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NBA owners lockout is heading into day seven.
Most players don't start missing paychecks until mid-November.
The last lockout, in 1999, didn't end until late January, so a deal's a long way off, especially when there's such a loss of trust.
NBA Commissioner David Stern has made it clear, "We had a great year. In terms of appreciation of our fans for our game. It just wasn't a profitable one for the owners."
Matter of fact the NBA claims the league lost more than $300 million this past season and that 22 of the 30 teams, including the Jazz, lost money.
Jazz player representative, Raja Bell, is not buying the NBA party line, "I don't believe any of us believe that 22 teams are losing money. I think franchises have been selling pretty well. People continue to buy franchises."
N.Y. Times blogger, Nate Silver, is "Calling Foul on N.B.A's Claims of Financial Distress." Silver references estimates from Forbes and Financial World magazines that show that the NBA is not losing money and is actually profitable.
Unaffiliated with the Jazz or NBA, SportsBeat brought in financial professional Alan Last, to discuss the N.Y. Times blog.
"It's hard for me to believe that they (NBA Owners) would want to be in business in an industry that is losing money, as they claim, over the last 10 years of the collective bargaining agreement (CBA)."
Forbes and Financial world agree, claiming that the NBA "is fundamentally a healthy and profitable business." They believe that the NBA's operating income (revenues minus expenses) is more like a plus $183 million dollars.
The NBA disagreed with the Forbes report saying that the information was inaccurate. Forbes "does not have the financial data for our teams and the magazines estimates do not reflect reality."
Last acknowledges the difficulty of finding a consensus on the NBA's finances. "On the one side you have Forbes magazine who is claiming the NBA makes money, but they're obviously using educated guesses to come to that conclusion. On the other side you have the NBA and their owners claiming poverty, but at the same time, they have access to accountants and every accounting trick in the book to make themselves look as least profitable as possible which puts them in a stronger negotiating situation."
