Good morning, there’s only 3 years until the next NBA lockout
That and much, much more in Tuesday’s NBA newsletter.
Good morning. Let’s basketball.
MONEY OVER EVERYTHING: The NBA unveiled its $24 billion TV deal on Monday. I wrote about the three major consequences of the deal, leading with the enormous coming jump in player salaries. At Vox, Matt Yglesias wrote about the implications beyond sports.
Zach Lowe has a great breakdown of the annual values of the contract and his own analysis of what happens next.
David Aldridge has some smart thoughts (per usual) on it too. (And The Morning Tip has a fresh design!)
There’s an interesting wrinkle for an ESPN streaming product that might help cord-cutters stay sane during the playoffs.
Ken Berger focused on the labor implications, which I am less optimistic about after reading his piece. LeBron, for one, seems emboldened on this topic. SI legal expert Michael McCann also has a thread on what this means for 2017.
Another coming labor battle: the league wants to smooth out cap increases over several years so there isn’t a jolting jump in 2016. Good luck with that.
Finally, we’re getting an NBA awards show on TNT. I would like to hate this idea, but I secretly can’t wait to see what Russell Westbrook wears.
Meanwhile, on the same day this deal was announced, Turner said it would lay off 10 percent of its workforce. What horrible optics.
BASKETBALL IS BACK! You know how I know? Because Joakim Noah and Paul Pierce are out here getting into shoving matches.
NBA BLOG PREVIEWS: We missed Friday’s previews from Brew Hoop (Bucks) and SLC Dunk (Jazz). Monday’s pair covers the Hawks at Peachtree Hoops and the Mavericks at Mavs Moneyball.
SO, ABOUT THE FACE SCANS ... NBA 2K15 is released today. The cross-section of Basketball Twitter and Video Game Twitter reveled in the unintentional hilarity of 2K’s face scan feature early Tuesday morning. The feature allows you to scan your face in order to make your create-a-player look like you. For many, it worked great. For others ... not so much.
WELPVILLE: Dirk is adding the Sky Hook to his game.
K.O.B.E.! The Black Mamba doesn’t seem to be filled with empathy after injuring Nick Young during a scrimmage.
Happy Tuesday. See you next time.
