NBA Lockout: Why David Stern Should Be Making Less Than NFL's Roger Goodell

NBA Commissioner David Stern makes more than NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.

Goodell, who makes roughly $10 million per year including bonuses according to ESPN, is dwarfed by the reported earnings of the NBA's lead man.

One NBA owner told Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports that he thinks "three or less" owners know what the commissioner actually makes, but several believe that it was between $20 million and $23 million.

In a follow up report, ESPN's Marc Stein reports that three sources "consulted by ESPN.com" would estimate Stern's salary between $15-$16 million. Additionally, one of Stern's sources revealed that the commissioner earns $500,000 per franchise each season, which would make his yearly salary $15 million before bonuses were added in.

That's an awful lot of cheese.

According to Stein, If the 2011-2012 season is played, there will be at least 21 players scheduled to make more than $15 million salary that Stern earns.

For a league that is reporting that they are losing money, that seems like a pretty big figure for the commissioner to be collecting.

While Stern is preaching for NBA players to take a pay decrease in an effort to put more money into the pockets of the owners, that's understandable considering that he works for the owners, but to turn it into a nuclear war as he has done was simply the wrong move.

For an employee to sign on the dotted line, the employer has to first offer the contract.

When expiring contracts become the most valuable trade chip in the league, there's no doubt that there are problems to be addressed.

However, when the league was locked out during the 1998-99 season, owners argued that it was a system that they couldn't live with. Now, less than 15 years later, the owners are once again stating the same thing.

I understand the need to move away from lucrative contracts for players like Raef LaFrentz, Travis Outlaw and Rashard Lewis, but they wouldn't have been able to net the deals that they did without them first being offered by a team that's looking to fill a need.

We can't blame the players for seeking to maximize their value on the open market.

The system may be broken, but the problem could very well start at the top.

Stern might be working on behalf of the owners, but it's hard to side with a group that won't divulge the real financial figures of the league and its teams while claiming losses through accounting tricks like depreciation.

The commissioner might not be collecting on his eight-figure salary during the lockout, but it's going to take much, much more than that to facilitate a deal that's perceived as fair for both sides.