On Friday, ESPN broke down the positions of the 30 owners in the NBA, and where they stand on both revenue sharing and whether they are a “hawk” or a “dove” in terms of missing the season to get a CBA in strong support of the owners. There’s a lot of really interesting information in the piece, including word that Clay Bennett has made the Thunder so profitable they would be payers in a revenue sharing system (which as Abbott notes, is a pretty extreme condemnation of how the other owners run their teams considering OKC’s market). But the thing that caught my eye was this.
via NBA owners’ bargaining positions - TrueHoop Blog - ESPN.
This from the guy who OK’d deals which brought in Ben Wallace and Wally Szczerbiak. This from the guy who threw out money for Antawn Jamison. This from the guy who loves the comic sans. This from the guy who lost his biggest asset in free agency, to the point said asset didn’t even call him before he announced it on live television. Sure, that asset is a jerk for the way he handled it, but from a business standpoint, you have to manage your assets.
At some point one would think the owners would start looking to each other and seeing if the problem is really the system or the decision makers that make up the room. But they never question each other, so that won’t happen. It’s just strange that Gilbert would be willing to hurt fans this badly after they stuck with the team through LeBron’s departure and last season’s debacle.