From The Detroit News: http://detnews.com/article/20100708/OPINION03/7080325/1127/rss13 NBA owners are sending mixed messages to their constituents and to the public. For months now, commissioner David Stern has been telling anyone who was willing to listen that more than a few teams were in dire financial straits. He claims the 30 NBA teams suffered a net loss of $400 million last season under the current collective bargaining agreement, which expires next July. It was an opening salvo for what's sure to be contentious negotiations between the owners and NBA Players Association. Players Association president Billy Hunter disputed those numbers, while privately hoping the owners would do him a favor during this free-agent period. The owners have fallen for it -- hook, line and sinker. With the way owners have thrown money at free agents since July 1, there's no way Stern's number could be accurate. Mediocre players such as former Pistons Darko Milicic and Amir Johnson have verbally agreed to deals worth $20 million and $35 million, respectively. Those two don't even combine to put up All-Star numbers, yet they set the market in a sense for free agency. The Timberwolves, who signed Milicic to this deal when there was no market for him, are led by general manager David Kahn and owner Glen Taylor. Kahn drafted three point guards last year and three small forwards this year. It's safe to say he's not a candidate for executive of the year. Taylor, on the other hand, is the same owner who was caught cheating in 1999, signing Joe Smith to an illegal deal that cost his team three first-round picks and a $3.5 million fine. Instead of overpaying under the table, he decided to do it above board this time. Bravo. Don't get me wrong. If Johnson and Milicic were both offered those amounts for pedestrian production, and that other dreaded "P" word, potential, then they're smart for taking it. Same goes for Atlanta's Joe Johnson signing a maximum deal worth $120 million, even though his team quit in the second round of the playoffs, with Johnson averaging 12 points on 30-percent shooting. If owners aren't going to be fiscally responsible, the players should take every advantage of capitalizing on their earnings potential. To the players' credit, they've been the ones to exercise restraint, for whatever reason. Paul Pierce and Dirk Nowitzki have made plenty of money during their careers, and had the leverage over their teams to take the maximum. What Pierce and Nowitzki did, though, went relatively unnoticed as most of the attention has been on LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. They took less, giving their teams cap flexibility to acquire other players. The players know what's coming down the pike. The owners will try to paint the players as the bad guys, as being out of touch in a depressed economy. "We know the public perception is we're a bunch of greedy guys," one player told me toward the end of the season. "It's a battle we can't win." Nobody's forcing these owners to pay marginal players above market value. There was no visible competition for Milicic and Amir Johnson. Joe Johnson would've had suitors, but no team was able to offer him more than $90 million, and there wasn't an offer for Johnson with which to compare Atlanta's. The owners are painting themselves into their own corner, but the players will pay the price publicly. "We know a lockout is probably coming," another player told me this weekend. "We're preparing for it." -- ◢◤◢◤◢◤ ◢███◤◢███◤◢◤◢◥ ◢◤◢███◤◢███◤ ◢ ◤◢◤◢◤ ◢◤ ◢◤◢◤ ◢◤◢◤◢█ ◢◤◢◤ ◢◤ ◢ ◢◤ ◢◤◢◤ ◢███◤◢███◤◢◤◢◤█ ◢◤◢◤◢ ◢███◤ ◢◤◢ ◤◢◤ ◢◤ ◢◤█ ◢◤◢◤◢█◢◤◢◤◢ ◢◤ ◢ ◢◤◢◤ ◢◤ ◢◤◢ ◢◤◢█◤◢◤◢◤◢ █◤◢███◤◢███◤ ◢◤◢◤◢ ◤ ◢ ◢ ◢ ◢ ◢ ◢ ◢ ◢ ◢◤◢◤◢◤ --

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