The Inquisitr » CBA

Gilbert Arenas To Play In China? NBA Veteran Reportedly Signing With Guangdong Southern Tigers

Dan Evon — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 21:24:56 +0000

Gilbert Arenas didn’t attract any NBA suitors during the off-season so it looks like the three-time All Star is packing his bags to go play in China.

According to Yahoo Sports, Arenas is close to signing a one-year deal with the Guangdong Southern Tigers of the Chinese Basketball Association.

Arenas, 30, played in the NBA for 11 seasons. He averaged 20.7 points throughout his career with teams like the Golden State Warriors, Washington Wizards, Orlando Magic and Memphis Grizzlies. He was named an All-star three times but most people remember him for bringing a gun into the Wizards’ locker room in 2009. Arenas was suspended for the majority of that season.

Last year, Arenas played for the Grizzlies and averaged 4.2 points. Arenas was hoping to return to the NBA this year but no team showed interest in signing him.

But Arenas will be in good company in the Chinese Basketball Association. According to the Washington Post, Stephon Marbury and Tracy McGrady both play in the CBA. The Guangdong Southern Tigers also have a former NBA player on their roster. Arenas will line up next to Yi Jianlian who played with the Dallas Mavericks last season.

Do you think Gilbert Arenas is making the right move by signing with the Tigers?

Gilbert Arenas To Play In China? NBA Veteran Reportedly Signing With Guangdong Southern Tigers is a post from: The Inquisitr

Seattle Seahawks Punished for Excessive Offseason Workouts

Melissa Stusinski — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 22:59:26 +0000

The Seattle Seahawks will be forced to miss two practices following a violation of the new collective bargaining agreement, according to a statement by the NFL’s Management Council, as well as the NFL Players Association.

Yahoo News reports that the team violated the rules of practice contact and, therefore, will not see practice on Wednesday or Thursday of this week. The statement reads:

“The NFL Management Council and NFL Players Association have determined that the Seattle Seahawks violated the Collective Bargaining Agreement’s offseason workout rules on the prohibition of live contact during one of the club’s organized team activity days. As a result, the Seahawks will forfeit two of their scheduled OTA practices (June 6 and 7) as well as an additional offseason workout day on Friday, June 8. Seahawks’ players are not permitted to be at the facility on those days, but will be paid for the sessions. The club cannot reschedule the cancelled days.”

The Seattle Seahawks’ coach, Pete Carroll, stated, according to NFL.com, that:

“We’ll be that much smarter as to how we can do things right and we’ll continue to work with our young guys to make sure they understand. Because it’s always about one play here, one play there. It wasn’t play, after play, after play, it was a few plays that stood out where guys made mistakes trying too hard and competing too much.”

According to Yahoo News, Carroll believes that, after the punishment doled out to the Seattle Seahawks, the standard for contact should be spelled out better for the league, because, “We haven’t had the opportunity to see how it’s supposed to be done, but maybe that’s what we’re creating.”

Seattle Seahawks Punished for Excessive Offseason Workouts is a post from: The Inquisitr

An interesting sidebar to the NBA lockout

Joshua Lobdell — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 01:52:40 +0000

The NBA owners claim that the business model is broken, and they may have a point. However, there is a far more interesting argument that will certainly be played out when the NBA and its players eventually sign a new collective bargaining agreement. Yes, I much like all of you am sick about writing and reading about millionaire crybabies and their unions. However, at issue here is the rule that currently states that NBA rookies must be one year removed from high school graduation to enter the NBA draft.

NBA owners would like to see their league adopt the NFL rule, where players must be three years out. Of course that is because no 18 year old kid can step up and pound away with the big boys of that league. With that being said, I do not know of an 18 year old kid who can handle getting a million dollar payday via the NBA draft. The NBA has had several players who have played long careers now that came right out of high school, so maybe I am wrong on this one.

The real argument here is the one year rule really kills the College game, and College Basketball is a big deal. Sure, I see that NBA owners are trying to get players developed on someone else’s dime. However, wouldn’t kids waiting to come up be better for everyone? I want to see kids get a degree, make millions and then be able to do other things. That doesn’t always happen, and guys with just a high school education will be far beyond most when their playing career comes to an end.

An interesting sidebar to the NBA lockout is a post from: The Inquisitr

Our first look at the NFL rookie salary cap

Joshua Lobdell — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 16:02:37 +0000

In the past the first overall draft pick in any draft in the NFL was paid like a legit veteran with a proven track record. Under the new Collective Bargaining agreement, which has yet to be approved but likely will be sooner rather than later, first round draft picks will be paid like below average starters until they have a track record that justifies higher salaries. It is a huge win for NFL team owners who ill no longer have to mortgage the future of a bad football team on one player’s contract.

For instance, Cam Newton was the first overall pick of the Carolina Panthers in the 2011 NFL draft. He will get a contract worth about 22 million dollars over four years. Depending on how the final CBA reads, the Panthers will likely have a fifth year option worth around 14 million dollars. That means Newton stands to make 36 million dollars or so in his first five years in the league. At some point, he may be worth more than that, but at least for now the Panthers do not have to eat a large dollar contract on an unproven player.

