Is the second apron hurting the NBA and its fans? | No Cap Room

Yahoo Sports senior NBA reporter Jake Fischer and senior NBA writer Dan Devine discuss the second apron in the NBA’s collective bargaining agreement and its impact on and off the court. Hear the full conversation on “No Cap Room” – part of the “Ball Don’t Lie” podcast – and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen.

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Video Transcript

The second apron.

So the idea is this is going to make it so that your super wealthy ownership groups can’t just say, well, screw it.

Yeah, fine.

I’ll pay whatever whatever financial penalties I can.

Who cares?

Because it will still have access to doing kind of whatever we want.

I guess the question that I have is like, this didn’t come from the players, right?

Like the owners are the ones who were saying like, let’s put in these, these sort of more draconian restrictions and like, let’s do this for the purposes of I guess greater parody, leveling of playing field.

It’s also like trying to make the rules harder to have a team building, be a more compelling and competitive challenge which I’m kind of on board for in one respect.

I wonder if as people look at it and go like, I don’t understand what the hell this thing is and why it exists and why I have to like, as I’m looking at, why can’t my team bring this guy back or why can’t the team that I root for sign that guy?

Um Because in seven years its pick might get frozen.

I wonder if the, if that aggregates or resounds to eventually like a negative experience from a fan perspective.

The CB A isn’t created for the fans and maybe that’s something that should be more considered.

I think everyone who’s making decisions about the overall structure of the NBA business landscape would be better served if they thought more about the NBA as a television product as the reality TV show.

It is as something that they’re trying to get people to engage with more, just like how Bravo builds out a universe from Vanderpump Rules and their housewives stuff.

I don’t think that they need, it’s, it’s, the issue is like they need to be a reality show stars.

I think that the issue is like if they’re wearing seven different uniforms in the space of a 15 year career, it’s hard to get emotionally invested in them.

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