Now this lockout has gone too far. We've sat idly by talking and reading and complaining about the lockout with no real consideration for what's really at stake. Now it has gotten personal. KSL.com had another take on the economic impact of losing games on the downtown Salt Lake City area,
When the Utah Jazz play a home game, Mike Katsanevas, whose family runs the Crown Burgers restaurant on North Temple, knows it's going to be a busy night.
"From 5:00 p.m. to about 6:45, we get a major rush" just before the game tips off a block away at EnergySolutions Arena, he says. "It's tremendous business for us. We live for the Jazz season. That's our biggest time of the year."
This has gone on long enough. When the owners' actions affect the restaurant that makes this sweet, sweet creation, you've crossed the line. If you want to fight over BRI split, Bird rights, and a hard/soft caps, knock yourself out. But if you adversely affect Crown Burger, there will be hell to pay!
via David Kover, A Hamburger a Day
Forget sending the owners and players a cake, Crown Burger for everyone would solve all this right now. Maybe instead of the 46/54 split the owners are looking for, maybe they would take 50/50 and weekly Crown Burger catering?
Paul Millsap on the All-Jumper team (bench) from Zach Lowe,
- Paul Millsap, PF, Utah Jazz
Millsap has such a soft touch, and he can vary the arc of his shot depending on what is required. His right elbow comes way out in front of the ball, giving the feel of a catapult-type motion, and his left hand ends up very close to his right hand after the release. That might violate Magee's rule above, but it's a cool look.
His elbow jumper is near automatic. His biggest improvement from previous seasons was that consistent jumper. From 10-15 feet, he shot 51.6%.
Players and owners continue to their negotiations today which hopefully last long into the weekend. There's a myriad of items they'll be discussing, but hopefully they'll have the basic tenets of a deal in place in time to save the season. Some items to be discussed today and other lockout news:
David Stern Steps Up, And NBA Lockout Feels The Wrath Of A Menace - SBNation.com
There's one big elephant in the room when you start talking about this type of "rollback," one that comes in the form of a shortened season. That's the national TV contract, which pays out $900 million whether there's a season or not. In the NFL lockout, players tried to get that revoked from the league. The NBA's players' union hasn't made any similar move. So teams will start getting their $30 million share from the national deals with ESPN, TNT and ABC in the near future. Forget that team owners are typically invested in other businesses, that $30 million per team itself is a nice buffer between the owners and pain. Chunks do get taken out of it, though Most teams are continuing to pay their coaches, front office staff and sales teams and most teams have big fat interest payments to make on account of financing the purchase or operation of their franchises. So the buffer is not great, but it exists.Salaries don't match value for NBA stars - NBA - Yahoo! Sports
Nowhere in sports is the superstar more vital than basketball, because the ball’s forever in the star’s hands and a singular talent has the most transformational impact. Let owners bid on the true value the elite stars bring to a franchise, to the league, and Wade was asked where he believes the bidding would rise per season? "I’m sure it would get to $50 million," Wade told Yahoo! Sports on Wednesday afternoon.
- The institution of a sliding "Supertax" that would charge teams $2 in luxury tax for every dollar over $70 million in payroll, $3 for every dollar over $75 million in payroll and $4 for every dollar for teams with payrolls above $80 million
- A provision to allow each team to release one player via the so-called "amnesty" clause and gain both salary-cap and luxury-tax relief when that player's cap number is removed from the books
- Shortening guaranteed contracts to a maximum of three or four seasons
- Limiting Larry Bird rights -- which enable teams to exceed the salary cap to re-sign their own free agents -- to one player per team per season
- Reducing the annual mid-level exception, which was valued at $5.8 million last season, to roughly $3 million annually and limiting mid-level contracts to a maximum of two or three seasons in length as opposed to the current maximum of five seasons
- A new "Carmelo Rule" that would prevent teams -- as theNew York Knicksdid in February with Anthony -- from using a Bird exception to sign or extend a player acquired by trade unless they are acquired before July 1 of the final season of the player's contract
- The abolition of sign-and-trades and the bi-annual exception worth $2 million
- Significant reductions in maximum salaries and annual raises and a 5 percent rollbacks on current contracts
Nooooooooooooo! Kanter already has the Kobe taint,
The next stop for Kobe was the final of a Nike tournament for amateur basketball players. He was accompanied by Turkish star Enes Kanter, who was drafted by the Utah Jazz in the 2011 NBA draft.
Friday poll...