David Berri

The blog post originally appeared on Freakonomics.com

Matthew Yglesias recently noted that the very rich are unhappy with President Obama because he would like to increase the taxes on the very rich. Although this might be true, the number of people unhappy with...

This post originally appeared on Freakonomics.com

Here is how the Associated Press led the story describing the Miami Heat's elimination of the New York Knicks in the 2012 NBA Playoffs:

The final horn sounded, and LeBron James wrapped his arms around Carmelo Anthony in a warm...

This post originally appeared on Freakonomics.com

If you have been watching the NBA recently -- and with the playoffs going on, you should be -- you may have seen the following ad for Sprint:

The article was originally published on Freakonomics.com

When we think of money and college sports, we tend to think only about basketball and football. In fact, defenders of the excesses we see in those sports -- with respect to salaries to coaches and university expenditures -- argue that...

This piece has been crossposted from Freakonomics.com

The Portland Trail Blazers -- a team that won 48 games in 2010-11 and was only three games below .500 this season -- made two puzzling trades a couple of weeks ago. Gerald Wallace was sent to the New...

Here are some numbers to ponder:

• This season (as of Wednesday night) Monta Ellis averages 21.9 points per game, a mark that ranks 9th in the NBA.
• Carmelo Anthony (again, as of Wednesday night) averages 21.3 points per game, a mark that ranks 12th in the NBA (of all players...

DeMarcus Cousins has demanded a trade from the Sacramento Kings. Or maybe he didn't demand a trade. Certainly he has made his employers somewhat unhappy with his behavior, behavior that people argue goes back to high school.

Before I offer some thoughts on Cousins' behavior,...

So far, the biggest game of the 2011 college football season was when the Alabama Crimson Tide hosted the LSU Tigers. The game featured the top two ranked college football teams and was played before a sold-out stadium. It was also watched by 11.5 percent of all households...

Although it's unclear when the latest labor dispute between players and owners in the National Basketball Association will end, it's very clear that the owners will ultimately win. How can we be so sure?

Essentially this is an old fashioned stick-up.

The last Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) gave 43%...

A few weeks ago I offered a post linking two apparently different demands. Currently the NBA would like its players to accept lower salaries. And perhaps from the beginning of time, rich people would like to pay less in taxes. Both of these demands are framed as follows:...

Imagine you are a rich person who desires even more money. You could just boldly ask people to give you more cash. But many might suspect that you don't "need" the money -- or at least, you don't need the money more than they need the money -- and therefore...

The 30 owners of the National Basketball Association have told the players to take a substantial pay cut. And if the players don't agree, these players are not going to be playing in the NBA for a long time. Which means fans of the NBA are not going to see...

NFL players recently scored a significant victory in their labor dispute with the NFL owners when U.S. District Judge Susan Richard Nelson ordered an immediate end to the lockout. Although this decision has subsequently been blocked by a higher court, for a brief moment in time it looked...

According to Mayor Kevin Johnson, it is becoming increasingly likely that the Sacramento Kings will depart Northern California for Anaheim. The final decision, though, has not been made. So while we wait, it might be a good idea to look at how we have come so close to...

On paper, we are the best team in the League. We are deep and athletic. All we have to do is play to our abilities.

Such were the words of Rodney Stuckey before the season started. Yes, before the season started, the starting point guard for the Detroit...

Should Derrick Rose be the NBA's Most Valuable Player this year?

Not surprisingly, the local media in Chicago thinks Rose is a candidate. And Rick Reilly of ESPN.com agrees. In the Reilly article, we learn that Rose also thinks he should be MVP. There is even...

Back in 2005, the Utah Jazz held the third pick in the NBA draft. John Stockton had retired after the 2002-03 season, so it was clear the Jazz needed a point guard. And two point guards were considered potential choices: Deron Williams from Illinois and Chris Paul from Wake Forest.

Jerry West - the NBA's Logo and an architect of a few NBA title teams in LA -- argued last week that the current Lakers have a problem on defense.

...(West) said the Lakers are "getting long in the tooth" and drew a correlation between the team's...

Who are the least efficiently run teams in basketball (i.e. the teams who spend the most wastefully above the luxury tax threshold)?

This is the question Michele Steele -- the Sports Business reporter at Bloomberg Television -- asked me on Monday.

The answer to this question was reported...

There was no doubt Newton would win the Heisman. Whether he gets to keep it is still uncertain. These two sentences - from the Associated Press - introduce us to the controversy surrounding Cam Newton.

There was little debate among voters regarding who was the "best" player in...