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Morning Edition

May 20, 2025

This year’s playoffs will feature the seventh different NBA champion in seven years. We explore how the league’s CBA helped end the era of superteams and ushered in parity.

— Colin Salao [[link removed]] and David Rumsey [[link removed]]

The NBA Has Created an Era of Unprecedented Parity [[link removed]]

Bruce Kluckhohn-Imagn Images

Luka Dončić’s trade to the Lakers [[link removed]] may now top most people’s lists for “Where were you when this happened?” NBA moments. But before February’s trade, one of the leading candidates was when the Warriors signed Kevin Durant in the summer of 2016.

Durant was a former MVP set to join a 73-win team that had already proved it could win a title with its current core. From 2015 to 2019, Golden State made five straight Finals and won three championships—two with Durant as Finals MVP.

The signing was the catalyst for a change in the league’s CBA. The Warriors were able to sign Durant because the salary cap jumped more than 30% in 2016—which coincided with a new media-rights deal.

In 2023, the CBA added cap-smoothing, which limited the year-over-year salary-cap jumps to 10%. The rule changes resulted in a drop in high-profile players changing teams in free agency. While trade requests continue to be prevalent, the most impactful player to leave his franchise in free agency in the last two years is Fred VanVleet, a one-time All-Star.

The CBA also included aprons—two salary thresholds above the league’s soft salary cap and luxury tax. Violating each apron [[link removed]] comes with basketball-related penalties that can limit a team’s flexibility to make roster moves, on top of monetary penalties that come with exceeding the luxury tax. In the past, teams with deep-pocketed owners, like the Warriors and Clippers, consistently violated the luxury tax and paid the penalties.

Proof of Concept

The two-apron salary structure has been highly criticized, including by NBA GMs [[link removed]]. But if parity was the goal of the rules, they have served their purpose.

The 2025 NBA conference finals start Tuesday, but regardless of which of the four remaining teams hoists the Larry O’Brien Trophy next month, there will be a new champion for the seventh consecutive season, the first time in league history:

2019: Raptors 2020: Lakers 2021: Bucks 2022: Warriors 2023: Nuggets 2024: Celtics 2025: Knicks/Pacers/Thunder/T-Wolves

The four teams also represent a diversity of market sizes, but all have struggled to win the NBA championship. Among the conference finalists, the most recent NBA championship was won in 1979—and that was when the Thunder were still the Seattle SuperSonics. The T-Wolves and Pacers have never won a title.

The next few years will reveal more about the long-term effects of the NBA’s much-maligned salary structure, especially as the Celtics are expecting a record payroll and teams like the Thunder [[link removed]] and Timberwolves face questions about the financial sustainability of their rosters.

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What’s Next in Sports Media?

We’re in a golden age for sports media. Live games are the most-watched programs on TV. Women’s sports are exploding. Giant streamers are joining the party. And sports documentaries have never been hotter properties.

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Join us in New York City this September for Tuned In [[link removed]], where we’ll sit down with leaders to discuss where we are heading in the world of sports media. NBA commissioner Adam Silver and NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman are confirmed, with influential on-air talent, media moguls, and executives to be announced soon.

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NFL Owners Set to Vote on Tush Push, Olympics, Playoff Seeding [[link removed]]

Bill Streicher-Imagn Images

NFL owners are gathering this week for another round of annual league meetings, and several major votes could reshape the sport both on and off the field.

The meetings, which begin Tuesday in Minneapolis and will run through Wednesday, are the last time all 32 owners are scheduled to be together before the 2025 season begins in September.

When Push Comes to Shove

The long-awaited vote on the Tush Push will arrive after tabling a potential vote [[link removed]] on banning the play—or changing rules that will dramatically alter it. NFL owners will once again consider doing away with the quarterback sneak that the Super Bowl LIX champion Eagles have perfected in recent years.

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has hinted at his desire to ban the Tush Push, often citing health and safety reasons and pointing out that players were previously banned from pushing the ballcarrier.

For a vote to pass, 24 of the league’s owners must be in favor of a change.

Postseason Plans

Owners are also scheduled to vote on a proposal to change seeding in the NFL playoffs.

