So, how much money will he be able to make if the league didn't exist in its current form? Yeah, I thought so.
And how much money would the league lose if all the top stars disappeared?
Notice he is not asking for more money. Just stating an opinion (which I think he is right about)
He has every chance to disappear, if he so desires. He hasn't, so this is not the issue. On the other hand, playing a bunch of irrelevant games that undermine the product is a very real issue -- just watch some baseball.
That is really interesting. You're saying that baseball's extended season (and profits because of it) actually undermine the quality of the product, so people watch it less?
That is very interesting. I cannot believe I have never heard that before.
Seriously, no sarcasm.
Let me rephrase that a bit, because it didn't come out right.
I'm saying that the current cap structure allows more teams to be competitive. Relax the salary cap, and there are two scenarios that are probable: (1) half of the teams are like the Miami Heat; however, they play most of their games against the equivalent of the Charlotte Bobcats, or (2) the league is 16 teams; more likely, since I don't think all of the franchises would be able to stay in business.
In both cases, it's likely that the pie will be smaller, so while LeBron may be getting paid more relative to overall league revenue, it's unclear to me that he'll actually be paid more.
Baseball was just an illustrative example of a sport where low-budget teams are in clearly disadvantaged position, even though most of them actually manage to muddle along.