcast Knicks games—for possibly more money than the Lakers are getting—MSG Spinco has already announced that they will “sell” them to the MSG Network.

    Not selling the rights on the open market almost assures that MSG Spinco will sell them for a below-market price. And as long as MSG Spinco and the MSG Network are considered related parties by the NBA, that’s okay—the actual selling price for the rights is merely an accounting trick as far as the Players Association is concerned. What happens in a year or two, though, if the MSG Network is indeed sold by the Dolan family? The Knicks and the presumably renamed MSG Network will no longer be related parties, and thus the players—instead of receiving half of the revenue from a deal valued the same as the Lakers’s—will begin receiving half of the below-market deal the Knicks signed.

    Large sums of money are involved here. A few years ago, Time Warner purchased 20 years of Lakers local media rights for $4 billion. Assuming that the deal the Knicks could get on the open market would be roughly comparable or better, either of the disaster scenarios described above means the players would be out hundreds of millions of dollars.

    When asked to comment on the SEC filing, as well as related party transactions more generally, the NBPA provided an interesting statement:

    The union predicted the potential for many scenarios, and closed the loopholes over the years in CBA negotiations and we’re prepared to address any new ventures from owners that would otherwise drain revenue from our shared pool.

    We feel confident that any assets or relationships that could generate revenues for owners or the League, and should belong in BRI, will be calculated in in the BRI, per the current CBA.

    For many years, the CBA has also included a provision that allows the union to engage its own independent firm to audit five teams of its choosing. This audit process can be initiated following the audit of the League and every franchise conducted at the end of every season by PwC. A similar protocol is followed in both hockey and football. To date, this option was used sparingly by the NBPA. Starting this year, the union will exercise this option and conduct the five-team audit annually.
    The important part of this is the third paragraph, where the NBPA reveals that they will take advantage of the following provision in the CBA, allowing them to audit five teams:

    The Players Association shall have the right as part of the annual review of BRI Reports to retain its own accountants (the “Players Association’s Accountants”), at its own expense, after the submission of each Audit Report under this Agreement (the “First Audit”), to audit the books and records of up to five (5) NBA teams (of its choosing)
    Given that this is a right enshrined in the CBA, it is astounding that Billy Hunter never took advantage of it, and instead essentially said, “Well, I trust teams to report finances accurately” even while he was filing complaints about the NBA not turning over certain team financial documents. When asked which teams the union plans to audit, the union says, “We will not choose the five teams until after the BRI audit is completed.”

    Even with the union demurring, you can bet that the Knicks will be one of the five, and that more generally the union will target teams that earn the most revenue and have a host of complicated related party issues. An informed guess would be that the Knicks, Nets, Mavericks, Nuggets, and Lakers will be audited, with the Rockets, Bulls, and Warriors candidates as well.

    Broadcast Equity Deals Are Already Costing Players Money

    As regional sports networks like the MSG Network grow in prominence, they’re increasingly paying for rights to broadcast NBA games in ways that screw the league’s players out of money. One workaround is including an equity stake in broadcast deals. For example, to purchase the right to broadcast Celtics games for 20 years, CSN New England reportedly paid somewhere in the neighborhood of $35 million annually, and also gave the team a 20% equity stake in the channel.

    Using a few hypothetical figures along with back of the envelope math illustrates why the union has a problem with these deals. Let’s assume that the Celtics are being paid $35 million annually for 20 years, for a total of $700 million. Let’s also assume that when the deal was signed, CSN New England was valued at $500 million, so that the Celtics’ 20% equity was worth another $100 million. In effect, the deal the two sides agreed upon valued the Celtics’ broadcast rights at $800 million over 20 years.

    The players, though, are only entitled to half of the $700 million that was explicitly paid for the rights to broadcast games, meaning they lose out on $50 million. No matter what CSN New England’s actual valuation is, any amount of rights fees over $0 “paid” via equity is money the players never see. This gives teams a powerful incentive to take their payments in equity stakes and other assets that aren’t classified as basketball-related income. As we saw before, the team doesn’t particularly care which of two pockets revenue goes into—though of course there is a risk (or reward) in having an equity stake instead of cash—but the players do.

