Except they're not.Must be good to be an NBA player:
Heads - we win big when revenue goes UP
Tales - we break even when revenues go DOWN
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/12461874/players-union-rejects-salary-cap-smoothing-historic-cap-increase-nba-set
When the league proposed smoothing to the players, they offered (basically) nothing in return. Had the Union acquiesced to smoothing it would have been changing the rules in a way that directly and immediately negatively impacted many of its members, and could not have pointed to any clear and immediate benefit it received in exchange. No Union takes that kind of deal.
This time around, the Union and (most of) the teams will benefit from an artificially high cap and tax line. To get that higher cap, the Union is going to have to agree to a much much larger escrow. The salaries reported on cap sheets for this year will not reflect what players actually receive. Everyone will take a hair cut in what they actually take home.
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