The owners wants are not unwarranted. They feel as though a stern salary cap will curve the large contracts that have recently taken precedence in the league. This will also help control the division of BRI. The rookie contract request stems from the amount of rookies who enter the league and have excellent initial seasons. The rookies would then leave their drafting teams to the highest bidder where they eventually help their new team compete for a NBA Championship. The owners feel that the mandatory five-year rookie contracts will allow the drafting team to get the better years out of the rookie before he leaves for another team. Last, the owners feel that players are passing the drug tests, but still enjoy alcohol and marijuana. They feel that these substances are just as dangerous as heroin and cocaine and should not be tolerated.

Employee–Employer relations have been rigid since the beginning of time. For this reason, laborers started labor unions to rectify the problem. Labor unions, are associations of workers for improving economic status through collective bargaining, formed out of the Industrial Revolution of the 19th Century (Labor). Collective bargaining is defined as the negotiation between the representatives of organized workers and their employer(s) to determine wages, hours, rules, and working conditions. The conditions under which these former farmers had to work were unbearable. The farmer got tired of the treatment and banded to together. Labor unions sprouted in the US around the 1830’s; however, the first major group was the Knights of Labor that organized in 1869 (Labor).

The owners of the National Basketball Association handle monumental amounts of money that can be evenly distributed amongst the players and themselves. There is not a reason why already half, and possibly, the whole season is in jeopardy of being lost. The Board of Directors and the NBAPA, NBA Players Association, need to research other professional athletic leagues and examine their respective collective bargaining agreements for ideas. For example, the National Football League enforces a complicated, but well thought out collective bargaining agreement. In their system, which expires in 2000, each NFL team is allowed to designate one franchise player and one transitional player within the years of the agreement. Clubs retain exclusive negotiating rights to a franchise player by committing no later than Feb. 13 to a minimum offer of the average of the top five salaries at the player's position, or a twenty percent salary increase, whichever is greater. This offer

Michael Jordan and Jeffrey Kessler jinxed the agreement. On Tuesday June 30, 1998 at midnight, the NBA Board of Directors locked the players out. The owners, again frustrated over the percentage of BRI that the players received shut down all personnel transactions, workout facilities, and summer camps. The immediate cause of the lockout stems from the $995 million in total salaries, or fifty–seven percent of BRI that the players received instead of their contractual forty–eight percent. Still, other issues caused the lockout. The league wants:

A firm salary cap that cannot be broken.

be presented before the end of the restricted free-agent signing period on April 14. Franchise players offered a minimum of the average of the top five salaries at their position in the 1996 season were able to negotiate with other clubs. In the latter case, the original club may match the offer and retain the player or receive two first-round draft choices as compensation if the original club elects not to match. A transition player designation gives the club a first-refusal right to match an offer sheet given to the player by another club. In addition to the transition player option of franchise designation, each club was permitted a total of three transition designations -- two in 1993 and one in 1994. To designate a transition player, the

Some topics in this essay:
Larry Bird, Basketball Association, Football League, Tim Hardaway, Michael Jordan, Board Directors, Magic Bird, Chicago Bulls, NBA Championship, Turner Sports, collective bargaining, larry bird, michael jordan, chicago bulls, national basketball association, nba franchises, salary cap, basketball association, amounts money, salary increase, national basketball, collective bargaining agreement, larry bird clause, minimum average top, los angeles lakers,