Милуоки Бакс багийн довтлогч Кайл Кузма НБА-гийн одоогийн хамтын гэрээ болон цалингийн дээд хязгаартай холбоотой шинэ дүрэм тоглогчдын үнэ цэнийг бууруулж байгааг онцоллоо.
Кайл Кузма НБА-гийн тоглогчдын холбоо ирээдүйн хэлэлцээрийн үеэр илүү мэргэжлийн, хүчтэй байр суурь баримтлах шаардлагатайг сануулжээ. Тэрээр лигийн удирдлага болон багийн эзэд хуульч, эдийн засагчдын багтай хамтран ажиллаж, тоглогчдыг мэдээлэлгүй орхидог явдлыг зогсоох хэрэгтэй гэж үзэж байна. НБА-гийн 2023 оны гэрээгээр тогтоосон цалингийн нэг болон хоёр дахь шатлал нь багуудын бүрэлдэхүүнээ хадгалах, тоглогчдын шилжилт хөдөлгөөнд сөргөөр нөлөөлж, багуудыг айдас дээр суурилсан шийдвэр гаргахад хүргэж байна гэж тэрээр шүүмжилжээ.
Хоёр дахь шатлалын хязгаар нь багуудад маш хатуу хориг тавьж, ирээдүйн драфтын эрхийг нь хасах болон тансаг татварын өндөр ачааллыг бий болгож байгаа юм. Жэймс Долан тэргүүтэй багийн эзэд энэхүү босгыг давах нь багийн санхүүгийн хувьд эрсдэлтэй алхам гэж үзэж байгаа нь Митчелл Робинсон зэрэг тоглогчдыг баг бүрэлдэхүүнээсээ явуулахад хүргэв. 2026 оны долдугаар сарын 3-ны өдөр Кузмагийн илэрхийлснээр, энэхүү нөхцөл байдал нь багуудын өвөрмөц онцлог, хөгжөөн дэмжигчдийн хайртай тоглогчдын холбоог үгүй хийж, лигийн ерөнхий чанарт сөргөөр нөлөөлж байна.
Одоогийн гэрээ 2030 оны зургадугаар сарын 30 хүртэл үргэлжлэх ч 2028 оны аравдугаар сарын 15-ны дотор талууд гэрээг цуцлах боломжтой. Кузма энэ үеийг тоглогчдын хувьд эргэлтийн цэг хэмээн тодорхойлж, ил тод байдал болон тоглогчдын эрх ашгийг хамгаалах шинэ шаардлага тавьж байна. НБА-гийн тоглогчдын эдийн засгийн нөхцөл байдлыг сайжруулах, багуудын тогтвортой байдлыг хадгалахын тулд холбооны төлөөлөгчид илүү чадварлаг ажиллах зайлшгүй шаардлагатай гэж тэрээр үзжээ.
Дэлгэрэнгүй эх сурвалжийг харах
Эх сурвалжийг нээх ↓
Kyle Kuzma aired out his grievances with the NBA’s current collective bargaining agreement Friday and shot off some fireworks before the July Fourth weekend.
The 30-year-old Milwaukee Bucks forward warned that the NBA Players Association has to be prepared for the next CBA negotiations because, he feels, “the first and second apron are starting to function like a hard cap on player value, team continuity, and player movement.”
“The @TheNBPA has to operate with elite business acumen, elite negotiating strategy, and real foresight,” Kuzma wrote on X. “The owners and the league walk into these meetings with killers that continue to run circles around us time and time again with elite lawyers, economists, cap experts, media strategists, and long term business operators. Players deserve a PA that is just as sharp, just as prepared, and just as aggressive about protecting our upside. Too often, it feels like players are informed after the fact instead of being truly educated and empowered before decisions are made. That cannot continue.”
The league and owners pushed for a hard cap during the negotiations that led to the 2023 deal that set the current apron system.
After sitting here watching NBA free agency this year and overall NBA movement over the past 2 years somebody has to say it….
The new CBA was sold as parity, but the first and second apron are starting to function like a hard cap on player value, team continuity, and player…
— kuz (@kylekuzma) July 3, 2026
Some team executives and agents have considered the second apron, set at just under $222 million this coming season, as a de facto hard cap since its inception. Only one team, the Cleveland Cavaliers, had a total payroll that exceeded the second apron during the 2025-26 season, and only one team, the Oklahoma City Thunder, is above that threshold right now (they have until the end of the 2026-27 regular season to get below it).
Players have not lost money under the current CBA. They still receive roughly half of all basketball-related income (from 49-51 percent), just as they have since 2011. The NBA had $11.676 billion in BRI this past season, according to a league memo sent out to teams just before the start of free agency. The players accounted for $6.272 billion in salaries and benefits, and will have to return $317 million in overages to the league. It will come out of the money the league keeps in escrow (the NBA keeps 10 percent of salaries in escrow until after the season ends).
The second apron does impose onerous roster-building restrictions. It freezes a team’s first-round pick seven years out, which prevents it from being traded. A team can unfreeze it by staying out of the second apron in three of the next four seasons, but if it stays over the second apron in two of the next four seasons, that pick drops to the end of the first round. There are also increasing luxury tax multipliers the more a team goes above the luxury tax line, set at about $188 million last season and $200 million in 2026-27. For instance, the New York Knicks were $19.5 million over the tax this past season but will pay $44.44 million in luxury taxes.
Teams have largely lived in fear of the aprons since the CBA went into effect. In a radio appearance four days after his team won the 2026 championship, Knicks owner James Dolan said a team would have to be “suicidal” to go over the second-apron threshold. The Knicks lost center Mitchell Robinson to the Boston Celtics this week as a result.
The repeater tax system, which grew even more punitive under the current CBA, has also had an impact. The Boston Celtics offloaded Kristaps Porziņģis and Jrue Holiday last summer to lower their tax bill, then got out of the tax altogether at the trade deadline. Several league executives also cited Jaylen Brown’s massive salary — he is owed a combined $182 million in the next three seasons, topping out at $64 million for the 2028-29 campaign — as the most significant suppressor to his market before Boston traded him to the Philadelphia 76ers this week.
Why did the Celtics trade Jaylen Brown?
Jay King and Jeshua Kidd
“Teams are no longer making purely basketball decisions. They’re making fear-based apron decisions,” Kuzma wrote on X. “That means good players get squeezed, homegrown cores get broken up, fan-favorite teams lose their identity, and the overall product loses some of the nostalgia and continuity that made people fall in love with the NBA in the first place.”
Kuzma is not the first NBA player to critique the current CBA. Draymond Green did it last summer, also after the end of free agency. Former NBA guard Austin Rivers was also critical during the summer of 2023, saying the new CBA had squeezed out the NBA’s middle class.
Kuzma took it a step further Friday when he said the next CBA will be a “do or die moment” for players. The current CBA runs through June 30, 2030, but either the league or players can trigger its end a year early if they opt out by Oct. 15, 2028.
“It’s only going to get worse for us,” Kuzma wrote. “We need transparency, accountability, and a serious re evaluation of who is representing us and how they are representing us. This is not anti parity. This is pro player, fan, and product. The league is strongest when players are valued properly, great teams can stay together, and the people representing us are operating at the same level as the people sitting across the table.”
