Riverwalkman
08-04-2009, 04:00 AM
http://www.nba.com/2009/news/features/david_aldridge/08/04/aldridge.labor/
Tiltle: Several issues will come to head during the NBA labor talks
Author: David Aldridge, TNT Analyst
I picked part of the article relevant to Spurs. And I think the whole article is worth reading.
Take San Antonio, whose owner, Peter Holt, is chair of the league's negotiating committee with the players.
San Antonio is one of the league's smallest television markets (26th among U.S. NBA teams in television market as of Jan. 1, 2008, according to Nielsen's "people meter" data), but it's ninth-largest in population according to 2007 estimates, and houses the corporate headquarters of five Fortune 500 companies, including four in the top 176. Holt has never been a big spender; even through the Spurs' era of four championships in nine seasons, Tim Duncan was the only player who received anything close to a max contract.
Yet this summer, Holt okayed the acqusition of Richard Jefferson from Milwaukee, a transaction that will cost Holt $29 million more than if he had kept the expiring contracts of Bruce Bowen, Kurt Thomas and Fabricio Oberto, with Jefferson due $14.2 million this coming season and $15 million in 2010-11. He spent the full mid-level exception on free agent Antonio McDyess, for three years and $15 million in guaranteed money. He coughed up another $1.3 million for center Theo Ratliff. Add in the salaries for rookies DeJuan Blair and Jack McClinton, and the Spurs' payroll for next season will be right around $80 million, which means Holt is on the hook for at least another $10 million in luxury tax payments if the current projected $69.9 million threshhold for next year is accurate.
Holt says there is a method to his seeming madness. Basically, the Spurs are loading up for two years--which coincides with all but the final year of Tim Duncan's contract. By 2011-12, the Spurs will have just two players under contract--Duncan and McDyess, and McDyess's deal is only partially guaranteed. San Antonio's time among the league's top spenders has an expiration date.
"In our case, lots of things over the years played out," Holt said in Las Vegas, when he was named chair of the committee. "I get credit, R.C. (Buford, the general manager), Pop (Gregg Popovich, the head coach). But we lucked out on some deals, to be blunt with you. Then, we have an ownership group that's strong. No money has come out of that business, ever, or at least since 1993. So the debt on the Spurs is way down. And so we, as owners, have decided to give us a transition period, are willing to take some hits. But the main reason is that because we have such little debt on the business...it gives you opportunties that in the past, we didn't have to take advantage of."
But Holt is not the only owner taking on short-term pain for a chance at a championship.
Tiltle: Several issues will come to head during the NBA labor talks
Author: David Aldridge, TNT Analyst
I picked part of the article relevant to Spurs. And I think the whole article is worth reading.
Take San Antonio, whose owner, Peter Holt, is chair of the league's negotiating committee with the players.
San Antonio is one of the league's smallest television markets (26th among U.S. NBA teams in television market as of Jan. 1, 2008, according to Nielsen's "people meter" data), but it's ninth-largest in population according to 2007 estimates, and houses the corporate headquarters of five Fortune 500 companies, including four in the top 176. Holt has never been a big spender; even through the Spurs' era of four championships in nine seasons, Tim Duncan was the only player who received anything close to a max contract.
Yet this summer, Holt okayed the acqusition of Richard Jefferson from Milwaukee, a transaction that will cost Holt $29 million more than if he had kept the expiring contracts of Bruce Bowen, Kurt Thomas and Fabricio Oberto, with Jefferson due $14.2 million this coming season and $15 million in 2010-11. He spent the full mid-level exception on free agent Antonio McDyess, for three years and $15 million in guaranteed money. He coughed up another $1.3 million for center Theo Ratliff. Add in the salaries for rookies DeJuan Blair and Jack McClinton, and the Spurs' payroll for next season will be right around $80 million, which means Holt is on the hook for at least another $10 million in luxury tax payments if the current projected $69.9 million threshhold for next year is accurate.
Holt says there is a method to his seeming madness. Basically, the Spurs are loading up for two years--which coincides with all but the final year of Tim Duncan's contract. By 2011-12, the Spurs will have just two players under contract--Duncan and McDyess, and McDyess's deal is only partially guaranteed. San Antonio's time among the league's top spenders has an expiration date.
"In our case, lots of things over the years played out," Holt said in Las Vegas, when he was named chair of the committee. "I get credit, R.C. (Buford, the general manager), Pop (Gregg Popovich, the head coach). But we lucked out on some deals, to be blunt with you. Then, we have an ownership group that's strong. No money has come out of that business, ever, or at least since 1993. So the debt on the Spurs is way down. And so we, as owners, have decided to give us a transition period, are willing to take some hits. But the main reason is that because we have such little debt on the business...it gives you opportunties that in the past, we didn't have to take advantage of."
But Holt is not the only owner taking on short-term pain for a chance at a championship.