After 24 games, the Memphis Grizzlies have apparently
agreed to a buyout of Antoine Walker’s contract. While terms have yet to be
announced, the NBA’s version of divorce papers will allow the 32-year-old
veteran to become a free agent and negotiate with any of the other 29 NBA teams
that might consider him valuable. For those interested in the continued
rebuilding of the Griz, this development is every bit as welcome as the team’s
first four-game winning streak since April 2006.
I enjoyed what may have been the team’s finest
start-to-finish performance this season on December 8th, a 109-97 victory over
the Houston Rockets (the first game of the current winning streak). O.J. Mayo
stole the show after the opening tip, with 10 points in the game’s first nine
minutes, and an admonished Rudy Gay — he was late for that morning’s shootaround
— came off the bench to score a game-high 20. But I left FedExForum with two
fairly ugly images in the back of my mind: thousands of empty seats and Antoine
Walker in a sport coat at the end of the Memphis bench.
The NBA’s business plan doesn’t work. Not any longer. Not
in 2008. And this has everything to do with the skewed structure of the players’
contracts, inflated salaries that drive up the cost of game tickets, leaving
entire sections — almost entire levels — of NBA arenas empty. CEOs — those still
with their jobs — can certainly shell out four figures for season tickets, or
three figures for a few seats to a big game. But your average Memphis consumer
(let’s exaggerate and identify that person as someone making less than $100,000
a year) is tightening his budget and, if he’s paying attention, wondering about
the accounting department at his local NBA outfit.
Walker was never a part of the plan being implemented by
Grizzlies general manager Chris Wallace and coach Marc Iavaroni. His contract
merely balanced the trade last summer that sent Mike Miller to Minnesota and
brought O.J. Mayo to Memphis. For his toil at the end of the Grizzlies’ roster
(and bench), Walker was scheduled to earn $9,320,500 this season. For additional
perspective, consider that Gay — simply the team’s best and most important
player — will earn $2,579,400, roughly twenty-five percent of Walker’s
pre-buyout take-home. There’s no other company on the planet with that kind of
salary structure for its staff.
The NBA has rules that don’t allow a player’s contract to
be ripped apart (as they can be in the NFL). A franchise cannot tell the Antoine
Walkers of the world to go away (at least not without paying him what his
contract stipulates or offering a buyout which, in Walker’s case, will include
six zeroes). And this is precisely the breaking point — in public perception —
with the NBA’s business plan. Because the rest of us are learning the hard way
how easy it is for bosses to say “go away”. . . and without a seven-figure
guaranteed contract (or buyout) to cushion the fall.
The Grizzlies deserve more fans in their arena,
particularly to watch a club with the kind of youth, energy, and yes, talent
that should lead to good things around the bend. But the scales of what the
Grizzlies spend and what they ask of their consumers must find a sense of
balance before those seats will begin filling. Among the empty seats at
FedExForum, the first one to actually bring a smile this season will be Antoine
Walker’s.
• You gotta love the breakout season DeAngelo Williams has
enjoyed for the Carolina Panthers. The former Memphis Tiger has rushed for 1,229
yards in leading his team to a record of 11-3 and first place in the NFC South.
Williams is fourth in the NFL in rushing, leads the league in touchdowns (16),
and is a lock for his first Pro Bowl appearance next February. In the meantime,
his Panthers have their sights on a first-round bye in the NFC playoffs, with
visions of Super Bowls dancing in their heads.
