The Cap: How Larry Fleisher and David Stern Built the Modern NBA
- ISBN-10
- 1496223861
- ISBN-13
- 9781496223869
- Category
- Business & Economics
- Pages
- 360
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2020-10
- Publisher
- U of Nebraska Press
- Author
- Joshua Mendelsohn
Description
Today the salary cap is an NBA institution, something fans take for granted as part of the fabric of the league or an obstacle to their favorite team’s chances to win a championship. In the early 1980s, however, a salary cap was not only novel but nonexistent. The Cap tells the fascinating, behind-the-scenes story of the deal between the NBA and the National Basketball Players Association that created the salary cap in 1983, the first in all of sports, against the backdrop of a looming players’ strike on one side and threatened economic collapse on the other. Joshua Mendelsohn illustrates how the salary cap was more than just professional basketball’s economic foundation—it was a grand bargain, a compromise meant to end the chaos that had gripped the sport since the early 1960s. The NBA had spent decades in a vulnerable position financially and legally, unique in professional sports. It entered the 1980s badly battered, something no one knew better than a few legendary NBA figures: Larry Fleisher, general counsel and negotiator for the National Basketball Players Association; Larry O’Brien, the commissioner; and David Stern, who led negotiations for the NBA and would be named the commissioner a few months after the salary cap deal was reached. As a result, in 1983 the NBA and its players made a novel settlement. The players gave up infinite pay increases, but they gained a guaranteed piece of the league’s revenue and free agency to play where they wished—a combination that did not exist before in professional sports but as a result became standard for the NBA, NFL, and NHL as well. The Cap explores in detail not only the high-stakes negotiations in the early 1980s but all the twists and turns through the decades that led the parties to reach a salary cap compromise. It is a compelling story that involves notable players, colorful owners, visionary league and union officials, and a sport trying to solidify a bright future despite a turbulent past and present. This is a story missing from the landscape of basketball history.
Get the book
Other editions
-
- 2020-10-01
- 376 pages
- Paperback
- University of Nebraska Press
Similar books
-
Red Knit Cap Girl
By Naoko StoopRed Knit Cap Girl is a little girl with a big dream -- to meet the Moon. Red Knit Cap Girl lives with her animal friends in an enchanted forest.
-
Hats Off to the Cap
By Joe CrowleyAn eclectic mix of poems from the University of Nevada, Reno's, longest serving president.
-
Caps for Sale: A Tale of a Peddler, Some Monkeys, and Their Monkey Business
By Esphyr SlobodkinaThis tale of a peddler and a band of mischievous monkeys is filled with warmth, humor, and simplicity and also teaches children about problem and resolution.
-
Official (ISC)2 Guide to the CAP CBK
By Patrick D. HowardSignificant developments since the publication of its bestselling predecessor, Building and Implementing a Security Certification and Accreditation Program, warrant an updated text as well as an updated title.
-
Red Knit Cap Girl to the Rescue
By Naoko StoopSimple prose and luminous pictures will remind readers that even small actions - such as recycling - can help to solve big world problems, in this inspiring story that celebrates friendship, bravery, and the importance of home.
-
The Voyage of the Cap Pilar
By Adrian SeligmanAdrian Seligman served before the mast in square rigged ships and came home to find his grandfather had left him some money - enough to buy a three-masted barquentine.
-
The Cap and Gown in America
By Gardner Cottrell LeonardThis work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it.
-
The EU Budget: The UK Rebate and the CAP – Phasing them both out?
By Jorge Núñez Ferrer... the CAP has been the significant negative externalities it has created for other markets , especially for the world market of agricultural products . There is no environmental objective for the CAP in the EU Treaty , but the detrimental ...
-
Dirt Under the Cap: The Cash Cop Chronicles
By W. Charles BennettA Forensic Auditor chronicles the largest salary cap dispute in NBA history.
-
CAP Mot: The Story of a Marine Special Forces Unit in Vietnam, 1968-1969
By Barry L. GoodsonBased on actual experiences during Barry Goodson's tour of duty in Vietnam from July of 1968 to June of 1969, CAP Mot is the riveting story of one Marine Special Forces unit: "CAP" for "Combined Action Program," and "Mot" for the word "one" ...