D4 ROUNDUP Wade, Bosh join forces in Miami, now wait for James
Boozer to Bulls; Thunder extends deal with Durant
Associated Press
Dwyane Wade had already de- cided that if he were to stay with the Miami Heat, he would have either LeBron James or Chris Bosh as a teammate. He got Bosh. He might get both. Ending months of speculation,
Wade and Bosh made their deci- sions official on Wednesday, say- ing their trip through the world of NBA free agency would end in Miami. Wade is staying, Bosh is coming, and now they’re waiting — like the rest of the league — to see what LeBron James will do Thursday night when he unveils his plans in a special to be tele- vised on ESPN. “I’m so glad it’s over,” Wade
said in an interview with the As- sociated Press. “I had to do what was best for me. And I know I did that.” Wade does not know what the terms of the next contract he’ll sign with Miami will be, nor when he’ll sign the paper. Bosh doesn’t have terms of his next deal done either. It’s all con- tingent on what James says Thursday night, and Wade insist- ed he knows nothing about what the two-time MVP will say or where he’ll be saying it from. “I won’t speak to him again un- til he makes his decision,” Wade said in the AP interview. “And when it’s over, I will congratulate him. But I will be watching.” Either way, Wade is already thrilled with how free agency played out. He, James and Bosh were the three kingpins of this long-hyped market, a trio of all-stars who came into the league together seven years ago and structured their last contracts just to hit the
Press that the two-time all-star forward agreed to a deal and is leaving the Utah Jazz after six seasons. The person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the contract doesn’t be- come official until Thursday, did not reveal the terms. Several outlets have reported
ALAN DIAZ/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Dwyane Wade has put big smiles on the faces of Heat fans, opting to remain in Miami. “I’m so glad it’s over,” Wade said of free agency.
open market together this sum- mer, the last under the current terms of the league’s collective bargaining agreement. They’re going to need some help. Regardless of whether James comes to Miami, the Heat still has only four players cur-
rently in the picture for this com- ing season: Wade, Bosh, Michael Beasley and Mario Chalmers. BOOZER TO BULLS: A person familiar with the negotiations said Carlos Boozer is headed to the Chicago Bulls. The person told the Associated
NBA sets 2010-11 salary cap at $58.044 million
Increase gives Wizards about $2 million more to spend on roster
by Michael Lee The Washington Wizards found
out Wednesday night they will have about $2 million more to spend on free agents this summer after the NBA announced that the salary cap for the 2010-11 season will be $58.044 million. That is slightly more than the
projected $56.1 million that teams had anticipated. It is also an in- crease from $57.7 million last sea- son, when the salary cap de- creased for just the second time since it was instituted in 1984. The luxury tax figure for next season is $70.3 million, up from $69.9 million last season, and teams that exceed that figure will have to pay a dollar tax for every dollar over that number. The mid- level exception is $5.765 million and each team’s minimum total salary — which is set at 75 percent of the salary cap — is $43.43 mil- lion.
The Wizards are expected to
complete a trade on Thursday with Chicago for Kirk Hinrich and the 17th overall pick, Kevin Ser- aphin, which would add about $10.2 million in salaries to the roster. They made a trade with New Jersey last week to acquire forward Yi Jianlian, who will earn $4.5 million. After signing draft picks John
Wall ($4.2 million), Trevor Booker ($1.1 million) and possibly sec- ond-round choice Hamady N’Diaye ($470,000), the Wizards would have roughly $48 million committed to 11 players, leaving
them with around $9 million in available cap space to use toward roster upgrades. The Wizards have not agreed to terms with any free agents, but adding a veteran wing player is their primary focus this offseason. They have contact- ed the representatives for Mike Miller, Josh Howard, Josh Chil- dress, Ryan Gomes, Travis Outlaw and Rasual Butler. The new salary cap went into
effect at 12:01 a.m. Thursday, when the league’s moratorium pe- riod on free agent signings and trades ended.
leem@washpost.com Few teams can contend for top free agents nba from D1
couraged by a broken economic system. Twenty-five of the 30 NBA teams lost money last season, ac- cording to two people with access to the league’s accounting, and NBA Commissioner David Stern has publicly claimed the league would sustain $380 million to $400 million in losses in 2009-10. Stern declined to comment for this story. The NBA Players Association disputes those figures and con- tends the league is in far better shape than its accounting indi- cates. But even the union ac- knowledges that more than a half- dozen franchises are in financial trouble. They “concede the point,” an individual with knowledge of the union’s thinking said, “that seven, eight, nine teams need help.”
