Free Agency in Basketball Essay

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Changing the Basketball Landscape



Perhaps the most valued basketball player's representative that contributed to transforming the landscape of how athletes in this sport were compensated was Paul Silas. Interestingly enough, Silas worked for multiple of agencies that were intimately associated with basketball and player remuneration. He was actually a member of the Boston Celtics. Additionally, in 1975 he became the president of the National Basketball Player's association. During the middle of that decade, Silas was able to take a decidedly different approach to arbitration and its presentations which resulted in desirable compensation benefits in which "the players could claim a major victory" (Bradley, 2016).

A Worthy Agreement



Silas played an integral role in enabling the players in the NBPA to avoid an arbitration settlement shortly after taking over the presidency of this organization. His contribution to the way that he was able to alter the foundation upon which players were paid in this league was critical because it directly impacted the notion of free agency and the monetary repercussions of such a situation for those who were actually laboring on the basketball court. Partly due to a threatened merger between the NBA with a rival basketball league, Silas was able to effect an agreement with the owners of the league that most notably increased the average minimum salary for all players a whopping 50% -- going from $20,000 to $30,000 a year in the midst of the 70's (Bradley, 2016).

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Although such sums may seem paltry by today's standards, their worth should not be underestimated for the time period, especially since the country was in the midst of the throes of company's beginning to shut down factories in earnest and take numerous local jobs overseas.



Additionally, it was Silas's negotiations that were able to alter other means of compensation that the players received which transcended mere salary. The same agreement that he reached enabled players to receive life insurance, as well as medical and dental insurance. Such compensation packages are fairly standard for other occupations. However, at the time that Silas was able to effect this arrangement in the 1970s, it was unheard of for professional basketball players to obtain compensation alternatives to mere salary benefits. The president of the NBPA was also able to increase the per diem rate at which players were compensated in addition to their shares of revenues for both the playoff and….....

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References

Bradley, R. (2016). Labor pains nothing new to the NBA. http://www.apbr.org/ Retrieved from http://www.apbr.org/labor.html

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