For comparisons sake Sam Bradford the first overall pick in the 2010 draft got a six year deal worth about 78 million dollars, and 50 million of that was guaranteed. The Rams would be on the hook for 50 million dollar whether or not Bradford worked out as a legit NFL starter, and that was why this rule had to be a part of the new CBA. Bad teams, which get the higher picks in the draft, could no longer afford these types of contracts.

The new CBA does leave a little room for negotiating and Newton likely will still wind up making more money than second overall pick Von Miller, but no longer will the long term health of bad teams be put at risk by a high round draft pick.

A very bad sign for NFL players

Joshua Lobdell — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 05:40:12 +0000

It was not that long ago when Joshua Cribbs vowed that he would never play for the Cleveland Browns again. Now, a short time later news is leaking out of Cleveland that the team and player are working on a new contract and it seems like it will get done. This contract will essentially replace the three years left on Cribbs’ current deal and may keep the star player in orange and brown for an extended period of time.

While some of the players in Cleveland have changed, it seems very likely that someone got into Cribbs’ ear and told him this year might not be the best year to holdout and force a trade. It may not be the best year to be on the market, and all in all it would be better to stay with the Browns and work towards a new deal. Don’t like the sound of that, well you better get use to it.

I have to say this over and over again because it does not seem that anyone is listening. Without a Salary Cap there is no Salary Floor. That means team will no longer have to spend a 100 million dollars on payroll. They could cut their rosters to the bone and field teams for 30 million dollars just like the teams in Major League Baseball do. Right now I am willing to bet their are more Florida Marlin type NFL owners than their are George Steinbrenner.

I would expect NFL salaries to drop across the board in 2010, the players union is crazy if they think all of this will lead to more spending on NFL players. Forget about the collusion charge as well cause while there may be no salary cap or floor every NFL team will have a budget, because they are a business after all, and that budget will be far less what the salary floor would have been had the union figured all of this out already.

NFL players lobby Congress to avoid work stoppage

Joshua Lobdell — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 19:31:16 +0000

What do we get when one group of Million dollar crybabies is upset with another group of billion dollar cry babies, well we get the mess that is the NFL Collective Bargaining Agreement negotiations. Let us be clear, there is going to be a lockout because the owners feel that they are in a bad deal. As it stands they have to give up 60% of all revenue to the players, leaving 40% of the revenue to operate the team, stadium, and what not. The only thing that these two sides can agree on is that NFL rookie’s get paid way too much. However, there are other forces at play here.

The NFLPA will not strike, mostly because their players cannot afford too, in fact every NFL strike has ended before it began because there is no solidarity amongst the players. The reason for that is despite being paid millions of dollars to play football many NFL players live paycheck to paycheck. Their lifestyles are so extravagant that when their playing days are done, they are virtually broke. They spend money like they will get a NFL size paycheck for the rest of their lives, when the average NFL career is something like five years.

That is not the fault of the owners, but they are not innocent in all this either. The league as a whole has done a poor job of taking care of guys who gave up their lives and more importantly their health, to play football. Has anyone heard former Cleveland Browns’ QB Bernie Kosar speak recently? That guy is jacked up and his multiple head injuries, suffered while playing football, have seriously diminished the quality of his life after his NFL career.

Now the players are in front of Congress saying that they should step in and force the NFL to play, I hate to break it to the players but their course of action will not make life any better for them. The last people we want involved in this is Congress, and an uncapped year in 2010 will not be a great for the players as they think. First a player must have six years of service to be an unrestricted Free Agent in this scenario, and many players whose deals are up will find that they are restricted free agents, forced to negotiate with their current teams only.

New York Giants owner talks about lack of CBA progress

Joshua Lobdell — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 05:05:10 +0000

New York Giants Co-owner John Mara, risking a significant fine from the league for talking about the negotiations, has come out to voice his concern over the lack of progress between the league and the NFLPA. In his mind the league made the players union a proposal in November, and has yet to hear a valid counter proposal. While the two sides fight this one out, we head towards an uncapped 2010 season, and some form of work stoppage in 2011. Both of those things are bad for both sides, so it is a little troubling that these tow sides cannot see that for themselves.

Of course this is all about money, the players want a bigger chunk of the profits, and the owners want everything to remain as is. The players currently get about 59% of all football related revenue, but when we consider that the national TV contract covers the salary cap for al 32 teams maybe the players have a point. On the other hand the owners assume all the risk, risk that stadiums will go unfilled, and financial risk in an uncertain economy. Let us not forget that many of these owners have invested millions of dollars into building stadiums and what not.

If I were the players union I would immediately file a motion in Federal Court to get the 32 NFL teams, and the league itself to open up their books and let everyone have a peek inside. The NFL is the most popular form of sport in this country, and most of the teams are surely making hefty profits.

In the end the owners are going to have to give up more money to the players, and give up more money to help the player’s union take care of retired players. In return the player’s union is going to have to give in on a hard salary cap, and a rookie salary cap that will limit the risk for team owner’s somewhat.