NEW YORK — Five NBA owners voted against the league’s new collective bargaining agreement, commissioner David Stern said Thursday following the conclusion of the league’s Board of Governors meeting.
The identities of those five teams were not disclosed, and Stern joked that the over/under on negative votes as set at 8 before the ballots were cast.
But what Stern did disclose is that he expects this to be the last collective bargaining agreement he negotiates – even if one side chooses to opt out of the 10-year agreement after Year 6.
“I don’t believe in legacies. We had a deal we had to make,” Stern said, calling the agreement a “watershed moment” for the future success of all 30 NBA teams. He also described the agreement as “fair, but not perfect.”
The commissioner sounded most proud of the new “robust” revenue sharing plan — under which the amount of money going from large-market to small-market teams will quadruple, with several teams receiving as much as $20 million annually, including six that will receive at least $16 million.
Some teams (Stern did not say which ones) will contribute as much as $50 million annually toward revenue sharing.
So… who are the 5?