The NBA fined Michael Jordan $100,000 today for comments he made last month about the lengthening lockout and Milwaukee Bucks Center Andrew Bogut. Damn, that’s a lot of scrilla for just speaking your mind.
In an Aug. 19 interview with Australian newspaper The Herald Sun, the Charlotte Bobcats owner and Chicago Bulls legend spoke extensively about the need for revenue sharing.
The league issued a mandate just before the lockout began on Canada Day stating that anyone who spoke about the lockout and the players could be fined up to $1 million. Seems like a lot of mad cheddah for just simply telling it like it is.
My anonymous sources within the leaguesay they’ll know a lot more about whether there’s a season or not on the 15th. and that’s just 3 days away. Considering that every team’s media day is supposed to be held on October 3rd, if we have a season, they better figure things out quickly!
Jordan, and Bucks owner Herb Kohl have lobbied other owners to support revenue sharing. Here’s what Jordan said that got him in trouble:
“We need a lot of financial support throughout the league as well as revenue sharing to keep this business afloat.
“We have stars like Bogut who are entitled to certain type of demands. But for us to be profitable in small markets, we have to be able to win ballgames and build a better basketball team.”
The players’ union is advocating an expansion of the rev-share, copying the NFL and MLB model to correct the small market teams bleeding money. But the league says that wouldn’t be enough to turn a profit, as they claim a loss of $300 million last season.
Of course that number really isn’t very big….to people like Jordan, Mark Cuban, and quite a few other league owners. And the amount Jordan was fined sounds steep. But to him that’s what nickels and dimes are to us.
Paul M. Banks is CEO of The Sports Bank.net, an official Google News site that generates millions of unique visitors. He’s also a regular contributor to Chicago Now, Walter Football.com, Yardbarker, and Fox Sports
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