    What’s especially perverse is that not only do players not share in the upside of equity stakes in RSNs, they’re actually subject to the downside. In October 2012, Comcast, the Rockets, and the Astros joined forces to launch CSN Houston. The network was valued at $700 million, of which the Rockets owned 31.5%. They also sold the network their long-term broadcast rights. But CSN Houston was a failure from the beginning, unable to work out deals with DirecTV, Dish Network, or AT&T U-Verse to carry the channel, and was thus available to only about 40% of customers in the Houston area. After fewer than two years of operation, CSN Houston declared bankruptcy. Today it no longer exists.

    There were many reasons for the network’s failure, but one of the biggest was the Rockets’ and Astros’ equity stakes. Together they owned 78% of the network, meaning Comcast only owned 22%. Comcast put up $100 million in startup costs, but when that ran out, they decided not to throw good money after bad. According to David Barron, a Houston Chronicle reporter who has exhaustively written about the CSN Houston debacle, both the Rockets and Astros accepted larger equity stakes in exchange for lower rights fees. With no partner owning a supermajority of the network, and all three having different priorities and visions, the entire thing crumbled.

    And how do the NBA’s players fit in here? First, they received less money than they otherwise could have from rights payments because the Rockets accepted more equity for less rights money. Further, with the CSN Houston mess still being hashed out in bankruptcy court, the Rockets haven’t been paid. Barron reports that the Rockets have unsecured claims of $101.3 million—primarily, but not entirely, from unpaid rights fees—against CSN Houston. The issue has yet to be resolved, but the players have already lost out. The BRI pool was smaller than it should have been last year because the Rockets were never paid their rights fee. If they ever are paid them, it will surely be less than the full amount.

    A Strike Is Coming

    It is clear that the league is nervous about the prospect of the players opting out of the CBA and reopening it for negotiation. Just last weekend, Adam Silver went on the radio and threatened that there are also CBA items that the owners want addressed. But when it comes to labor negotiations, Adam Silver isn’t on the side of the players. If he is warning them not to opt out, it probably means they should opt out.

    If the NBPA were to strike in 2017 they would certainly be in a stronger negotiating position than 2011, but still likely would be unable to win a significant increase in the percentage of basketball-related income they receive. Everything else is negotiable to the league, but BRI is the hill the owners would die on. They give every sign of being willing to blow up an entire season to prevent giving back money.

    Where the union might have success, though, is forcing new rules regarding related-party transactions and other things that constitute BRI. They may not be able to increase the size of their slice of the pie, in other words, but they may be able to cut into a larger one. Sports economist Andrew Zimbalist suggests that Roberts would likely argue for a broader definition of BRI, as well as arguing that teams receiving equity stakes in RSNs is a “capitalization of an income stream,” and therefore should count as BRI. If successful, the players would receive more money without having to fight over the topline BRI distribution.

    Either side can opt out of this deal in a mere 19 months, and the fight begins in earnest now. The union is preparing their response to MSG Spinco’s plans, and that is going to spill over into general strike preparations. And they didn’t elect Michele Roberts as executive director to watch her sit on her thumbs while there is money out there they could be making.
    Last edited by mattie; 05-18-2015, 04:57 AM.

  • #2
    Re: The NBA's next labor war is here:

    FWIW, the NBA issued a rebuttal to the Deadspin article. Interesting that they felt the need to respond.

    Billy Hunter was negligent as the union boss. This was very telling:

    For many years, the CBA has also included a provision that allows the union to engage its own independent firm to audit five teams of its choosing. This audit process can be initiated following the audit of the League and every franchise conducted at the end of every season by PwC. A similar protocol is followed in both hockey and football. To date, this option was used sparingly by the NBPA. Starting this year, the union will exercise this option and conduct the five-team audit annually.

