LAS VEGAS -- National Basketball Players Association executive director David Kelly criticized the NBA's salary cap and luxury tax system on Friday, arguing that the newly implemented "second apron" must be "softened" or removed.
"We are not fans of the second apron," Kelly said. "We did not propose the second apron. We should have done a better job of fighting back against the second apron. In the future, we will have a much more unified union, and we will do a better job of fighting back. ... We're seeing [the apron system] decimate teams and force decisions to be made that are not basketball decisions." [a reference to the Jaylen Brown trade]
July 10, 2026 ESPN
Chuck Cooperstein, Las Vegas Mavericks play-by-play guy, July 3, 2026, replying to Kyle Kuzma:
Has anyone ever asked why Tamika Tremaglio, who negotiated this deal as the executive director of @TheNBPA stepped down immediately afterward. No sports union head ever leaves after negotiating only one such deal.
Kyle Kuzma, Milwaukee Male Deer, July 3, 2026:
...the @TheNBPA has to operate with elite business acumen, elite negotiating strategy, and real foresight.
The owners and the league walk into these meetings with killers that continue to run circles around us time and time again with elite lawyers, economists, cap experts, media strategists, and long term business operators. Players deserve a PA that is just as sharp, just as prepared, and just as aggressive about protecting our upside.
Too often, it feels like players are informed after the fact instead of being truly educated and empowered before decisions are made. That cannot continue.
The next CBA [2030] is a do or die moment for us as players. It's only going to get worse for us. We need transparency, accountability, and a serious re evaluation of who is representing us and how they are representing us.
Almost invariably I side with the working man in labor disputes, even when the working man is making $50M per. I side with them here. The current CBA went into effect on July 1, 2023. It is a disaster for players and team managers. It killed free agency. The second apron essentially is a hard cap. The CBA was a complex tome that confused even experienced team experts (e.g. Andy Elisburg leading to Terry Rozier trade), and as David Kelly refers, it's effects are retrospective. Players who signed contracts before or around the CBA's effective date, i.e. before the full implications of "aprons", etc. were understood, are almost untradeable, their contracts essentially void. (Jaylen Brown's contract was signed July 26, 2023. Brad Stevens has less of an excuse for Jayson Tatum's contract, July 1, 2024.)
How in hell did this come about? The undersigned had an ominous sense that the NBPA was going to get rolled when Michelle Roberts stepped down after seven years as executive director of the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) in 2021. At that time NBA Commissioner Adam Silver was obsessed with the new CBA. The NBA's future was held up until the new CBA was reached. Adam is a brilliant man and was at this time an experienced Commissioner. The CBA was his top priority of and he was laser-focused on it. Adam also represents the team owners. He has all of the elite legal talent and experts that Kyle Kuzma mentions at his disposal. Sitting across from Adam and his go-gos was Tamika Tremaglio, who succeeded Roberts in 2021 and stepped into the negotiations with no experience, and as I sensed, she, the union, and the players got rolled. Tremaglio negotiated the CBA that went into effect July 1, 2023 and stepped down half-way through her four-year term "in a surprise move" in November, 2023. The CBA was controversial from the start. The union "should have done a better job of fighting back against the second apron", as David Kelly states. The NBPA was not "unified" under the tutelage of Tremaglio and the undersigned has no doubt, but also no facts specifically, that Tremaglio was encouraged by the players "to pursue other opportunities". Her legacy is aprons, first and second, the latter of which effectively is a hard cap, the decimation of free agency, and "optionality".
.webp)
