Kevin Durant disagrees with Cuban
DALLAS -- Oklahoma City Thunder star Kevin Durant strongly dismissed Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban's suggestion that the NBA consider eliminating the maximum restrictions on contracts in exchange for players giving up guaranteed money.
"I don't think that makes sense," Durant said Friday. "Give up guarantees? Nah, I don't think so. Why? Why would we do that? Just because we asked for ... I'm not going to talk about this, man."
Durant said he had a lot to say on the subject, but said it wasn't the appropriate time for him to express those thoughts publicly.
Cuban mentioned the possibility Tuesday night, calling it a "trade-off," hours after Durant said that several players are worth significantly more than the value of their max contracts.
"Look at it like this: Kobe Bryant brings in a lot of money to Los Angeles, that downtown area," Durant said Tuesday, according to The Oklahoman. "Clippers are getting up there -- Chris Paul, Blake Griffin and those guys are bringing in a lot of money as well. Look at Cleveland, look at Miami when LeBron [James] was there.
"These guys are worth more than what they are making because of the money that they bring to that area. That's a conversation you can always have, but until it's changed, you never know what will happen to it."
The pending influx of money from the TV deal has also gotten James thinking. The Cavs star believes that the NBPA and the owners should begin hammering out a new collective bargaining agreement before both sides can opt out following the 2016-17 season.
"At the end of the day, we will negotiate," James said. "We know it's going to happen at some point, because our deal is ending soon. We would love to do it sooner than later. We don't want to it to happen like it happened last time when we went into a lockout."
Durant, the reigning MVP and four-time scoring champion who is just entering his prime at age 26, is one of the players who stand to benefit the most from the multibillion-dollar extension of the league's television contract announced Monday. He is scheduled to be a free agent when the significant salary cap increase resulting from the new TV deal kicks in after the 2015-16 season.
NBA contracts are currently fully guaranteed unless both parties agree on other terms. Cuban mentioned the possibility of a system similar to the NFL's, in which the amount of guaranteed money is negotiated for each contract.
According to Cuban, the subject was broached in the labor discussions before the current collective bargaining agreement was reached in December 2011.
"It was discussed during the lockout time among owners but never got anywhere," Cuban said. "So it was just one of those trial balloons. I'm not offering this as a negotiation, I'm not suggesting it. All I'm saying is that was something we discussed before, and max contracts are always big question, guarantees are always a big question. But we have two years before that's even an issue, so no point discussing it now."
ESPN.com's Dave McMenamin contributed to this report.