The Lions have proposed changing seeding in the playoffs so that non-division champions with better regular-season records than division champions can be seeded higher. That would mean hosting a home game is no longer guaranteed for each conference’s four division champions. Under the proposal, division champions would win seeding tiebreakers over non-division champions.

Any change wouldn’t have much of a financial impact, as all ticket revenue from playoff games is collected by the league and then distributed equally among the 32 teams.

National Pride

A seemingly less controversial vote will be held on a resolution that would allow active NFL players to participate in the flag football competition at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

The NFL has been all in [[link removed]] on flag football since the International Olympic Committee approved the sport in 2023. After the 2028 Olympics, the NFL could create its own flag football league or leagues [[link removed]] with teams that have ties to NFL franchises and sell those new media rights [[link removed]].

Bears Pivot to Suburbs As $4.7B Downtown Stadium Plans Dim [[link removed]]

Jamie Sabau-Imagn Images

The roller coaster that is the Bears stadium saga continues to take twists and turns, seemingly with no end in sight.

Roughly 13 months after the NFL franchise introduced lavish plans [[link removed]] to build a $4.7 billion indoor venue on the downtown Chicago lakefront, the Bears have now seemingly abandoned the effort. Instead, the team said it is focusing on building a new stadium on the 326 acres it owns [[link removed]] at the site of an old horse racing track in suburban Arlington Heights.

“Over the last few months, we have made significant progress with the leaders in Arlington Heights, and look forward to continuing to work with state and local leaders on making a transformative economic development project for the region a reality,” the Bears said in a statement late last week.

Finding the funds for a downtown dome was an issue [[link removed]] from the moment the Bears announced those plans in April 2024, and funding for a stadium in Arlington Heights will likely be no easier.

At the NFL owners meetings in April, Bears president and CEO Kevin Warren said [[link removed]] the focus for building a stadium was on downtown Chicago as well as Arlington Heights, which was a shift from the team’s previous stance of solely focusing on the downtown location.

Nationwide Stadium Searches

The Bears’ inability to strike a solid stadium deal comes as the Commanders move forward with a newly announced $3.8 billion dome project [[link removed]] in Washington, D.C.

Meanwhile, Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe said [[link removed]] last week that he will call a special legislative session to discuss potential public funding for a major renovation of the Chiefs’ Arrowhead Stadium and a new ballpark for the Royals. Last month, Chiefs owner Clark Hunt said [[link removed]] the team would decide on its stadium future by this summer.

Also last week, the Browns said they would move forward with their plans to build a $2 billion dome [[link removed]] in Brook Park, a Cleveland suburb, even if they don’t receive funding [[link removed]] from Cuyahoga County.

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Conversation Starters Brock Purdy will make $53 million per season on his new contract, which moves him into a tie for seventh among the highest-paid quarterbacks. Check out [[link removed]] the top 10. In the press conference ahead of the Indiana Fever’s season opener, Caitlin Clark showed off the custom Kobe shoes she was set to debut. Take a look [[link removed]]. Winnipeg Jets veteran Mark Scheifele’s dad passed away unexpectedly on Friday. The center still played in Game 6 against the Stars on Saturday and scored the team’s first goal. Watch it here [[link removed]]. Editors’ Picks The Sky Aren’t Contenders. Sky-Fever Is a Box Office Rivalry Anyway [[link removed]]by Annie Costabile [[link removed]]Despite the gulf between the teams, they’re the hottest story in sports. Young Collectors Are on a High-Stakes Chase for Ultra-Rare Trading Cards [[link removed]]by Greg Bates [[link removed]]“They just want that excitement of the chase,” says a 23-year-old collector. U.S. Professional Softball Players Are Flocking to Japan to Get Paid [[link removed]]by Annie Costabile [[link removed]]The Diamond League offers paychecks and amenities that the U.S. can’t beat. Question of the Day

Should NFL teams be re-seeded after the first round of the playoffs?

YES [[link removed]] NO [[link removed]]

Monday’s result: 56% of respondents watched the PGA Championship this weekend.

Advertise [[link removed]] Awards [[link removed]] Learning [[link removed]] Events [[link removed]] Video [[link removed]] Shows [[link removed]] Written by Colin Salao [[link removed]], David Rumsey [[link removed]] Edited by Matthew Tabeek [[link removed]], Or Moyal [[link removed]], Catherine Chen [[link removed]]

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