Pershelle Rohrer The National Basketball Association, or NBA, has a power imbalance created by the salary cap. The NBA currently runs on a soft cap system, which gives teams a flexible cap to work with when signing players. The league sets a cap level and luxury tax level, and if a team’s salary exceeds the tax level, they will receive a financial penalty. Teams are not penalized for exceeding the salary cap as long as they stay below the tax level. For the 2018-2019 season, the salary cap is set at $101.869 million, and the tax level is at $123.733 million. The NBA is the world’s premier basketball league that attracts the best players from around the globe. The league has a worldwide following because of international fan favorites like Giannis Antetokounmpo and Ben Simmons, as well as American stars, including LeBron James, Chris Paul, and Stephen Curry. The league’s top players typically have salaries that take up a good portion of a team’s salary cap, and the best teams typically have multiple all-stars that are paid at a high level. For the past four seasons, the NBA was dominated by the Cleveland Cavaliers and Golden State Warriors. The Cavs, led by LeBron James, and the Warriors, built around Steph Curry, played in four straight NBA Finals, with Golden State winning three championships. According to Spotrac, in the 2017-2018 season, the Cavs and Warriors had the highest payrolls in the NBA and were both over $36 million over the salary cap, which was set at $99.093 million with a tax line of $119.266 million. Photo Credit: Cleveland.com The Warriors paid so much for their starting five players – Steph Curry, Kevin Durant, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green, and Andre Iguodala – that they were $9.63 million over the salary cap, excluding the other two thirds of the players on the team. Golden State finished their season $16.016 million over the tax line, which resulted in an extra $34.475 million in penalties paid back to the NBA. In the end, Golden State spend just under $170 million to field a team of fifteen players last season. The Cleveland Cavaliers were worse. The Cleveland starting five of LeBron James, Kevin Love, George Hill, Tristan Thompson, and JR Smith were paid a combined $106.088 million last season – nearly $7 million more than the salary cap allows – and spent $16.667 million over the tax line. While their total payroll was nearly identical to Golden State’s, Cleveland had to pay almost $51 million in luxury tax due to an additional penalty for them paying luxury tax for at least four of the last five seasons. Their fifteen-man roster cost them $186.815 million for the season. In 2017-2018, the soft salary cap, set at $99.093 million, was exceeded by $87.722 million by the Cavaliers. The payroll of the lowest spending team was $90.106 million, a number set by the Chicago Bulls who only won 27 games. The NBA’s top teams are often the ones who spend the most money, and this power imbalance needs to be countered by implementing a hard salary cap to prevent some teams from spending practically $100 million more creating their roster than others. Having a soft cap essentially functions as having no cap if a team is willing to pay the extra penalties. The soft salary cap functions as a guideline rather than a mandate, and there is not a penalty for exceeding it until a team hits the tax line, which is currently over $20 million over the salary cap. There is a strong correlation between spending and record, as well as talent. For the 2017-18 season, just seven teams were under the salary cap. The Indiana Pacers were the lone team under the cap to make the playoffs, and the other six – Chicago, Phoenix, Orlando, Brooklyn, Dallas, and Sacramento – had a combined record of 152-340. On the other end of the spectrum, four teams exceeded the luxury tax line. These teams – Washington, Oklahoma City, Golden State, and Cleveland – all made the playoffs, combining for 206 wins and just 122 losses. They also had ten all stars combined, according to nba.com. Only one team under the salary cap, Indiana, had an all star. The teams with the strongest record spent the most money, and the teams who stayed under the cap were among the worst in the league last season. Therefore, the teams unwilling or unable to spend money over the salary cap suffer due to their inability to attract talent. A hard salary cap is inflexible, giving teams a maximum budget to spend on their fifteen-man roster. Teams like the Cavaliers and Warriors would be incapable of spending over $100 million on five players, forcing them to pay each player much less or have one superstar instead of multiple. Other teams like the Chicago Bulls and Phoenix Suns would then be able to compete for a superstar player. Separating the talent out evenly would allow the league to begin to balance out and have many talented teams instead of a couple superteams at the top of each conference and a larger portion of teams that can’t compete. The formation of superteams has increased TV ratings and revenue for the NBA, which have made the sport more popular in recent years. In 2017, LeBron James said, “Is it fair? I don’t care. I think it’s great. . . Our fans are loving the game.” Fans of these superteams have enjoyed watching their teams constantly make the playoffs, but teams like the Utah Jazz, who have had recent success, are unable to take the next step to win championships due to their smaller source of revenue in a small market. The teams who have more ability to pay should not be able to spend tens of millions of dollars that other teams don’t have and never will get. The NBA needs to implement a hard salary cap to restore the balance of power in the league and allow competition from all 30 teams.
