Okay - bro. The other owners are absolutely pissed off. Unless you know more than Zach Lowe does. Your take on this has been wrong from the beginning and I tried to check you on it early but you keep doubling down. Give it a rest.
Both of you are like half-right. This shit goes in both directions. Here is why this is a very big deal that goes above typical buddy-buddy ownership protection:
- Steve Balmer is by far the wealthiest owner in the NBA. You already have 29 other dudes pissed off at the very simple fact that he has more money than they do.
- Balmer only carries 1/30th of the vote. He is in a very exclusive club - but it's a club in which his net worth doesn't move the needle all that much.
- This is not a widespread practice in the NBA. I promise you - it isn't. This idea needs to die in a fire. Maybe James Dolan is doing it, too. If so he better start shredding some files. The gap in value between teams like the Lakers and teams like the Grizzlies is MASSIVE. The ownership group in Memphis does not have $50M sitting around that they can throw at free agents the way that Balmer did. That is why Silver is going to be forced to drop the hammer on this shit. That is why the leading law firm in America was just hired.
- This rule - very specifically - carries extremely punitive consequences for breaking it. This was a highlighted focus of the last NBA CBA.
Think of the NBA like a high-stakes poker game. Balmer - the guy with the most money out of everyone - basically just bought in again for free. The other players around the circle aren't going to stand for that shit. The ultimate goal is that you win an NBA championship. That's hard to do when some dickhead worth $200B is circumventing the rules.