By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Kyle Hines is the second non-Russian captain of CSKA Moscow after Slovenian Matjas Smodis, a household name in Europe and also the vice-president of the EuroLeague players’ union.
Hines talked about all those aspects of his life as a player in the Russian portal “Sportbox” and the most interesting part is the question about a possible salary cap and what the Players Union can change.
“We are just collecting information on this topic, working on options. At the moment, we have a huge field of activities and gaps that need to be filled. Can a salary cap system be implemented in Europe? Yes and no. The main thing is not to limit your horizons. The NBA is an outstanding organization with a clearly constructed system, but it’s not worth to get hung up on it. There is a football Champions League in Europe where there is no salary ceiling, and yet it is a lucrative tournament, followed by many fans. In the American MLB baseball league, there is no salary ceiling either. There are many ways to create equal conditions for all clubs, and each way you will find positive and negative sides. Now we calculate all the options and try to understand what is acceptable for our main goal – to do everything to improve the current conditions in basketball”.
– Do you have stable contact with the NBPA (national basketball players association) and its president Chris Paul?
“Yes, Bostjan Nachbar, who also played in the NBA, had a meeting with representatives of the player’s union in the summer. I was at their office in New York a few weeks ago and communicated with the people responsible for the international relations (photo). The trip was more about getting familiar with them. I saw the conditions in which the union works, how they represent the interests of players, learned about the philosophy of the system developed by them, learned the know-how that may be useful for us in the future. We admire the NBA, but we often forget how much time it took to come to the present state. In the 60s, the NBA players were trying to create a platform through which they could promote their interests. This is the stage at which we are at the moment”.