Have you ever tried to teach a parent or grandparent how to use the internet for the first time? It’s a slow and painful process that forces you to go back through baby steps that now seem second nature.
This is kind of what happened to the NBA on Sunday. Someone tried to teach David Stern and Adam Silver how to use social media effectively and then went out for a smoke break. They gave it the old college try, but you could almost see these two yelling at each other while coming to the horrible realization that you only get 140 characters to answer a question on the twitter machine.
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You can go here to watch the action unfold as the NBA’s Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner replied to 29 questions from individuals ranging from our friend Sam Amick to NBA players Spencer Hawes and Dwyane Wade. Needles to say, this was a bit of a disaster.
The NBA followed this up by dropping an informative youtube video, explaining the positives of the offer currently on the table for consideration of the Players Union. You can even go here and read the latest Owners proposal (via USA Today). The NBA completely neglected the soundtrack, so I have included an additional youtube video meant to be played along with the NBA’s video.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jK-NcRmVcw][youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_C4zaisIRxQ]
Since you aren’t finished with the music quite yet, I will take a moment to highlight a very important point to the new proposal, specifically for Kings fans. In the current CBA, the salary cap is set at $58 million and the minimum salary requirement for every NBA team was set at 75% of the cap or $43.5 million.
The new CBA calls for the same first year salary cap of $58 million, but with a new 85% minimum. That means that the Sacramento Kings, at a minimum, will have to raise their league low 2010-11 NBA salary figure 0f $44.8 million to at least $49.3 million for the 2011-12 season.
Currently, the Sacramento Kings sit at $29.9 million in dedicated salary with eight players under contract, leaving team President Geoff Petrie with nearly $20 million to spend. If you add in the salary of first round pick Jimmer Fredette at $1.9 million and if Petrie gives second round pick Tyler Honeycutt a similar contract to that which he gave Hassan Whiteside last season ($750,000 first year salary), the Kings should still have roughly $17 million to spend on Marcus Thornton, rookie Isaiah Thomas and a big name free agent player or two. And that is just to get to that mandatory 85% mark.
So if the lockout does eventually end, the Kings should be active players in the 2011 abbreviated free agency period. With NBA players flocking to New York for tomorrow’s NBPA meeting and the Owners’ Tuesday deadline to either accept the current deal or face dire consequences, it appears that we are closing in on the final countdown. I hope so. I don’t think Twitter and Youtube can take another day like today.
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