NBA Salary Woes: The Maynor Trade

Yesterday the NBA's Utah Jazz and Oklahoma City Thunder completed a trade that sent guard Eric Maynor and forward Matt Harpring from the Jazz to the Thunder in return for the rights to a German forward who will never play in the NBA. The only reason the Thunder included anything at all is because NBA rules say teams have to trade something tangible. The real benefit that the Jazz received from the Thunder? As John Hollinger's article explains, the Jazz will save more than $10 million dollars by dumping two dead-weight contracts on the Thunder, who are far below the luxury tax threshold.

BW: BMW Links Exec Pay to Line Workers

This BusinessWeek article is very light on details, but I find BMW's concept of creating a consistent compensation policy among all levels of its workforce interesting. Personally I think the most logical scenario for any bonus or salary increase is for it to be tied to overall company performance. Hopefully that's what BMW is doing for all its employees - not tied to stock price, mind you, but another, truer measure of the company's health. Do you think other companies might emulate BMW's compensation policy?

Best economic structure in sports?

Guaranteed salaries ruin the NBA. The lack of a salary cap ruins baseball. The average NFL career lasts three years and earns less then $1,000,000 in a career. What is the optimal solution?