The NBA salary cap has been in place since the 1984-85 season, but players union executive director Michele Roberts wants nothing to do with it.
Roberts, who assumed NBPA director duties in July, made her disdain toward the league’s salary cap crystal clear in a sit-down interview with ESPN The Magazine’s Pablo Torre.
“Let’s call it what it is. There would be no money (if not for the players).” Roberts told Torre. “Thirty more owners can come in, and nothing will change. These guys go? The game will change. So let’s stop pretending.
“I don’t know of any space other than the world of sports where there’s this notion that we will artificially deflate what someone’s able to make, just because,” she said regarding the salary cap. “It’s incredibly un-American. My DNA is offended by it.”
Roberts also argued against max contracts and the rookie wage scale, saying, “I can’t understand why the (players’ association) would be interested in suppressing salaries at the top if we know that as salaries at the top have grown, so have salaries at the bottom.”
UPDATE: Adam Silver issued a statement Thursday afternoon responding to Roberts’ remarks.
The NBA’s nine-year, $24 billion television deal in October, effective in 2016, could mean a significant increase to the salary cap.
Photo via Twitter/@sportingRSS