    Given that this is a right enshrined in the CBA, it is astounding that Billy Hunter never took advantage of it, and instead essentially said, “Well, I trust teams to report finances accurately” even while he was filing complaints about the NBA not turning over certain team financial documents. When asked which teams the union plans to audit, the union says, “We will not choose the five teams until after the BRI audit is completed.”
    The NBA's response was that they provide complete team financials as part of labor negotiations, but that's of course different from a union-initiated audit.

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    • #3
      Re: The NBA's next labor war is here:

      It does not matter what the players "deserve". Owners of all businesses will have the upper hand on employees. If that were not the case, they would engage in some other business opportunity. I would suggest that if players (or anyone) wants the spoils of being the owner of an NBA franchise that they buy one. Yes they are expensive and it takes a lot of talent (of its own kind) and effort to do that.

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      • #4
        Re: The NBA's next labor war is here:

        Originally posted by wintermute View Post
        FWIW, the NBA issued a rebuttal to the Deadspin article. Interesting that they felt the need to respond.

        Billy Hunter was negligent as the union boss. This was very telling:



        The NBA's response was that they provide complete team financials as part of labor negotiations, but that's of course different from a union-initiated audit.
        From what Silver said it's a general practice that the union audits the books of 5 teams every year. No real news here.
        Why do teams tank? Ask a Spurs fan.

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        • #5
          Re: The NBA's next labor war is here:

          Speaking from a pure negotiation perspective, it's true that players "deserve" only what they can get from the negotiating table. In a dispute between millionaires and billionaires, who's to say what's fair and what's not?

          And yet we see both sides fighting the battle for public opinion. So I think fairness does matter in a way.

          Put it this way: the players are much more likely to accept an offer that they perceive to be "fair". Easy acceptance by the players means no protracted labor fight, no loss of interest from the paying customers, and no damage to the NBA's brand. In a long, drawn-out fight the players inevitably lose, but not before damaging the NBA, and with a rich new TV contract in hand the league might be more averse to the damage from a labor battle.

          So what we see now is the union and the league setting out the parameters of what is "fair". Not for us the public, but for the rank and file of the players' union. If the union can convince them that they deserve more, the union members will be more likely to hold out for a better offer.

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          • #6
            Re: The NBA's next labor war is here:

            Most people will probably be on the side of the owners. Lets face it, although neither are really relatable to the average American, far more people look in the mirror and see Steve Ballmer and not Lebron James.

            Based on the new union player rep this thing could get ugly (and seemingly already has).

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            • #7
              Re: The NBA's next labor war is here:

              Originally posted by Pacerized View Post
              From what Silver said it's a general practice that the union audits the books of 5 teams every year. No real news here.
              No, that's not what Silver said. Silver hasn't said anything about this yet as far as I can find.

              NBA's PR department says that "BRI reviewed by NBPA and audited by independent accountants every year."

              This is not the same as a union-initiated audit, which will obviously have a different perspective.

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              • #8
                Re: The NBA's next labor war is here:

                Originally posted by mattie View Post
                Hopefully the NBAPA is better prepared for this battle. They've been soundly getting their asses handed to them by NBA owners. Looking back now, it was high way robbery what the owners did to the players in 2011.

                In the end- it always seems to be that the players lack of greed works in the owners favor- They all love their checks so they just want to get back to playing ball. They're warned to fight for what they're owed because it isn't exactly fair. The players are NOT getting paid what they should. Just look at salaries from every other major sports league. LeBron should be making minimum double what he's making right now...

                Let's.
                On average, NBA players make $5.15 million, MLB players make $3.2 million, NHL players make $2.4 million, and NFL players make $1.9 million per year, according to Forbes. But that doesn't even tell the full story.
                http://www.businessinsider.com/chart...et-paid-2013-9

                Can anyone find any large set of employees that think they're being paid what they're worth? Any and every union in the entire United States says this stuff. When the average player makes $5M+ and they're not compensated "fairly" you've jumped the shark.