Making their moves As the speculation surrounding
James’s decision hit a fever pitch Wednesday — most believed he would choose to either stay in Cleveland or sign with New York, Miami or Chicago — Wade and fellow free agent Chris Bosh ap- peared on ESPN to announce that Wade would remain with the Heat and Bosh would join him. Both could earn as much as $125 million over six years, but the pair might accept less if they can lure James to Miami.
Already in recent days, Amare Stoudemire has said he will sign with the Knicks for $100 million over five years, and Joe Johnson has said he will return to the At- lanta Hawks for $119 million over six.
With the collective bargaining agreement between the owners and players due to expire next July, some say the league is head- ed for a financial day of reckoning not unlike what the NHL went through when a lockout wiped out the entire 2004-05 season. “Basketball does have a serious problem,” said Robert Boland, an attorney who has negotiated NFL contracts and is a professor of sports management at New York University. “The NBA has not yet had its great cost cut.” With the average NBA fran- chise ending last season $13 mil- lion in the red, according to the league’s figures, many owners are gambling, perhaps foolishly, that the expensive addition of a star player from a historically talented free agent class will generate in- terest in their franchises and ig- nite a significant payoff in the box office. “Ten years ago if you had said there’d be six players earning
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The spotlight is staying squarely on LeBron James, who will make his announcement on Thursday night. franchise players.”
nine-figure contracts, people would have looked at you like you had two heads,” said Robert Til- liss, the founder of Inner Circle Sports, a sports financing firm that works with the NBA and sev- eral teams. “But the teams feel they need them to attract fan in- terest and [boost] all of these oth- er revenue streams . . . It’s just the way the system is set up.” Many NBA owners or owner- ship groups are burdened by the high cost of paying off debt from recently built arenas or recently purchased franchises; by next year 15 teams will have gotten new arenas and around a dozen will have experienced ownership changes since 1999. Meantime, gate receipts were down about $100 million from last year, a drop of about 8 percent, according to two people with access to the fig- ures. The drop came largely be- cause teams cut ticket prices in the wake of the recession; attend- ance fell just over 2 percent. Potomac business mogul Bruce
Levenson, a former Washington Capitals minority owner who since 2003 has held an ownership stake in the Atlanta Hawks, said balancing the team’s priorities with fiscal realities presented a major “conundrum” as the Hawks negotiated with Johnson after los- ing millions during the 2009-10 season. In the end, Levenson said, the team feared the consequences of letting Johnson flee to another team. “What kind of system has [less- er stars] making the exact same amount of money as LeBron James?” longtime Washington- based agent David Falk said. “In- stead of holding down the salaries of four or five very special players, what it has done is raise the salary of 30 players that are clearly not
Trying to move up Teams that failed to land big stars or never entered the bidding in the first place face not only the difficulty of building a winner short-handed, but also the chal- lenge of overcoming the public perception that they have no chance of contending — which hurts season-ticket sales, spon- sorships and broadcasting pack- ages right off the bat. “The most significant challenge facing the NBA today is the gap between the teams at the top and bottom,” said sports consultant Andy Dolich, a former Capitals ex- ecutive who has worked for NBA, NFL and Major League Baseball front offices. “It’s three-dimen- sional chess that has to be played right now to deal with the eco- nomic uncertainty.” The NBA has a cap on salaries, but it is a “soft cap” that can be ex- ceeded by teams who wish to re- sign their own players, which ex- plains how it is that middle-mar- ket teams like the Cavaliers and Hawks can afford to offer James and Johnson maximum deals. The NHL and NFL employ a “hard cap”— though the NFL is currently operating under no cap since the owners opted out of the last agreement — that cannot be exceeded. Like Major League Baseball,
the NBA imposes a luxury tax on teams that surpass certain payroll amounts, but several people with knowledge of the situation said the luxury tax distributions have not significantly helped strug- gling teams. A key area that needs beefing
up, several experts said, is rev- enue sharing. Tilliss pointed out that the NFL shares 90 percent of
its revenue; the NBA, less than 50 percent. Revenue-sharing along with more cost controls would create more parity, he said. NBA Players Association chief
Billy Hunter declined a request to comment for this story. But Hunt- er previously dismissed Stern’s $400 million in losses figure as “baloney” and accused the league of using creative accounting to make the balance sheet look worse than it is. Union officials point out that the total amount paid to players has risen only about 10 percent over the last four years, or about 2.5 percent a year, from about $1.85 billion to $2.04 billion, according to two people with knowledge of the figures.
