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Before the NBA truly addresses its financial situation, there will come a spending binge unlike any the league has experienced with the 2010 free-agent free-for-all for LeBron James, right, and Dwyane Wade, among others, writes NBCSports.com contributor Ira Winderman.

Ira Winderman

Distress or deception?

Turmoil or tomfoolery?

This truly is a difficult one to decipher, the block-charge of all financial ledgers.

On one hand, the NBA takes out a $200 million line of credit to help its teams during this period of worldwide economic distress.

On the other hand, commissioner David Stern says his league must be in pretty good shape to merit such a loan in these times of tight cash.

On one hand, Stern talks about how changes will have to be made in the league's collective-bargaining agreement to reflect the economy.

On the other hand, it is too convenient to not declare distress when the current working agreement is two seasons from expiring.

That's not to say that the NBA is not suffering. Back in October, Stern already was making plans for a shrinking workforce in the league office. Teams have significantly trimmed staff as revenues wane.

Yet what better way to sweat out markets where new arenas are sought than to offer tangible evidence that your team already is on fiscal support, and that without new revenue streams, they might soon be gone?

In Sacramento, woe-is-we could not have been better timed. The Kings tap into the new credit line, voila, significant new arena talks.

Granted, this remains a world unto its isolated self.

As the staff member of one team pointed out, his franchise several years back made calls to each of the players' families, with the team on a lengthy trip during the holiday season, to make sure they were able to secure their holiday turkeys.

That same team, at that same time, was dismissing members of its secretarial staff.

And while several teams currently are in the midst of cutbacks, everything from trimming game-night meals for staffers to elimination of team publications, players still are spending their nights at the Four Seasons or Ritz-Carlton.

(As an aside: Those very same players frequently express a preference to stay at Marriotts, Hiltons and Hyatts, with those properties often closer to malls and more in line with players' sensibilities when it comes to room-service charges.)

Walk into the offices of most teams and there is a very real and ornate wall between the basketball and business sides. In some places, the differences can be stark, from cathedral to cubicle.

No, those two worlds will never become unified.

Yet to truly restore something closer to fiscal sanity, where lines of credit won't have to be justified as signs of economic strength, what first has to change are the rules of the workplace, rules that can save far more than any current cost-cutting on the business side.

First will come a spending binge unlike any the league has experienced, with the 2010 free-agent free-for-all of LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh and Amare Stoudemire.

Then, on July 1, 2011, ownership can put something in place that just might save themselves from themselves.

Expect a push for several changes from the current collective-bargaining agreement.

More on: LeBron James | NBA free agency

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