No tax relief for NBA, Stern says

If the Jazz choose to wade into NBA luxury-tax territory — something they've said they're willing to do if need be next season — they won't be getting a bailout.

League Commissioner David Stern told reporters covering the NBA Finals in Los Angeles this week that there are no plans to temporarily shelve the tax, even in light of the country's current economic plight.

"No," Stern said when asked at his annual Finals news conference, "there's no contemplation of eliminating or reducing luxury tax."

The tax — part of the current collective-bargaining agreement between the NBA and its players union — is levied upon teams that exceed the league's maximum team-payroll threshold, which has not yet been determined for next season.

It amounts to a fine of $1 for every dollar over the threshold, plus a ban from sharing with under-the-threshold teams in distribution of the taxes that are collected.

Jazz ownership representative Greg Miller recently told two local television stations that the team would be willing to pay the tax as a short-term measure, if that's what it takes to re-sign restricted free agent power forward Paul Millsap.

The Jazz have made it clear they'll do what it takes to retain Millsap, even if prospective free agents Carlos Boozer, Mehmet Okur and Kyle Korver all decide against opting out of the final year of their current contracts — something that must be determined by the end of this month.

Beyond suggesting the tax program will not be suspended, Stern said the NBA is doing "pretty well" economically — even if league-wide revenue is projected to dip a bit in the near future.

"We expect next season to really have another record year, we hope, with respect to attendance," the commissioner said. "The reality is that — we don't expect, we hope.

"The reality is there will be discounts and price cuts," Stern added, "because we're trying to respond to what our fans are telling us, so our revenues will likely be down some percentage I can say, maybe as much as 10 percent. But that's a small amount in the landscape here."

The Jazz, Miller has suggested previously, remain economically viable and self-sufficient.

"We've always had owners who do less well, and they have issues about how they're going to fund their teams," Stern said. "But we're doing pretty well."