The owners are trying to be slick. The NBA got thru the recession almost unscathed. They had a banner year in revenues and things look good for the future. Also check this bit of info out?
2012-13 Contracts
Atlanta - $60,921,971
Boston - $29,421,145
Charlotte - $29,796,338
Chicago - $50,902,511
Cleveland - $31,253,012
Dallas - $44,649,384
Denver - $16,552,549
Detroit - $41,610,000
Golden St - $44,327,622
Houston - $28,097,882
Indiana - $23,907,329
LA Clips - $24,382,411
LA Lakers - $67,607,960
Memphis - $26,940,532
Miami - $65,724,000
Milwaukee - $43,871,253
Minnesota - $30,255,802
New Jersey - $36,529,457
New Orleans - $44,161,667
New York - $41,073,799
Oklahoma - $44,473,021
Orlando - $75,665,410
Philadelphia - $39,268,604
Phoenix - $28,648,960
Portland - $50,637,785
Sacramento - $23,312,624
San Antonio - $44,345,492
Toronto - $39,525,281
Utah - $41,643,040
Washington - $41,205,942
Where is the doom and gloom the owners are claiming? Almost every team has the ability to manage their cap situation after this season. There's no epidemic of over the cap teams!!! It's the exact opposite. Also there aren't enough stars left to force teams to spend so that they'd be over the cap. There is no crisis!!! Now when you add this info to the fact the revenues are up despite many of the teams having no chance to get to a title, then what is all the owner crying about? The League is in great shape going forward and they know it. Some of the high price stars are due to retire soon and the only guys left that could be signed are CP3, Howard and Deron right now. That's not enough to send all these under the cap teams into financial hardship. Any new young stars will be on rookie contracts for a while. The league is set for success.
Just look at the attendance numbers for last year. Where is the huge problem in getting fans in the seats?
2011 Attendance Home Road Overall
RK TEAM GMS TOTAL AVG PCT GMS AVG PCT GMS AVG PCT
1 Bulls 41 893,462 21,791 104.2 41 18,431 96.1 82 20,111 100.3
2 Trail Blazers 41 840,924 20,510 102.7 41 16,333 86.0 82 18,422 94.5
3 Cavaliers 41 824,595 20,112 97.8 41 16,200 84.1 82 18,156 91.2
4 Mavericks 41 824,162 20,101 104.7 41 16,657 87.7 82 18,379 96.2
5 Heat 41 810,930 19,778 100.9 41 19,447 100.9 82 19,612 100.9
6 NY Knicks 41 808,879 19,728 99.8 41 18,044 93.9 82 18,886 96.9
7 Jazz 41 799,982 19,511 98.0 41 17,331 91.2 82 18,421 94.7
8 Lakers 41 778,877 18,997 99.7 41 19,087 100.2 82 19,042 99.9
9 Magic 41 777,852 18,972 102.6 41 17,428 90.5 82 18,200 96.4
10 Warriors 41 766,398 18,692 95.4 41 17,049 89.6 82 17,871 92.5
11 Celtics 41 763,584 18,624 100.0 41 18,964 98.0 82 18,794 99.0
12 Spurs 41 750,879 18,314 98.6 41 17,389 91.1 82 17,851 94.8
13 Thunder 41 744,068 18,148 99.7 41 17,774 93.4 82 17,961 96.5
14 Clippers 41 727,462 17,742 93.1 41 17,614 92.7 82 17,678 92.9
15 Suns 41 720,249 17,567 95.4 41 17,462 91.6 82 17,514 93.5
16 Nuggets 41 692,968 16,901 88.2 41 17,285 90.8 82 17,093 89.5
17 Wizards 41 688,466 16,791 83.2 41 17,192 89.2 82 16,992 86.1
18 Pistons 41 683,080 16,660 75.5 41 16,732 87.5 82 16,696 81.1
19 Raptors 41 679,208 16,566 83.7 41 16,855 91.9 82 16,710 87.6
20 Rockets 41 663,839 16,191 89.7 41 16,943 88.9 82 16,567 89.3
21 Bobcats 41 649,694 15,846 83.1 41 16,473 85.5 82 16,159 84.3
22 Hawks 41 641,596 15,648 83.6 41 16,957 87.9 82 16,303 85.7
23 Bucks 41 631,910 15,412 82.3 41 16,911 87.4 82 16,162 84.9
24 Timberwolves 41 624,960 15,242 78.8 41 16,885 88.5 82 16,064 83.6
25 76ers 41 604,823 14,751 72.6 41 17,155 89.5 82 15,953 80.8
26 Hornets 41 603,088 14,709 86.1 41 17,179 89.9 82 15,944 88.1
27 Grizzlies 41 600,687 14,650 80.9 41 16,441 86.4 82 15,546 83.7
28 Nets 41 581,378 14,179 80.6 41 17,098 88.4 82 15,639 84.7
29 Kings 41 569,496 13,890 80.2 41 17,400 91.2 82 15,645 86.0
30 Pacers 41 555,077 13,538 74.5 41 16,844 87.0 82 15,191 81.0
Look at those attendance %'s. No one really fell off the map! As a league their future looks great. Only a select few teams are capped out after this season and it rectifies itself in the successive seasons anyway. Their is no crisis and they know it.