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The pity party had shifted from the NBA draft to the labor disputes between the employers and employees.

Represented by Michael Jordan, owners of smaller markets claimed that they had lost 300 million US dollars in this so-called unprecedentedly successful season of professional basketball that had just ended.

The root of these losses could be traced back to the CBA agreement reached between the parties in 2005.

That year, the League made concessions on the so-called "basketball income" distribution to reduce the salary term of top-paid players from seven to five years and to ban high school players from the draft.

Since that year, players have taken 57% of the basketball income each season.

These small-market owners claim that it's the unfair distribution of revenue that has led to their annual losses of hundreds of millions of dollars ever since.