The "Heat" were the other pursuers but that is not why I am highlighting this deal. This is:
Owner Mat Ishbia has made a massive commitment to salary and luxury tax on the Beal and Durant deals to pursue a title in the coming seasons. The Suns will have $163 million in salary committed to Booker, Durant, Beal and Ayton for the 2023-24 season.--Adrian Wojnarowski for ESPN.
Over the past week, the Phoenix Suns' ownership and front office came to a conclusion as they considered the idea of trading for Washington Wizards guard Bradley Beal:
Don't just break the rules, smash them to bits.
The
NBA's new collective bargaining agreement goes into effect in a matter
of days (July 1 to be specific), and it contains a series of new guidelines aimed at breaking up and suppressing NBA superteams.-Brian Windhorst, ESPN.
Good for PHO. If this was the English Premier League the "Suns" would be facing not a tax but point deductions, record erasures, even banishment from the league. The EPL's absurd "financial fair play" rules prohibit even the most deep-pocketed owners from doing just what Phoenix (and before them Golden State for years) is doing here—in the name of "sustainability." That is, the EPL fears that even mega-wealthy state owners are going to run out of money...Abu Dhabi, Saudi Arabia.🙄 It’s transparently to keep the Old Firms at the top and to put the nouveau riche in their place. Honest to God, I do not know how such a rule is not a restraint on trade and worker freedom of movement, but such are the rules of European football (until a club challenges them at the European Court of Justice: note to Manchester City).