Tag: NBA

Mike Monroe: Lockout alternative for NBA’s working class

Locked-out NBA players have reason to smile just a little today.

The lockout isn’t ending soon, but the latest news was positive.

It seems the owners will have to refund the $160 million withheld from players’ paychecks as part of the escrow system in the collective bargaining agreement that expired July 1.

Citing sources within the NBA and the players’ union, NBA.com reported a pending infusion of dough for the players, who had yielded 8 percent of each paycheck, per the fine print, during each season in the old deal.

This is money that will make it easier for players to stand firm against the league. Tim Duncan, for example, should get a check for $1.5 million and change. DeJuan Blair will get $73,440; Gary Neal, $45,200.

Additionally, there are lockout jobs awaiting players at the bottom end of the pay scale, and they don’t even have to leave North America to get them.

The newly formed National Basketball League of Canada, after breaking away from something called the Premiere League, recently opened its arms to what it called “Tier 3” NBA players staring at a long lockout.

The NBL defines “Tier 3” players as those on the lower side of the NBA salary spectrum, especially young players earning the league minimum.

One of the NBL’s three established coaches can relate to such players.

Jaren Jackson had a lot to prove by the time he arrived at Spurs training camp in 1997. Before he played a single minute in silver and black, he had worn the uniforms of 11 other pro teams, NBA or otherwise.

Jackson’s first four NBA contracts were for the league minimum, but he was poised to cash in after that first season as a Spur, when he played well enough to start 45 games at shooting guard and averaged 8.8 points in 82 games.

Then a lockout wiped out the first three months and 32 games of the 1998-99 season. When that work stoppage ended, Jackson, who was a free agent, earned his first seven-figure contract. Better yet, he was a contributing member of the Spurs’ first title team.

Jackson’s hardscrabble path to an NBA dream makes him uniquely positioned for his latest career move: head coach of the NBL’s Saint John Mill Rats.

“Many of these NBA players have decisions to make as the lockout continues,” Jackson said Tuesday. “Right now it seems there is no optimism at all; it looks like everybody is going to be sitting out for a long while, and these players are going to want opportunities to play.”

For the moment, the NBL has only three teams: the Mill Rats, the Halifax Rainmen, coached by former NBA player and coach Mike Evans, and the Quebec City Kebs. There are plans for more teams, which have arena leases still to be worked out.

Jackson believes the geography of the league will have a special appeal to NBA players who grew up or played in the Northeast U.S.

“I think there will be some players interested, maybe some Canadian players in the NBA, or any other guys from the East Coast who just want to continue to stay in shape or play while the lockout is going on,” he said.

“Financially, it won’t be like the NBA, of course, but it will be a continued opportunity to grow as a player and not just sit at home during this lockout.”

What sort of money can they expect?

“Well, let’s just say they’ll be able to pay their bills,” Evans said.

Even minimum-contract players should be able to feed themselves with the checks they’ll soon be refunded, but in the meantime, the NBL may offer them a chance to also hone their skills until the lockout ends.

mikemonroe@express-news.net

S.A. sports bars especially fearful of losing Spurs games

By Tim Griffin
tgriffin@express-news.net

The NBA and NFL lockouts stretch on, potentially costing players and owners millions of dollars in lost revenue and wages during an extended work stoppage.

But the lockouts also have a human side that concerns local sports bar owner Steve Wilkinson about the very foundation of his business.

Wilkinson and other San Antonio bar owners are fearful of economic ramifications if games are missed as either or both lockouts endure.

“I’m sitting back wondering what I will do,” said Wilkinson, whose Fatso’s Sports Garden on Bandera Road is the oldest existing sports bar in the city after opening in 1986. “I will have to lay off people and maybe even close on Sundays. I’m just hoping these rich crybabies will figure something out.

“It’s beyond millionaires and billionaires in the leagues here. It’s my cooks and waitresses who will end up paying the biggest cost if this thing stretches on.”

Recent news about a potential settlement in the NFL lockout has heartened local bar owner Joey Villarreal. But both he and Wilkinson are worried about an extended NBA lockout that would cause them to miss Spurs games.

“Basketball will definitely affect us because in this city, everybody is a Spurs fan,” Villarreal said. “This isn’t like a lot of other big cities. ? Even people who make up my non-sports crowds are aware of the team and their games.”

Villarreal owns and operates three bars in town: Joey’s on North St. Mary’s and the Blue Star Brewing Co. and Joe Blue’s Lounge in the Blue Star Arts District on South Alamo. He said he would see an estimated drop in revenue of up to 25 percent for a big NFL “Monday Night Football” game.

