On Sunday, after dinner, I called my mother in Indiana. She had read the numbers before me: the NBA made about $14.5 billion last season, $456 million on average per franchise.
She didn’t talk about the average. She talked about the gap. The Golden State Warriors at the top with $895 million, the Memphis Grizzlies at the bottom with $339 million. And she wanted to know what the league does with that.
I explained the revenue sharing to her. The teams with the highest revenues contribute, half of the luxury tax is added, and about $400 million goes back to the teams that earn the least. The figures you read already take that into account.
Let me tell you, it reminded me of 2000. I arrived in Charleroi with one bag and a one-year contract. The first winter, the heating in the hall had its moods, and the club down the road lent us balls because ours were worn smooth. Nobody issued a press release. The following Saturday, we gave them the canteen for their raffle. Over there, they call it revenue sharing. Here, we called it being neighbours.
My mother listened. Then she asked me her question, the one she always asks. With all that money moving between thirty teams, has anyone thought about defence?
I said no, it wasn’t in the numbers. That defence doesn’t get redistributed, it gets worked on Sunday mornings with U10s who aren’t listening yet. That the box-out isn’t written into any TV contract, not even at $6.9 billion a year.
She said: see? It costs nothing, and nobody shares it.
It’s true, we checked: Eurohoops.
