Shannon Sharpe believes NBA owners have no excuse for the high ticket prices after seeing Victor Wembanyama and Austin Reaves take major pay cuts to help their teams.
Victor Wembanyama chose to take the max contract worth $252 million rather than the supermax that would have paid him $300 million over five years.
Austin Reaves similarly took a haircut on his max contract worth $5 million to give the LA Lakers more cap flexibility. But this doesn’t sit well with Shannon Sharpe.
Shannon Sharpe doesn’t like seeing NBA owners charge high ticket prices while players take pay cuts
Speaking on his Nightcap show, Shannon Sharpe broke down the details of Victor Wembanyama’s paycut, and how the San Antonio Spurs owner portrayed this move as necessary for the future.
Sharpe slammed this notion, questioning why the onus is on players going forward, especially as team owners continue to increase prices for fans.
“Don’t put that onus on the player. They always do that. I knew this was going to come. We talked about it with Jalen Brunson. This is what teams are going to expect from the players…
“Guess what? I can still get this supermax contract and still get this money. I guarantee them tickets still ain’t going to get no cheaper.
“Even though Wemby took a $50 million hit. You think they’re going to lower or raise the ticket prices every year? You think they’re going to raise the concession every single year moving forward? Let me ask you a question.
“NBC, Amazon, ESPN, tell me which ones of them gave a discount? Because these players are taking a discount.”
NBA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement has become a massive problem
NBA team owners have found the new CBA a great way to get out of paying players the maximum amount possible.
With the new salary cap restraints, team owners will use this as an excuse to convince star players to take less than what they are worth to help build a strong team around them.
NBPA president CJ McCollum made a bad deal when negotiating the new CBA, and the star players in the league are paying the price for it.
It is crucial that the next set of negotiations try to make amendments to the salary cap rules that don’t force the players in situations like this.
Receive exclusive football transfer news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
