Don't call him a prophet … but hey, if the name fits, right?
As reported by Yahoo! Sports' Adrien Wojnarowksi, NBA Players Association executive director Billy Hunter sent a letter of warning to NBA players on Wednesday about the league's proposal of a "hard-flex" salary cap. He knew that such a proposal would not be in the players' benefit and that it would cause problems at the bargaining table.
Fast-forward a day to Thursday, and Hunter's letter of warning seems pretty prophetic, considering the owners officially decided to lockout the players, starting at midnight on Friday, after negotiations went south.
In the letter, Hunter warned that the owners' proposal "would decimate the middle class, with teams using the bulk of their hard cap room on star players."
This means that the "Big 3" approach used by the Boston Celtics, and more infamously by the Miami Heat, could potentially become an even greater trend. Think of it like former president Ronald Reagan's "trickle down" economic policy: feed the rich superstars a lot, and they can pass down bread crumbs, in the form of championship rings (theoretically), to their lesser-paid peers.
Hunter went on to write that the owners modified their proposal slightly, adding "a middle tier," and that they "now refer to it as a 'flex cap.' "
However, he made sure to point out that the players should not "be fooled by these semantics — the ceiling of the system is still an absolute barrier, so it produces the same harsh effects of a hard cap."
As it stands, with both sides in a galaxy far, far away from one another, the possibility of a shortened 2011-12 season seems not only possible, but likely.
Until anyone knows for sure, it seems like a sound policy to listen to Hunter for the lockout forecast. After all, he seems to have a knack for predicting the future.
