You bring up a valid point, but I don’t know how the league can regulate front office hirings.

Your bonus idea is interesting.

I don’t know if offering incentives is the answer though. Owners are rich and front office reps make seven and six figure incomes.

Would financial incentives provide extra motivation and accountability?

I have my doubts.

I know I could turn a struggling NBA franchise into a winner within a short amount of time. But hey, I’ll never get that chance because I wasn’t a Hall of Fame player.

I think there are too many clowns in the front offices of sports franchises. Owners just care about money. GMs just care about being in the spotlight.

If you can’t improve the product on a league-wide level, then you need to improve the product on a team level, starting from the bottom up. Screw giving the players incentives. How about we give each team’s management incentives to run a successful franchise? Say, if you win X amount of games, you will be entitled to X bonus or X percentage increase of the profits, etc.

There seems to be too many Tampa Bay Rays-like organizations out there who don’t care about winning but rather making money. If you have smart management, you can accomplish both.

dusty – Lol. Sadly, I don’t have Rosen’s contact info. But it’s good to see that you’re looking out for the television industry.

ShooterB – Thanks. A fifteen million dollar maximum salary isn’t a bad idea. The highest paid player in the league (KG) makes $24 million this season, lowering his salary by a third is close to $15 million so maybe Charley was on to something.

But I definitely agree that there needs to be a hard cap on maximum contracts. I don’t like player salaries being set by a percentage of the salary cap. I don’t know if the player’s association would agree to these kinds of changes, but I really believe they’re in their best interests.

Basketballogy – Long time no see. You brought up an interesting scenario. But I see a big problem with making players shareholders. I don’t think players would commit to rebuilding processes. Why would anyone want to play for a cellar dwellar like Oklahoma City when there’s a good chance they could more playing for a contender?

I think we would see players signing for less to play for contenders, which would create a huge talent imbalance.

Just my two cents.

In the real world, businesses have employees, shareholders (owners), and employee-shareholders… employees who have a stake in the business.

It seems like NBA ownership could come up with a formula so that players have a base salary, and a percentage of the profits of a team. That way, if things go downhill, not only is the player “paid” less, but he is financially motivated to do what he can to turn around the team’s fortunes.

If the team shares were standardized league wide, then players could be traded from franchise to franchise.

Anyway, as things currently stand, players bear the lions share of the reason for success or failure, but not the risk. That is on the owners.

That being said, I would love to see major change when it comes to pro athletes’ salaries. Doubt it will happen though.

Endorsement dollars are one thing. But when a player earns a $20 million salary, the fan is ripped off at every turn. Overpriced tickets, $100 jerseys, $8 beers, etc. Not to mention this TV deal business.

I’d have to give it some more thought, but I think there is some work to be done on the top end. There should be a max salary, for example…say $15 million. When agents and players constantly try to drive the market by one-upping each other for the next record-breaking contract, it has an exponential effect on the consumer. If there was a max, not only would the savings be passed to the consumer…but it would allow all teams to remain competitive under a salary cap. Think about it, if $15 million is the max you can make…does it really matter if you’re earning it in Phoenix or Oklahoma City?

But I refuse to feel sorry for the NBA or any other pro league that struggles. Despite their greed & corruption (in general), we’ve made them rich beyond belief. And in a social context, pro sports is probably the least important industry out there. I understand its importance in the economy, but that’s just a big fat sign that as a society…our priorities are completely messed up.

Rant over in 3, 2, 1…

-Charley Rosen

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Hoffman,

I know you are a bigshot now in all the NBA media circles so if you could please inform sorry charley rosen that he has been reported to the authorities at foxsports.com, as well as the federal and universal internets police.com for televison piracy. Since when is television free? I get a bill in my mailbox every month. Sounds like shady cable. And EVERY GAME? i get like 2 games a night. That’s it. It is *********** like this old ******* that keep TV prices high for the rest of us and it is a fedral ofence. I want a reward for my civic duties.