Everyone throws around "BRI" as if we all understand just what it includes.  I finally decided to Google BRI tonight and up comes Larry Coons' NBA Salary Cap FAQ (http://members.cox.net/lmcoon/salarycap.htm#Q13).  When you look at the long list of everything that's included in BRI, it becomes obvious where the owners went astray somewhere along the line:  they basically made the players co-owners of their teams.  Not necessarily a great business move as far as I'm concerned. 

Now what we have is a squabble between "co-owners" of these teams over how much of the pie (BRI) they're going to split.  Seems to me, what the owners SHOULD have gone for is to throw this whole BRI sharing business out rather than fight over what percentage split both sides get.  What they should have done was simply say:  from now on, we're going to pay each of you what we think you're worth.  Period.  LMA, you're going to get $10 million, or whatever.  BROY, you're going to get $8 million, and so on.  Furthermore, I'm going to employ you as long as you perform up to what we agreed to when we signed the contract.  No such things as guaranteed contracts.  Every game and every season is a "contract" game or season.  You know, sort of like it is in the real world.  With something like that, I would actually begin to relate to NBA players again.  Winning and losing might actually start to mean something again.  

I can dream, can't I?