But because of the diversity in his businesses and clientele, he hopes he will be able to withstand a business slump caused by a sports lockout.

“I’ve never been one who believed you should base your business on other people’s business, like a sports team or a league, because it’s not healthy,” Villarreal said. “We have to move on and find other ways to find customers.”

Villarreal even sees a potential for business growth if the lockouts linger.

“Let’s face it, maybe when fans won’t be spending a hundred bucks on a game, they will have a little extra money and want to do something else,” he said. “I don’t know.”

But local sports bars, which traditionally attract their largest crowds on NFL Sundays and nights of Spurs games, are dreading what could happen without live action during the next few months.

“You just cut back where you have to and become a chameleon,” Wilkinson said. “If I have to cut back on my labor or staying open for lunch or staying open on Sundays, I will. You know they are eventually settling. And after it happens, you just move on.”

An extended NFL lockout would be expensive for Wilkinson, but he’s confident of a quick settlement before the start of the season and knows he would have college football Saturdays in the fall.

But the loss of Spurs games and the NBA would be particularly devastating during winter months when pro basketball games are the backbone of his business.

“Basketball is steady and brings people in on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday nights during January and February,” Wilkinson said. “If the Lakers are playing a 9:30 p.m. game on Sunday, I know there will 20 or 30 people in here who will be watching and giving me a reason to stay open.”

Wilkinson and Villarreal endured the 1998-99 NBA lockout, which cost the Spurs 32 regular-season games. Their business losses were noticeable, although both said the Spurs’ first NBA championship later that season made up for any hardship they might have incurred earlier.

Economics have changed for Wilkinson since then. More sports bars across the city have provided a more competitive market with more entertainment options for his customers.

“I know the playoff run (in 1999) more than made up for the earlier losses. But this time, I’m a lot more worried,” Wilkinson said. “I’m not worried about the football (lockout) after reading and hearing the news the last week or so. But the NBA is different.”

As he braces for an extended NBA lockout, he fears his potential financial losses could be staggering.

“Not having the Spurs would be the difference in me scheduling one waitress or three for a game night,” Wilkinson said. “Having no Spurs will hurt us worse than pro football. Without that steady group of people coming in for every game, it’s gonna be tough.”

Blog brother looks at how the upcoming free agent class could help the Spurs

During a normal summer, the NBA cognescenti would be salivating about potential free-agent moves across the league.

With the extreme likelihood we wi’ll have a lockout on July 1, all of that speculation has gone dormant. Hardly anybody is talking about which teams need to pick which free agents to help them improve.

Thankfully, Robby Lim of Spurs World.com about the upcoming free agent class. He ranks the top potential big people and how they could help the Spurs.

It’s an interesting blog post as he head into the summer and consider what the Spurs could look like whenever the 2011-12 season finally begins with a key addition.

My other blog brothers and blog sisters also have been busy over the past few days. Here are some of their takes.

  • The CBS Sports Network provides an when he was  still playing for San Diego State.
  • Mitch Lawrence of the New York Daily News wonders if the George Hill trade was made .
  • B Diddy of Air Alamo.com and what he will provide to the Spurs’ rotation.
  • Wayne Vore of Spurs Planet.com describes .
  • Jesse Blanchard of 48 Minutes of Hell.com explains that Leonard could give the Spurs for when they signed Richard Jefferson.  
  • Paul Garcia of Planet Spurs.com opines on the next season as he inherits some of Hill’s playing time and tells us that it took two days for second-round draft choice Adam Hanga to .
  • Timothy Varner of 48 Minutes of Hell has a great post about the essays of Wendell Berry and how the Spurs are trying to that Jefferson has introduced.
  • Blair Kerkhoff of the Kansas City Star ranks Leonard as the but calls the drafting of Joseph with the 29th pick a surprise.
  • Janie Annie of Pounding the Rock.com says .
  • The Project Spurs.com guys make a visit to WOAI.com’s “Sports Roundtable” to .
  • Aaron “Hirschof” Preine of Pounding the Rock.com takes his readers into on the Spurs’ draft  night.
  • Milwaukee coach Scott Skiles tells the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel’s Charles F. Gardner is of former Spurs Benu Udrih and Stephen Jackson who are joining his team.
  • Justin “Scrappy Doo” Biehle of Pounding the Rock.com tells us about a .  
  • Homeowner Denise Mitchell tells the Corpus Christi Caller-Times that at her home are her 2005 and 2007 autographed commemorative championship Spurs basketballs.  
  • Alley Oop of Spurslocker.com gives us the heads-up onand the drafting of , ,  and.