There are still buyers
The league recently has experi- enced difficulty in luring buyers for teams on the market, and Rob- ert L. Johnson lost money on his $275 million sale of the Charlotte Bobcats this year (Johnson paid $300 million for the franchise six years ago). Even so, deep-pocket- ed buyers are eventually stepping up. A Russian billionaire pur- chased the New Jersey Nets; Cali- fornia billionaire Larry Ellison is in line for the Golden State War- riors; and Ted Leonsis bought the Wizards. The league continues to attract
new owners, Stern said in June, “because they think we’re going to get a new collective bargaining agreement, to put it that simple.” Stern said he hopes to have a
new agreement before the current one expires. The NBA “probably needs a cre-
ative look at the whole system,” Falk said. “If you want to change the conduct, change the rules . . . The rules aren’t working.”
shipleya@washpost.com
it’s a five-year deal, and the Chi- cago Tribune cited a source say- ing the Bulls would still have enough room to offer a maximum salary contract to another free agent. The NBA set the salary cap at $58.04 million for next season on Wednesday. The jewel of this star-studded
free agent class, James, is still out there. While everyone awaits his announcement on Thursday night, the Bulls at least know they’re not coming away empty- handed after landing Boozer. FIVE-YEAR EXTENSION FOR DURANT: Kevin Durant didn’t go for a spectacle in announcing where he’ll be for the next five years.
Instead, Durant simply posted an update on his Twitter page, saying he’d agreed to a five-year contract extension with the Okla- homa City Thunder. Durant can’t sign the deal until Thursday and team spokesman Brian Facchini said he could not confirm the deal under NBA rules. The reigning NBA scoring lead- er is signed with the Thunder through next season under his original rookie contract. Durant’s spokeswoman, Mary Ford, said he will receive the maximum deal possible, $85 million over five years. CELTICS TO RE-SIGN ALLEN: Ray Allen confirmed to he Associ- ated Press that he has agreed to a two-year, $20 million contract to return to the Boston Celtics. The deal was first reported by
ESPN. Allen, who turns 35 this month, was a free agent. Allen averaged 16.3 points last season as the Celtics reached the NBA Finals for the second time in three years.
MIKE WISE
to make long-awaited choice wise from D1
NBA’s most eligible bachelor
spewing hole in the Gulf, are any of life’s real mysteries left other than what city LeBron James will not take beyond the second round of the playoffs next year? I will watch because I am being taught the vapid, mindless value of reality TV. Like a hopelessly gullible new bride that can’t believe Jake the control freak picked Vienna over all those other blow-dried nothings — and now relishes in their unseemly breakup — the NBA version of “The Bachelor” finale has reeled me in. Why? Because the basic two elements of essential viewing exist: a celebrity in emotional turmoil in prime time, followed by an abject meltdown at 11. I’m not talking about LeBron melting down; he’ll be fine wherever he goes. It’s the NBA, which has about a year left before the real market collapse. The league right now reminds me of the mortgage crisis — big-splash signings and prime-time announcements giving a veneer of glitz to a system crumbling under the weight of its own irresponsibility. Did you see who got $119 million the other day? Joe Johnson, whom Atlanta signed to six years after he couldn’t get the Hawks out of the second round of playoffs. Dirk Nowitzki is 32 years old.
