Golden State Warriors Star Blasts New CBA

The NBA and NBPA signed a new collective bargaining agreement late last week, and one prominent player wasn't hesitant to vent his frustrations about the new state affairs. Golden State Warriors four-time All-Star Draymond Green took to Twitter to air his grievances:

Players lose again…. Smh! Middle and Lower spectrum teams don’t spend because they don’t want to. They want to lose. So increase their spending capabilities, just to increase them. They continue to cut out the middle. And this is what we rushed into a deal for? Smdh! Never fails https://t.co/rFuSpxCJ8q

— Draymond Green (@Money23Green) April 1, 2023

One of the priorities of the new CBA was to curb the spending of the NBA's wealthiest teams, including Green's Warriors. Under the prior CBA, the Warriors were able to drastically outspend rival teams: the 2023-24 salary cap currently sits at $134 million, but between salaries and luxury tax, the Warriors are set to pay in excess $483 million for their roster. Clearly, they were not discouraged by the previous CBA's luxury tax structure.

Few teams are willing to compete financially with the Warriors: only seven teams paid any luxury tax at all in 2021-22. That being said, Green is right to point out that curtailing the top teams' spending will diminish the earning power of players. As he says, middle and lower-class teams don't spend because they don't want to. The more impediments the NBA puts on paying players, the less money there will be to go around.

Naturally, that suits the governors just fine. By diminishing the buying power of the top teams in the name of competitive balance, the NBA has found yet another way to artificially deflate the market for its stars. For every organization prioritizing profit over championships, that's a win-win. 

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