CJ McCollum admits the collective bargaining agreement he helped negotiate has some issues for players.
McCollum’s four-year term as president of the NBA’s union ended last month and saw a landmark new CBA struck in 2023. The Wizards guard spoke on the controversial deal between players and owners, which introduced the infamous luxury tax aprons in 2023.
The Wizards guard appeared on the Young Man and the Three podcast alongside fellow NBA players Duncan Robinson, Cam Johnson, and Georges Niang.
“The CBA is not perfect,” McCollum said. “I’ve never gone on the record saying that, but everything is negotiation. And I think we’re at that point now where the pot is continuing to grow, guys are continuing to make more money and there’s a lot of conversations about mid-level. There’s a lot of conversations about the non-tax payer mid-level, there’s a lot of conversations about the vet minimum, the max, and kind of where things are.”
The new CBA started on July 1, 2023 and expires after the 2029–30 season. Either side can opt out in 2029. The biggest change was the introduction of the tax aprons, which introduced onerous penalties for teams that cross certain salary lines. McCollum was the union president throughout the negotiations.
His biggest gripe is about how the CBA forces teams to decide which homegrown players to retain or trade off to avoid the severe tax penalties.
“You shouldn’t be punished for drafting well,” McCollum said. “…And now you get to that position, Oklahoma City is going through right now where you got to pay a lot of players who are really good. And you draft them, you shouldn’t be punished for drafting well. You should be able to pay and keep and retain the players you’ve drafted. And when you have those windows to where you really have a chance to compete and win a championship you shouldn’t have such severe restrictions.”
This summer, the Thunder signed its three stars, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Chet Holmgren and Jalen Williams to max extensions shortly after winning the NBA Finals. Holmgren and Williams were both drafted by the Thunder. Gilgeous-Alexander will become the NBA’s first $70 million per year player with his new deal.
Despite being the union president while the talks between the players and owners were happening, McCollum minimized his influence in the CBA.
“This wasn’t a ‘my agenda’ type of situation,” McCollum said. “We had a collective bargaining agreement to try to do what’s best for the players and things were proposed and we had to have a conversation about it to kind of figure out what’s best.
“I didn’t devise a plan to try to conquer the world,” he added later. “I don’t have that much power. I didn’t have that much power, I didn’t have that much control.”
McCollum also tried to dispel some of the notions that have emerged with the new CBA. such as the NBA’s ‘middle class’ of players losing out on money because of team’s needed to pay out their star players and shortchange their supporting cast as a result.
“I think there’s a misconception that players aren’t being compensated the same ways they have in the past,” McCollum said. “That’s not true. Guys are making more money than they ever have. The middle class is making more money than they ever have before.”
