Kobe Bryant Pushing For Higher Player Salaries, Future Union Boss?
Could Kobe Bryant be the next president of the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA)?Bloomberg and the Chicago Tribune are reporting that it seems far more likely after a Los Angeles Times interview where 16-time All-Star said that players need to look out for their true market value.
In November 2013, Kobe Bryant signed a two-year extension with the LA Lakers for $48.5 million, making him the most highly paid player in the league. Now he’s on the bench. A ruptured Achilles tendon took out Bryant right after he resumed play.
His down-time angered some fans who already felt that the star should have taken a pay cut in his contract to make room on the pay cap for other players. Bryant flipped the argument around in an interview with the LA Times, saying that it’s the owners who are setting salary caps while franchise values continue to skyrocket.
“I think people get that confused very easily in understanding that players should take substantially less than their market value, in order to win championships. I think as players, we need to hold our ground, and not be afraid of what the public perception is, but instead try to educate the public.”
It has been a lucrative time for the NBA and its team owners.
According to CBS News, the NBA is projected to make $4.7 billion in revenue for this season, and about 51 percent has to go to the athletes under the current association contract (Kobe gets about 0.5 percent). Moreover, the NBA recently signed a nine-year extension with TNT and ESPN for $24 billion. With revenues and TV rights going up, conflict between athletes and owners looks inevitable, that’s where the NBPA (and maybe Kobe Bryant) comes in.
Fans know the NBPA from the absurd battle in 2011 where owners locked out their players after their labor contract expired. The negotiations broke down between the union and owners over a new players’ compensation agreement, risking an entire season of play and countless lawsuits before sanity was restored with a new contract.
All that is possible again when that contract expires in 2017, and Kobe Bryant, who will likely be retired at that time, may be the perfect representative for his hard-line stance against excessive owner profits.
In an interview with CBS News, Bryant explained that athletes feel compelled to take lower salaries to win games.
“Why do we have to do that? Because the owners locked us out and imposed a hard cap where we ‘have to’ take less in order for them to generate more revenue. Right? But meanwhile, they go and sign a TV deal that’s a billion dollars up from the last one, but that doesn’t get talked about. Nobody complains about that.”
Seems like the perfect perspective for a strong labor leader.
Other athletes have given in to the pressure. According to the Chicago Tribune, Tim Duncan took a 54 percent cut in pay, and won a championship. Lebron James also took a hit to keep playing on the Heat with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in 2010
Kobe Bryant doesn’t do that.
Instead, Bryant seems to have the business-outlook with popularity as a low priority, a perspective that might come in handy if players face a harsher salary cap in 2017.
[Image Credit: Christopher Johnson/Wikimedia Commons]
