Union President Fisher: Premature to Say NBA Salaries Too High

Filed under: Lakers, Sports Business and Media

LOS ANGELES -- 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.

The president of the National Basketball Players Association was asked his impressions of NBA Commissioner David Stern's state-of-the-league address during All-Star Weekend last month. It was then that Stern revealed how much money the NBA is projected to lose this season in a tough economy, and said the "level of revenue devoted to players' salaries (is) too high'' in the NBA's current collective bargaining agreement.

"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.''

 

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Full story at http://nba.fanhouse.com/2010/03/01/union-president-fisher-premature-to-say-nba-salaries-too-high/