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LeBron James knows the power of his voice and isn’t afraid to use it to make an impact. James recently gave his opinion about the NBA’s reported new television deal with Disney (ABC, ESPN) and TNT worth about $24 billion and lasting through the 2024-25 season.
Being that the new deal is worth $2.6 billion per year—nearly triple of the $930 million annually that the league takes in from its TV and digital rights—King James believes that deserves more money for the players.
The NBA superstar told ESPN that the league’s players’ association and the owners should work out a new collective bargaining agreement before both sides can opt out after 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.
“The whole thing that went on with the last negotiation process was the owners was telling us that they were losing money,” he added. “There’s no way they can sit in front of us and tell us that right now.”
The NBA’s new television deal begins in 2016.
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(Photo: Jason Miller/Getty Images)
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