Lebron is catching all the blame for this but the latest rumblings from CBA negotiations is that the owners are seeking to adopt the NFL's franchise tag and non guaranteed contracts.


These people are acting like Lebron destroyed the NBA
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What it comes down to is the owners realize the power has shifted to the players and they want no part of it.
One solution would be to increase the financial incentives for a player to stay home (or, conversely, increase the penalties for leaving). Under the current system, a player who stays with his team can sign for six years (instead of five), with 10 percent raises (instead of 8 percent). The league could try to widen the gap, perhaps limiting players to three-year deals and even smaller salary increases if they change teams.
Another possibility, although it is considered a long shot, would be to adopt the franchise tag system used in the N.F.L. Under that system, teams can bind star players to another year of service, essentially delaying their free agency.
“It will be discussed,” said one Eastern Conference executive, adding, “I can’t see it happening.”
The Summer of LeBron has turned into the Summer of Superstar Discontent and may well become the Off-season That Changed Everything. The N.B.A.’s best players are either relocating or trying to, upsetting the league’s balance of power and undermining a system that was once fine-tuned for parity and stability.
The reckoning will come, as with everything else, at the bargaining table, where owners will try to wrest back control in the next labor deal. Already, there is talk among team executives of franchise tags and heavy financial penalties for players changing teams, measures that are anathema to the players union.
It is unknown whether such measures were part of the owners’ initial proposal, but they will surely be introduced as the two sides haggle in the coming months. The current collective bargaining agreement expires next July.
By then, Anthony could be wearing a new uniform, adding another name to the superstar exodus.
As Yahoo Sports reported Thursday, Anthony has soured on the Denver Nuggets and is asking to be traded. The Nuggets, fearful of losing Anthony to free agency next summer, seem likely to oblige him.
A deal could happen before the season starts in late October, but more likely it will not occur until closer to the trading deadline in February. The wait will be a compelling drama for fans and commentators, but it only adds to the angst for Commissioner David Stern and the league’s owners.
Until this summer, no superstar in his prime had changed teams via free agency since 2000, when Grant Hill and Tracy McGrady joined the Orlando Magic. No player of James’s stature had done so since 1996, when Shaquille O’Neal left Orlando for the Los Angeles Lakers.
Otherwise, the system worked, keeping Tim Duncan in San Antonio, Reggie Miller in Indiana, Chris Webber in Sacramento and John Stockton and Karl Malone in Utah throughout their primes. In fact, it has worked so well that some agents regard superstar free agency as a virtual myth.
James destroyed the model in July, when he left Cleveland for Miami. He left $15 million on the table to join the Heat, but he would have sacrificed about $30 million had the Cavaliers not agreed to a sign-and-trade deal at the last minute.
Bosh, the longtime Toronto star, followed James to Miami under a similar arrangement. Stoudemire left Phoenix for the Knicks. In the wake of those moves, Paul (New Orleans) and Anthony (Denver) delivered trade-me-or-lose-me ultimatums to their teams.
Never in a single off-season have players demonstrated such a brazen show of self-determination. Rarely has so much high-level talent been on the move. It is a potentially dangerous trend for the league.
If Anthony and Paul can force their way to bigger markets — perhaps creating another superteam in New York — it will undermine the N.B.A.’s decades-long commitment to parity and create despair in every small market.
That is why most team executives (who are forbidden from speaking publicly on labor issues) expect more drastic measures to curtail movement in the next collective bargaining agreement.


These people are acting like Lebron destroyed the NBA

What it comes down to is the owners realize the power has shifted to the players and they want no part of it.