                And yes, I fully realize that LeBron and Co. aren't making what they could in an open league, but at the same time, Donald Sloan is banking for what he's actually worth. That's the price you pay when you negotiate as a union, instead as individuals.
                Just because you're offended, doesn't mean you're right.” ― Ricky Gervais.

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                • #9
                  Re: The NBA's next labor war is here:

                  Originally posted by BlueNGold View Post
                  It does not matter what the players "deserve". Owners of all businesses will have the upper hand on employees. If that were not the case, they would engage in some other business opportunity. I would suggest that if players (or anyone) wants the spoils of being the owner of an NBA franchise that they buy one. Yes they are expensive and it takes a lot of talent (of its own kind) and effort to do that.

                  I couldn't disagree more with this sentiment. I do agree that the players will not get what they "deserve", only what they have the leverage to negotiate. The players have the talent, they can play anywhere. If you think there's anything special about owning an NBA franchise, other than the most talented basketball players in the world, you are mistaken. These guys could easily go to Europe, play less ball, and make more money. If the NBA Players Association walks, the owners are left with what? Just imagine a world where the NBAPA walks away from the league as a whole. Who do you replace the 400 or so best basketball players in the world with? Scabs? Scrubs? The next best group of players from the college ranks? If the NBA folded tomorrow, make no mistake the majority of these guys would be playing ball on Wednesday. Be that in Europe, China, or in some new continental basketball league. Obviously, it's in the consumer's best interest for these guys to just continue down the hugely successful path they've been on, but make no mistake, the owners have NOTHING without the players.

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                  • #10
                    Re: The NBA's next labor war is here:

                    I still find it hilarious that most fans, in particular people on this board, were so quick to side with the owners in the last labor fight (massacre).
                    "I had to take her down like Chris Brown."

                    -Lance Stephenson

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                    • #11
                      Re: The NBA's next labor war is here:

                      Originally posted by Drew46229 View Post
                      These guys could easily go to Europe, play less ball, and make more money.
                      While I agree that the players are primarily the "product", this part might not be quite true anymore (and maybe never entirely true in the first place). The economic crisis has hit several basketball-loving European countries quite hard. If anything, we've seen the opposite thing happen - role players like Damo are now being lured over to play in the US on cheap contracts (previously it was star players on richer deals).

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                      • #12
                        Re: The NBA's next labor war is here:

                        Originally posted by BRushWithDeath View Post
                        I still find it hilarious that most fans, in particular people on this board, were so quick to side with the owners in the last labor fight (massacre).
                        Fans have a complicated relationship with their sporting heroes LOL.

                        The weird thing is that many sports owners are being subsidized by the public (through arena deals, etc). But then again, many non-sport corporations get public money too one way or another.

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                        • #13
                          Re: The NBA's next labor war is here:

                          I don't support either side. Generally, I think the NBA (both sides) do an atrocious job of negotiating because they loses site of the bigger picture. It always becomes a fight about money, while the structure of player contracts and the ability for player manipulation of the marketplace drags down the product, and the quality of refereeing has not improved.

                          Give the players more money, make contracts only partially guaranteed, start calling travelling, and the game will improve.
                          Danger Zone

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                          • #14
                            Re: The NBA's next labor war is here:

                            Originally posted by BRushWithDeath View Post
                            I still find it hilarious that most fans, in particular people on this board, were so quick to side with the owners in the last labor fight (massacre).
                            To me that was predictable. The owners are generally rich businessmen who periodically engage in philanthropic efforts. The players are abnormally tall, freaks of nature, who in some cases are not particularly articulate or intelligent.

                            The general public, whether people want to admit it or not, will side with the owners in labor disputes.

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                            • #15
                              Re: The NBA's next labor war is here:

                              For me it was simple. Which side was most likely to lead to a greater amount of parity? That is the side I choose.

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