Jermaine O’Neal isn’t necessarily afraid that a hard salary cap would beget smaller contracts, although that’s part of it. Mostly, O’Neal fears that a hard salary cap would irrevocably harm NBA basketball as we know it, leading to a selfish league where the middle class no longer exists and teammates are competing against each other for millions.

“Taking out the mid-level (exception to the salary cap) is going to ruin our game,” O’Neal told USA Today. “It’s going to individualize our game so much. Basketball is based off a system. Everybody is given a role in the game. It’s not just everybody running up and down. We have some really good mid-level players in our league, borderline All-Star players. If you’re going to say, basically, we’re going to roll back salaries and we’re going to give two of the top players on the team the top deals and take out the mid-tier and let everybody else fend for the $1 million, $2 million, $3 million (shakes his head). … Doing that is going to make guys go for their own. It really is.”

A hard cap would inevitably shrink the NBA’s middle-class, if not make it disappear. Even with salary cuts and a hard cap, superstars will get paid — they sell the most tickets, they sell the most merchandise, and they win the most games. Which means the middle class, like O’Neal fears, would take the brunt of the owners’ proposed changes. A hard cap would also likely force owners (or at least competent owners) to reevaluate their stance regarding borderline stars like Gilbert Arenas, Joe Johnson and Rashard Lewis, who were never quite superstars but were certainly paid as if they were.

Owners say a hard cap is essential to promote parity. The Los Angeles Lakers, armed with many millions of revenue, accumulated $91 million of payroll last season to field the best team possible. The New Orleans Hornets spent $48 million. The difference makes parity in the NBA, under its current rules, difficult if not impossible. Small markets have a difficult time spending Lakers money because, well, that money just doesn’t exist. It’s possible to succeed in a smaller market without an owner diving too deep into his own pockets — look at the Oklahoma City Thunder. But it’s almost impossible to replicate the Thunder’s success. They A) made a series of near-perfect personnel moves to reach their current perch near the NBA’s peak, including lucking into Kevin Durant, choosing Russell Westbrook higher than anyone expected, and watching idly as James Harden became a stud, and B) will need to open their wallets to continue competing once Westbrook and Harden finish their rookie contracts. Success won’t always come cheap, and parity has been a problem in the NBA for a long time.

But the players don’t see why the burden of parity is being thrust on their shoulders. Parity could just as easily be sought by implementing a revenue-sharing program that takes away at least some of the inherent advantages of bigger markets. If the Lakers, Celtics, Knicks and other large-market teams shared a percentage of their television and sponsorship money, the playing field could presumably be leveled off without instituting a hard cap. Especially considering that the players are willing to give back hundreds of millions of dollars worth of salary, they feel that owners need to make some concessions of their own to help change the (admittedly broken) NBA system.

Meanwhile, Jerry Buss is on board with revenue sharing. Yes, Jerry Buss, the owner who has the most to lose from sharing revenues, the owners whose Lakers team makes bushels of money and uses a large portion of that money to field championship-caliber teams almost every season, to spend on players other, less-financially successful teams cannot afford. Buss is also on board with a hard cap, but the players, at least for now, swear they will not accept one.  (OC Register)

“A team like the Lakers with well over $100 million in payroll and Sacramento at 45, that’s not an acceptable alternative for us,” Stern said. “That can’t be the outcome that we agree to.”

As much as Buss loves his rum and Coke, he has held a Molotov cocktail with the NBA’s limited revenue sharing and soft salary cap. It has allowed Buss and his minority investors to make a lot of money and feel comfortable spending a ton of it on great players others can’t afford.

But dramatically increased revenue sharing will inhibit the Lakers’ spending. A hard cap will flat-out prevent the Lakers from spending. It’s lose-lose when Buss is 77 years old and determined to come from behind the Boston Celtics in total championships, 17-16.

Yet the Lakers have accepted it. Why?

For the greater good.

And you can’t play in a league of your own anyway. However much he leads his unfettered, playboy lifestyle – his latest summer vacation to enjoy was through Europe – Buss is married to these other NBA owners, for better or worse.

So with their days of shopping alone on Rodeo Drive ending, the Lakers intend to go out gracefully – and loyally to Stern, for whom Buss has always had an appreciation.

The many specifics of revenue sharing still need to be worked out – and progress is expected on that front Thursday in the NBA’s board of governors meeting in Dallas – but Buss is fully accepting that his pockets will be where most of the grabs go. He’s hopeful the revenue-sharing system leaves him some protection, but wherever the details of the sharing and capping go, Buss considers himself – bottom line – a team player on the owners’ side.

A revenue sharing system could be just what the NBA needs to end this lockout, to offer a semblance of financial parity and help assure that most or all franchises will return to profitable business. The players have offered their own concessions — at least for now, they are willing to accept either a hard cap or salary cutbacks, but not both — and now it is the owners’ turn to negotiate in good faith. David Stern has taken a hard stance in the negotiations so far, and the prevalent thought is that he is waiting for the players to cave, waiting to crush the players underneath the league’s leverage.

But maybe he is just waiting for the owners to budge, and maybe Jerry Buss is leading the way, and maybe the league can find some common ground after all, and maybe Jermaine O’Neal won’t have to worry about players becoming too selfish, because the owners have finally started to look in the mirror and realize that the broken system involves them, too.

Jerry Buss has gone senile.

Despite the overwhelming history of his organization, and the great teams that have represented the Lakers in the past, Lakers owner Jerry Buss thinks this season’s Lakers team will be the best Lakers team ever. (LA Times)

He’s expecting a lot. “As of now, I feel there’s a good chance this could be the best team we’ve ever had,” Buss said.

But if the Lakers don’t win a third consecutive championship, Buss might have some buyer’s remorse.

“You hate to say it that way, but that’s what it comes down to. You get to a spot where you have to win it all to be happy,” he said. “Some time ago, I’m talking to some people and they wanted a bonus if the Lakers make the playoffs. I said, ‘If they don’t make the playoffs, you don’t work here anymore.’ “

All due respect to Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom, but is Jerry Buss serious? The best Laker team ever?

The 1971-72 Los Angeles Lakers featured Hall of Famers and top 50 greatest players, Jerry West and Wilt Chamberlin. They won 33 consecutive games and an NBA championship.

The 1986-87 Lakers started Byron Scott, Magic Johnson, James Worthy, A.C. Green, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Kurt Rambis, Mychal Thompson and Michael Cooper came off the bench. They won 65 games and defeated the Boston Celtics in the NBA Finals.

The 2000-2001 Lakers started Derek Fisher, Kobe Bryant, Robert Horry, Rick Fox, and Shaquille O’Neal. They won just 56 games, but marched through the playoffs like General Sherman marched through the South on his way to the Atlantic, losing just one playoff game, defeating the Philadelphia 76ers in the NBA Finals.

I could go on, but you get the point. There have been some fantastic Laker teams in the past, and adding Steve Blake and Matt Barnes to last year’s team does NOT make them the best Laker team ever. Not even close.

Aside from making ludicrous statements about his team, Buss said he looked forward to the continuation of the Lakers-Celtics rivalry, especially since the Celtics signed Shaq.

The Lakers have won 16 NBA championships, one behind the Celtics, who are trying to win another one with a veteran-laden team that now includes a certain ex-Lakers center.

“Shaq and Kobe [Bryant] have a little thing going as to who wins the most rings, and so Shaq signing with Boston sets up a potential showdown,” Buss said. “I like the drama. I think it’s fabulous. You can’t help but love Shaq. He’s a very funny man. Sometimes he gets a little carried away in his analysis of former employers. But outside of that, he’s quite a guy and we look forward to it.”

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