European Leagues Love New NBA Deal

David Stern and the NBA owners have taken a grievous misstep. Creating a maximum salary limit marks the beginning of the end of NBA dominance on the world stage of basketball.

Since before the NBA coming-out party at the ’92 Barcelona Olympics, the European basketball aristocracy has dreamed of competing with the NBA. With a maximum salary cap in place, free-agent superstars, not aging has-beens, will be vulnerable to the lures of European super teams.

If the possibility of a European powerhouse offering Kobe Bryant, Scottie Pippen or Karl Malone $5 million more per year than the NBA maximum sounds strange, think again. There are wealthy clubs in Europe, very passionate about basketball, whose whole mission in life is to reach parity and beat the NBA. For the first time, the door has legitimately opened to them.

After the first superstar goes, the barrier will have fallen forever, like the Berlin Wall. The NBA mastery will not die in the next few years, but by the end of the current labor agreement, the world’s basketball balance of power will have shifted noticeably.

JON DARSEE

Portland, Ore.