Yesterday the NBA announced a new mega television deal with ESPN and TNT for nine years, worth around $24 billion. This television deal coupled with the fact that the Clippers sold for $2 billion means NBA teams are more valuable than ever and the NBA players aren’t trying to hear the owners whining about losing money like they did during the last CBA negotiations. Both sides can opt-out of the current collective bargaining agreement following the 2016-17 season and are expected to given the new circumstances. Questions now arise if they can come to a new agreement and some think a lockout is possible.
Though LeBron James isn’t the head of the player’s union, he is the best player in the game and one of the players who signed a shorter contract in anticipation of the new TV deal. James isn’t just an ordinary player, he’s also very much business savvy and spoke out about the upcoming CBA negotiations.
via ESPN:
“I am kind of the guy that has the power, I guess, without even having to put a name on it,” James said Monday after the league announced a nine-year extension of its TV deal with ESPN and TNT that begins in 2016-17. “I’m very educated and I will use what I have to make sure our players are taken care of.”
“The whole thing that went on with the last negotiation process was the owners was telling us that they were losing money. There’s no way they can sit in front of us and tell us that right now after we continue to see teams selling for billions of dollars, being purchased for $200 million, [selling] for 550 [million], 750 [million], $2 billion,” James said. “And now [Mikhail] Prokhorov is possibly selling his majority stake in the Nets for over a billion. So, that will not fly with us this time.”
