Compared to the explosive news of Gan Guoyang’s comeback, the intense conflict between NBA owners and the Players Union has not become the focus of public attention.
Although the media has been continuously tracking and reporting on labor disputes since the 1995 off-season and throughout the 1995-1996 season, the reaction from the public and the fans has remained indifferent to such news.
A similar situation occurred during the 1995 MLB strike issue, where both players and owners tried to gain an advantage in public opinion, hoping to portray the other side as greedy.
But the reality is, fans are not foolish. Although they enjoy watching games, most won’t empathize with billion-dollar owners or professional athletes earning tens of millions or millions annually.
The attitude of fans and the public is neutral: you can argue as you like, but once you reach an agreement, just play well. I’m paying to watch the game.
If you can’t agree, and you stop the games, then so be it. The world isn’t going to stop turning without MLB or NBA, and ordinary people will go about their business.
This is very different from the situation in the ’60s and ’70s, when many players were just high-paid workers, and their salaries were similar to those of ordinary people. The public could understand the hardships players went through sacrificing health and youth for a bit of pay, and they were willing to stand by them.
In 1988, players rebelled during the All-Star Game. Back then, the NBA was still rising. Players’ salaries were high but not outrageously so.
Many saw basketball stars as idols, considering their every move exemplary. Players’ actions in 1988 garnered media support.
By the 1990s, the situation was different. The NBA had expanded into a revenue monster. In 1995, the NBA signed a new broadcast agreement with TV networks, causing league revenue to skyrocket, with the salary cap jumping from 15 million to 24 million US Dollars.
This meant the average salary of league players would reach 3 million US Dollars—money that many ordinary American citizens in the ’90s could not earn in a lifetime.
NBA players were no longer regular laborers; the nature of their work and income levels had drastically changed. Most were millionaires, the elite class, and a few superstar athletes wielded social influence comparable to that of capitalist owners.
Rookies with just a short time in the league were signing contracts worth tens of millions, even over a hundred million.
In July, the Washington Bullets matched the Philadelphia 76ers’ offer to retain Juwan Howard, giving him a 7-year, 105 million US Dollar super contract.
Before the Lakers officially signed Shaquille O’Neal, and before Gan Guoyang held contract negotiations with the Trail Blazers, Howard, a newcomer, secured the league’s first hundred-million-dollar contract in history.
At that time, his annual salary had already surpassed that of most veteran stars with many years in the league.
Furthermore, his salary took up more than half of the entire salary cap.
It was evident how crude and chaotic the NBA’s contract rules were back then.
Juwan Howard’s good teammate at Michigan, Chris Weber, after being selected by the Rockets in 1993, signed a 15-year, 70 million US Dollar contract with them.
Watching the league’s salary cap soar, Weber opted to end that 15-year contract in 1995 and renegotiated with the Rockets, signing a 6-year, 96 million US Dollar deal—the closest a player came to a hundred-million-dollar contract. Weber’s annual salary reached an astounding 16 million US Dollars.
In contrast, Michael Jordan, who led the Bulls to a 72-win season and another championship in 1996, had a salary of 3.85 million US Dollars that year, just a fraction of Weber’s pay.
No wonder after the new labor agreement was reached, Jordan took the lead in rebelling, threatening to dissolve the union.
Because the new labor agreement introduced a luxury tax rule, meaning that if a team’s salary exceeded the cap by too much, they had to pay a certain percentage as a fine to the league.
This rule effectively limited teams from offering players larger contracts, essentially a hard salary cap, which was not favorable for veteran superstars like Jordan.
We’ve been working hard in the league for so many years, earning just a couple million a year, growing the league’s pie, and as we reach our career’s latter stages when the league is making more money than ever, we get nothing, while rookies who haven’t played many games are getting the full benefits. Who would be happy about that?
In this regard, the union’s Vice President and Legal Counsel, Grantham, showed his weakness.
He was always trying to appease the players, managing relationships with them, but on key negotiation issues, he couldn’t withstand the pressure from the league and owners.
He failed to calm the emotions of the superstar players, didn’t unite the majority of the middle-to-lower-class players, and didn’t effectively fight against Stern and the capital’s interest group.
Over the past few years, he relied on the legacy left by Larry Flesher and was smooth in social dealings. But when real problems arose, his lack of skill and wavering stance left him unable to solve them.
A week after Gan Guoyang announced his comeback, Grantham held a press conference announcing his resignation as Vice President and Legal Counsel of the Players Union.
Along with him, the Chairman of the Players Union, Buck-Williams, also resigned. He failed to firmly and accurately represent the players’ interests during labor negotiations and instead reached a secret deal with the capital side, making it impossible for Buck-Williams to remain in his position.