Cleveland Cavaliers star LeBron James believes the NBA's new TV deal means it's time for the league to take care of the players. He also indicated a lockout in 2017 for a new Collective Bargaining Agreement was inevitable.
During the 2011 lockout, the owners said they were losing money and would benefit from not playing the season under the CBA in place at the time. The players, in order to save the season, agreed to a number of concessions - such as a smaller split of the revenue sharing and shorter contracts - that ultimately cost them money.
Now, with the NBA agreeing to a new television deal purportedly worth $2.66 billion annually starting in 2016-17, James believes it's time for the league to take care of the players. While James doesn't hold a title in the NBPA, his status as the world's best basketball player gives him undeniable influence over the league.
"I am kind of the guy that has the power, I guess, without even having to put a name on it," James said Monday, via ESPN. "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. 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."
Either side - the players or the owners - can opt out of the current CBA after the 2016-17 season. If either side wishes to opt out, the other side must be notified by December 2016. The lockout would then go into effect on July 1, 2017.
James said he believes a lockout is inevitable, but he indicated it would likely be much shorter than the lockout in 2011.
"At the end of the day, we will negotiate," he said. "We know it's going to happen at some point because our deal is ending soon. We would love to do it sooner than later. We don't want it to happen like it happened last time when we went into a lockout."
