Spirits, Colonels, and the art of the deal.

From the NY Times comes word that the NBA may finally be buying out their agreement with the Silna brothers dating back to the sphinctering of the  Spirits  of St. Louis when the NBA and (part of) the ABA merged.

 

As we recently chronicled, the Silnas have earned around $300 million from their revenue sharing agreement. 

Now the League is proposing to buy them out for another $500 million.

Kudos to you Silnas! Well played.

To see how well, consider that there was another ABA franchise in a similar position also negotiating with the NBA about being frozen out of the merger. They were the Kentucky Colonels. Their owner, the allegedly wily John Y. Brown masterfully negotiated a $3 million dollar lump sum payment.

John Y. no good. Just ask Phillis George.