Spencer Dinwiddie made his presence felt on Twitter again.
The Brooklyn Nets guard on Saturday tweeted out some pointed criticisms of the NBA restart and playoff plan, as the league attempts to complete the season that has been shut down since mid-March because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Earlier, the league confirmed a report that Disney World — specifically the ESPN’s Wide World of Sports complex that holds several courts inside the Milkhouse Gym — would be the lone site for the resumption of the season. The games, which are being targeted to begin again in late July, will be without fans.
Different postseason scenarios also have been discussed, including a 16-team playoff tournament — with the top eight teams from each conference coming back to finish of the season and crown an NBA champion.
It was that scenario specifically that caught the attention of Dinwiddie, who put the issue of risk in economic terms.
“If we go 16 teams directly to playoffs do those teams get paid more for the risk and carrying this years revenue after Corona and China?” tweeted Dinwiddie, who is active on social media.
Needless to say, his tweet received reactions from the Twitterverse, but Dinwiddie had more answers at the ready.
— He responded to a fan that wrote on Twitter that Dinwiddie has only been talking about this return issue in terms of money, tweeting: “Isn’t that what big business is about? I’m a small business that is a cog in the machine of a bigger business lol”
— In response to another Twitter query saying the players gave up some of their leverage in talks by saying they want to play again, Dinwiddie took a shot at the owners.
“Yes, the team owners have run a master class in media manipulation.”
This isn’t the first time the 27-year-old Dinwiddie talked about the economics of basketball. He has many entrepreneurial interests and has looked to get fans involved in these pursuits.
On May 15, Dinwiddie started a GoFundMe page with the stated goal of raising 2625.8 bitcoins, the equivalent to $24,632,600. He said he would take the minimum salary to play for any team the fans choose, if that figure is met. If it’s not, which is highly likely, he will donate any of the money raised to charity.
In the fall, Dinwiddie wanted to monetize his current three-year, $35 million contract by allowing fans to buy bonds in his future earnings. The league nixed that idea, but is currently reviewing the tokenizing of Dinwiddie’s contract. It’s unclear if this new idea would violate the collective bargaining agreement between the NBA and the player’s union.
Dinwiddie, who is under contract with the Nets next year, could opt out and become a free agent next summer.
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