FAIRFAX, Va. — Washington Wizards majority owner Ted Leonsis told local business leaders Wednesday that he expects the NBA soon will have a hard salary cap similar to the NHL’s model.
NBA commissioner David Stern said that’s not necessarily true — and warned Leonsis could be punished for discussing private league business.
The NBA later announced it had fined Leonsis $100,000 for “unauthorized public comments regarding the league’s collective bargaining negotiations.”
Leonsis, who also owns the Washington Capitals, spoke to a group of Virginia business leaders before the Wizards’ daily training camp session. He told them that the more fans a team has, the more they spend on the team, the more the team has a chance to acquire and keep good players.
“In a salary-cap era — and soon a hard salary cap in the NBA like it’s in the NHL — if everyone can pay the same amount to the same amount of players, its the small nuanced differences that matter,” Leonsis said.
