Comments about ‘NBA notebook: Union disputes figures from NBA’

Boozer gets a $75mil deal, Rudy Gay gets an $80mil deal, Amare Stoudamire a $100mil deal, and you wonder why there's a deficit.

The only ones who can stop these kind of ridiculous payments to people who play a "game" is to stop treating them like heroes. Think of all the teachers, police officers, para medics and military personnel who actually make a difference in society we could pay or help get treatments for injuries sustained in the line of duty. If you think teachers don't get injured at work think again. We as a society have a distorted view as to who is a hero and who isn't. Look at LeBron, Kobe and others who are good at a game versus our military personnel who risk life and limb daily. Who is the real hero? Why do we allow them to use terms such as, it was a battle out there, or we prepare to go to war with them every time. We need to demand accountability from ourselves and our sports figures and get their salaries back to an acceptable level and put the difference to good use. No one is worth a million dollars for playing a game no matter what the game is. We all should be ashamed of ourselves.

"Hunter disputes commissioner David Stern's forecast of nearly $400 million in losses this season, countering that the league's basketball-related revenues increased to their highest point ever in 2009-10."

Mr. Hunter, let me give you a quick accounting lesson. Having the highest basketball-related revenues does not mean you will have an overall gain. It doesn't matter how high your revenues are; if your expenses are higher then your revenues, then you will have a loss. As the first poster mentioned, when players are getting insane contracts, this will increase expenses. So, as much as it pains me to say it, I have to agree with Stern on this one.

Also, one question to everyone: why do professional athletes think they need a union? Fist of all, I think they could still do pretty well without one. Also, unions in any industry just mess everything up and ruin things. When will people notice this?

The players get more money because there is a union. There is no doubt about that. You cannot blame the players for sticking together to negotiate as one entitiy. I also hate unions, but the answer is for the owners to stand up to them. Ronald Reagan did it with the air trafic controllers. The owners would have to take a short term loss for a long term gain--play with substitute players for a season or two. Income will go way, way down but so would espenses. I don't see this happening, but it is the only way to make a long term change. Goverments are also part of the problem. When they help pay for arenas, they are basically funding these high salaries. With out the arena money, the owners could not afford the salaries. It is pretty nuts. Some values change that makes us respect teachers and police more would be nice, but it is a utopian fantasy in the NBA business. Any actual change will have to be financially motivated. A small step would be making the luxury cap much more punitive and maybe scaled to be very punitive the more over the cap.