The Hawks and the CBA

[hds428]

This is a collection of articles that I've collected, summarized and paraphrased (although links to the entire articles are included), as well as some of my own thoughts at the bottom.

CNNSI.com:

"In the upcoming season, teams with payrolls exceeding $51 million-$54 million

(the exact amount will not be known until next summer) will have to pay a dollar-for-dollar

luxury tax on the overage. That money would then be redistributed to teams that did not

exceed the threshold....

...Last season players began having 10 percent of their salaries withheld because they were

collectively receiving more than 55 percent of Basketball Related Income (BRI). Of the

$154 million collected, about $23 million was returned. The rest was divided up among the

29 NBA teams.In the upcoming season, teams with payrolls exceeding 61.1percent of

BRI will have to pay a dollar-for-dollar luxury tax on the overage. That money would then

be redistributed to teams that did not exceed the threshold. In addition, those

high-spending teams would be eligible to receive only a portion (70 percent in 2003,

40 percent in 2004, zero percent in 2005) of the escrow money.... "

RealGM.com:

Article

"Current estimates suggest that about 16 of the 29 teams will be over the luxury tax

threshold and will pay around $200 million in dollar-for-dollar luxury tax penalties.

(The Knicks and Trailblazers combined are likely to pay about $100 million.) In addition to

this $200 million, 10% of every player's salary is put into an escrow account that goes back

to the owners if players' salaries and benefits are greater than 55% of total basketball

related income, such as they will be next year....Right now, the NBA has proposed that all

luxury tax penalty money will be distributed only to the teams under the luxury tax

threshold. $200 million divided by 13 is around $16 million, which would go to the 13 teams

under the luxury tax threshold. Teams above the luxury tax threshold would get none of this

$200 million....$18 million is what teams receive from 8,763 fans plopping down the average

ticket price of $50.10 for every regular season game. Another way to think about this is

that $18 million is about half of the ticket revenue that the typical owner receives for

the whole season. Even the lower $7-$9 million estimates are huge amounts when viewed

in this light....."

Pete Babcock:

ask the GM

"First, we will not let good players simply walk away from our team without doing

everything we can to re-sign them and keep them here. We will end up paying a tax if it

means that is how we keep the most talented players....as an example, we have a payroll of

approximately $54.7 Million (after the Robinson trade) and we will end up paying a tax this

season....all because we felt it gives us the best opportunity to win.... We will be at

around $54.7 million in payroll with a NBA cap of a little over $40. million....therefore,

we will not be in a position to sign a meaningful free agent...as is the case with most

teams today..."

*Hawks payroll 01-02:(USAToday)

Article

Player 2001-02 salary Total deal Signed through

Shareef Abdur-Rahim $ 11,250,000 6-yr; $70.9 2004-05

Theo Ratliff $8,593,750 7-yr; 57.8 2004-05

Alan Henderson $6,500,313 7-yr; 45 2004-05

Nazr Mohammed $4,500,000 5-yr; 25 2005-06

Chris Crawford $2,500,000 7-yr; 18 2005-06

DerMarr Johnson $2,265,240 4-yr; 9.87 2003-04

!Jason Terry $1,689,360 4-yr; 6.89 2002-03

!Dion Glover $1,027,440 4-yr; 4.47 2002-03

!Emanual Davis $715,850 2-yr; 1.5 2002-03

Glenn Robinson $8,990,000 11-yr; 80.15 2004-05

Darvin Ham? (MIL deal) $1,760,000 3-yr; 5.61 2002-03

TOTAL: $49,791,953+-

*$5 million difference between that n babcock's stated $54.7 M (Ira Newble?)

*Ira Newble's contract??

(!USAToday figures are suspicios, Robinson and Hamm were both still listed under MIL)

More TEAM salary info, next year and beyond: RealGM

Team 02/03 committed 02/03 capspaceActual 02/03 capspace Max

Atlanta $64,971,961 $24,700,961 $16,202,901

Team 03/04 committed 04/05 05/06 06/07

Atlanta $52,173,169 $56,667,463 $5,500,000 $0

*If the lux tax for 01-02 between $51-54 million, and Hawks payroll +-54.7 mllion according

to Babcock, then at $54 million tax threshold, Hawks would be $700,000 over the limit ($1.4 million, dollar for dollar) and

@ $51 million Hawks would be $3.7 million over and have to pony up $7.4 million

*medical exemption for DerMarr??? (1/2 his salary??): if the tax threshold is $54 million, an exemption for DerMarr could put us just under the tax.

*either way going over the lux tax keeps us from the $16 million being distributed

to teams under the cap

*with escrow funds the league has $365 million to distribute, between the projected 16 teams

under the tax, thats $23 million(total?) per team to be redistributed

*how much does $20+- million matter to AOL? How much does it impact the Maloof's or Cuban? Would losing that kind of money be a factor in upcming contract negotiations, or will as Pete said, "doing everything we can to re-sign them and keep them here. We will end up paying a tax if it

means that is how we keep the most talented players...." justify the short term, and long term expense?

[Boondocks]

You should check out hoopshype, a decent website with smaller articles and a "wire" kinda thing (not the moreover).

They have a pretty good salaries page adn according to them the Hawks have a $53,887,711 payroll this season, $50,068,438 in the 03-04 season (for 9 players) and a $54,335,625 in the 04-05 season (for 7 players).

http://www.hoopshype.com/salaries/atlanta.htm

[hds428]

Thanks for the info boondocks. I shopped quite a few sites and all of them had conflicting figures, but the discrepancy seemed to always be -+2-4 milliion. The best anyone can do is guesstimate, I guess. Can't really blame the teams for not wanting to fully disclose their salary info, and from my understanding, we won't even know what this years tax threshold is until next summer. The point of all that really was me just wondering aloud if the Hawks were in salary cap trouble, and would it even be a drop in the bucket to a huge multinational corporation like AOL. This might be the one benefit of being owned by a huge faceless corporation as opposed to a mom n pop type (albeit a VERY wealthy mom n pop LOL) operation like the Kings and the Mavs.