The biggest problem facing the NBA is the possibility that there could be a work stoppage if they don’t agree on a CBA. The owners are saying they are losing revenue and the players are saying that it’s not because of the player’s salaries.

In a very good article on Fanhouse NBA Players Association president Derek Fisher doesn’t dispute NBA teams will lose $400 million this season. But he isn’t sure it’s fair to fully blame the losses on player salaries being too high.

“I think the discussion also is about, ‘Are things just related to the economy,”’ Fisher, a Lakers guard, said in an interview with FanHouse. “What other variables go into why teams are losing money? That’s the conversations that we (the union) want to have.

“Let’s discuss all of the reasons why (teams are losing money). Some of it is you have some teams in bad arena (situations) that are in tough markets. You have situations where teams aren’t as competitive where you know that’s going to impact the fan base. You have another batch of teams this year that have dumped guys to clear salary-cap room for the summer, and that’s not something that’s necessarily going to raise fan support or increase season-ticket sales for next year. … We don’t necessarily agree the only fix is impacting players’ salaries.”

“I guess all of our salaries are too high in a relative sense of what hard-working Americans or people around the world and what their income is,” Fisher said. “We’re not insensitive to that reality. At the same time, we feel like this system is as well as systems in the past. … There isn’t any reason why, if a team doesn’t want to pay guys five- or six-year contracts, they don’t have to.

“When league revenues go down, player salaries go down. The league already is reporting a salary-cap number that is lower next year than it is this year. That will impact players’ salaries. … Each time we have gone around the block with (NBA owners) with a collective bargaining agreement, that one has always not been good enough four or five years later. … We do feel there is much more conversation to have than just player salaries are way out of control.”

During All-Star weekend the owners and the union had a meeting and one of the scare tactics the owners used was saying the union would go away. That’s not going to work because the players won’t let that and lets face it without the many NBA superstars there isn’t a league.

The argument here isn’t the fact that entertainers in our country make a ton of money, the argument is how much do the entertainers deserve. In this country we love entertainment, if you have been to any professional sporting event in the last year you can’t complain about how much athletes make because you already supported it. The argument here is that the NBA owners had to pay a lot to earn a franchise and they have all the liability so they deserve to make a profit. 57 percent of their profits go to players salariesand the owners also need and want shorter contracts which would create less liability if a player doesn’t perform.  The players can’t help that teams are in small markets, dumped salary, or just suck.