He is the No. 2 player on any championship team, yet he was said to have given the Dallas Mavericks a bargain by agreeing to an $80 million deal rather than $92 million. Paul Pierce is a year away from being unable to create his own shot. No matter. The Celtics just forked out $62 million over four years to retain his fading game. Desperate to hold onto their meal tickets before a looming lockout next summer, an owner-driven spending spree — other than locking up top-flight, still relatively young stars like LeBron, Dwyane Wade and Kevin Durant— makes no sense. Crazy, no? This is a league
that never wanted to sell team play when it could sell advertising vehicles. When the Pistons and the Spurs were winning titles, entire marketing campaigns were built around LeBron, D-Wade, Carmelo Anthony and Kobe Bryant. Tim Duncan and Gregg Popovich and Rip Hamilton won rings in June, but they were never going to move the needle in July. Now this is where their madness ends — nearly a billion dollars in salaries signed away Thursday. Whomever Bron-Bron gives the last rose to, that franchise should hold a parade on Friday, because it might be its only chance.
And the NBA better hope the announcement gets good ratings, because no one tunes into a lockout. “I’ve informed my clients to count on missing two of their 12 paychecks” next season, said Charles Harris, the Atlanta-based business manager who has eight NBA clients. “I don’t see the season starting up in 2011 until maybe the second or third week of December. The system is broken.”
The players eventually caved in 1999, the last time a collective bargaining agreement between players and owners could not be reached before the season began. Thirty-two games were lost to labor stoppage, along with casual fan interest following Michael Jordan’s second retirement. Before greedy players take an ounce more of blame, check out some of the top-25 career salary leaders in league history, according to
basketballreference.com. Jermaine O’Neal comes in at No. 9 at $153 million. Stephon Marbury is at No. 10, having signed deals worth $151 million. Someone inexplicably paid Zydrunas Ilgauskas $123 million over his career, making him the 19th most compensated player in league history, figuring “Z” should never be paid less than Hakeem Olajuwon or Michael, both of whom didn’t make the list. (Shaquille O’Neal was No. 1, having signed $290,846,146 worth of contracts in his career.) Just seven of the top 25 have won titles. The gut here is that LeBron is
staying in Cleveland. If LeBron is about anything more than getting paid, it’s getting paid attention to. Being fawned over. Talked about.
Enough to show up on Larry King the night Kobe was trying to defend his crown in Game 1 of the NBA Finals. Enough to keep the city of
Cleveland pining for his love, to the point of the Ohio governor, other elected officials and local TV celebrities desecrating the old “We Are the World” video, crooning pathetically to a chorus of, “Please Stay LeBron.” Enough to make sure his decision is carried in prime time, because why take the weekend to think about the most important decision of your young life if a network executive has already booked you for 9 p.m. Thursday? Anyhow, as my friend in Akron, who once knew LeBron before the messiah junk began, surmised: “When he went flying by me on I-76 [Tuesday night] doing about 85, I thought, No cop would pull him over. If they did, that’s not seen as doing your job here. That’s seen as a bad career move in Akron and Cleveland. You think any law-enforcement officer is ever going to feel that way in New York, Miami or Chicago? You think any city will ever let his crowd get away with stuff or feel the way this area feels about LeBron?” Nope. Besides, as good as the
Lakers are, they aren’t a superpower. The league is up for grabs. Chris Paul, LeBron’s good friend, will most likely join him in a year and give him the point guard he always needed to win it all. Most of all, LeBron comes across as the savior, the hometown hero who stayed amid all the temptations, who actually listened when they sang, “Please stay LeBron.” He never got that moment most high school stars get when they announce their college choice; everyone knew he was going pro. Now he gets to pick his hat for the cameras. A star is reborn. Sappy, but
good reality TV. wisem@washpostcom
S
KLMNO PROFESSIONAL BASKETBALL
THURSDAY, JULY 8, 2010
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