Sports fans greet labor disputes with the same tired cliché: It’s the millionaires vs. the billionaires!

Equally unfunny and over simplistic, the maxim omits the thousands upon thousands of low and middle-income people who suffer whenever a collective bargaining agreement expires. Labor peace isn’t just an excuse for an average fan to enjoy his or her favorite sports. It’s an environment where a popcorn vendor can cash a paycheck or where a scout can make a doctors’ appointment for a child.

So when people flippantly dismiss all the interests in lockout or strike, they miss the point completely. Sports are so engrained into our culture that we’ve cultivated an elaborate infrastructure to support our addiction. And in building this web of operations, communications and sales departments, the industry cut into its own profit margins. Now the entire production is so grandiose that even a short break in the ticket-tearing action means people start losing their jobs.

Today’s example comes from the one of the most financially successful professional sports franchises in the world: The Los Angeles Lakers.

ESPNLosAngeles.com Lakers beat writer Dave McMenamin and author Roland Lazenby are each reporting that Lakers assistant GM Ronnie Lester—who has been connected to the franchise since he signed as a free agent before the 1984-1985 season—will not be retained after his contract expires this June.

Lester, who McMenamin writes represented the team when they worked out a 17-year-old Andrew Bynum in New York in 2005, is one of more than a dozen Lakers employees who will not be re-signed past their current contract. It seems the franchise signed much of its staff through this June, which would be the final month before the collective bargaining agreement expires. That would suggest that this is simply a temporary cost-cutting move, but McMenamin thinks the franchise is moving in a more fiscally conservative direction:

Jackson was one of the highest paid coaches in any sport, but replacement Mike Brown, meanwhile, has agreed to a more modest four-year, $18.25 million deal. That may sound like a lot of money to pay a coach, but for the Lakers it marks a considerable reduction in overhead. 

A lot of people scoffed (how does one scoff, anyway?) when commissioner David Stern said that 22 teams will lose a combined $300 million this season. And while the Lakers are one of the eight teams in the black (Forbes ranked Los Angeles as the second-highest valued NBA team last January), their effort to reduce payroll is a good indication of where this league is going. If teams like the Lakers take on a different financial philosophy, the rest of the league is in store for a serious wakeup call. That means front office compensation will be reduced and there will be fewer jobs available. Teams like the 76ers, who have two highly paid executives (president Rod Thorn and general manager Ed Stefanski), could be few and far between.

There is no problem with the NBA’s revenue stream. Obviously Stern would like to see it grow, but the playoffs are wildly popular and ratings are stronger than ever. The problem is that the NBA, like many of its own players and Americans in general, has been living above its means; and if the Lakers are any indication, the belt will be tightened on July 1st.

On the Topic of Mike Brown

John Krolik of The New York Times NBA Blog “Off the Dribble” asked the obvious question this afternoon: Has the stink washed off Mike Brown?

Brown, of course, was blamed by many for the Cavaliers’ postseason futility during the LeBron James era, which is why Krolik seems to be puzzled by his selection as head coach of the Lakers.

Krolik accuses Brown of mismanaging Shaquille O’Neal and failing to earn the trust of LeBron James while in Cleveland, but he did defend Phil Jackson’s replacement overall philosophy.

A lot of people questioned Brown’s decision to implement a slow, deliberate offense when James was in Cleveland because much of the league had turned to Mike D’Antoni’s fast-paced system. Krolik, however, notes that the best teams over the last few seasons (Boston, Chicago and even the LA Lakers and Oklahoma City Thunder) have been defense-first teams, with slower, more methodical offenses. Essentially, Krolik is saying that Brown’s philosophy—which is based around denying high-percentage shots on the defensive end—has been vindicated over the last few seasons.

Frankly, it’s refreshing to hear that argument because Brown didn’t deserve the abuse he took on his way out of Cleveland. He won the NBA’s Coach of the Year because he briefly turned guys like Delonte West, Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Mo Williams into highly efficiency players. And even if the Magic and Celtics upset the Cavaliers in the playoffs, Brown pushed that team to first or second place in the Eastern Conference in each of his five seasons in Cleveland.

{AUTHOR_BOX}The NBA Finals Winner: American Airlines

CNBC’s Darren Rovell is probably the top sports business writer in the country because he studies the minutia of sponsorship deals like it’s the Torah. However Thursday’s piece didn’t require nearly as much research as he’s accustomed to because, as any NBA fan could tell you, should the HEAT win Game 5 tonight in Miami, every game of the NBA Finals will be played in a building named for American Airlines.

In fact, since the HEAT faced the Mavericks in the 2006 NBA Finals, this will be the second time that Dallas’ American Airlines Center and Miami’s AmericanAirlines Arena have shared the league’s biggest stage.

Keeping in mind that the company spent $42 million for 20 years of naming rights in Miami and a whopping $195 million for 30 years in Dallas, American Airlines still seems to have played a pretty shrewd hand.

Rovell writes:

Perhaps the most interesting of Smallwood’s calculations is the difference between a sweep and a seven-game series. Should the series go the distance, AA will get $95.9 million in exposure as opposed to $42 million in a four-game blowout. 

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