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Emery Kent
By: Dylan McCuskey, Features Editor Last month, one of the giants of science fiction writing passed away. Ursula K. Le Guin was one of the most influential authors of her time. She was unafraid to write about controversial subjects, such as gender, religion, and sexuality. She also often addressed human characteristics in her work, such as desires and flaws in our nature. These influential works were inspired by other famous authors such as J.R.R. Tolkien and Virginia Woolf. Novels such as The Left Hand of Darkness and The Lathe of Heaven perfectly embody the themes that Le Guin attempts to address. The Left Hand of Darkness, published in 1969, is set in a different galaxy from our own. The story follows the adventures of Genly Ai, a man who is an ambassador on a foreign planet. The residents of this planet, called Gethen, do not have a fixed gender. They call themselves “ambisexual.” This creates a barrier between Genly Ai and them, as he doesn’t understand their ambisexual culture. Le Guin is trying to show the fluidity of gender and sexuality through this novel. The Gethen can change their gender and sexuality to be whatever they want, which is how she believes society should be. This was a controversial theme during her time, and continues to be controversial today. However, Le Guin addresses this by displaying the difficulties Genly Ai has in understanding their culture. She is saying that not everyone will accept fluidity, but that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t exist. These are important issues, and Le Guin addresses them brilliantly in The Left Hand of Darkness. Le Guin’s other famous novel, The Lathe of Heaven, was published in 1971. This novel is about a man, named George Orr, who has dreams that become reality. His psychiatrist, Dr. Haber, tries to use Orr’s ability to help the world. However, most things Orr dreams come true with a catch. For example, when Haber wants Orr to make a racism-free world, everyone becomes the same shade of light gray. Eventually, the power goes to Haber’s head, and he starts to ask Orr to dream things that only benefit him. This book delves into the nature of human desire and how easily humans can become corrupted. Although Haber starts off with good intentions, he soon is corrupted by the power at his fingertips. Le Guin wants her readers to realize that human nature is easily corrupted. Ursula K. Le Guin has greatly impacted our world today with her work. She addressed important social issues like gender and sexuality fluidity and corruption of human nature. For her work, she received much recognition, including the Medal of Distinguished Contribution to American Letters and her induction into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame. Le Guin also inspired many other famous authors, such as Salman Rushdie, David Mitchell, and Neil Gaiman. Although Le Guin is no longer with us, her works continue to influence both current science fiction literature and our modern world. By: David Vasquez, Staff Writer
"IT" Director: Andrés Muschietti Cast: Bill Skarsgard, Sophia Lillis, Finn Wolfhard, and Jaeden Lieberher The director of this film, Andrés Muschietti, has brought Stephan King’s horror novel that inspired the 1990 T.V. movie “IT” to the big screen. Bill Denbrough (Jaeden Lieberher) has lost his little brother after a rainy day and he is determined to find him no matter the cost. He and his six other friends, who are social outcasts, go on a journey through the sewers of Derry, Maine to find his lost brother, but instead find something horrifying. They had entered into the home of the demonic serial killer clown, Pennywise, portrayed by Bill Skarsgard. The film’s actors all fit their parts beautifully and any actor that would have been any different would’ve tremendously affected the film. The characters make you feel as if you were part of their club. Parts in the film have immature humor and may offend any parent with their kids watching, but will still make the parents chuckle at times. The best part is the excitement during the film. Anyone watching the film in theaters can feel the adrenaline and hear nothing as they wait to see what happens next. Even watching the film alone, if you can, may leave you holding your breath throughout the movie in each unknown scene and leaves you just wanting more. If you want to have a great Halloween, sleepover, or just a great scare with a few laughs the 2017 film will provide you with it and is totally worth the time watching it. The movie was successful in theaters and the movie is now available to buy to own or rent online, so there is practically no reason to not watch the movie, unless you’re just really scared of clowns. Reminder though: The movie is rated R so it’s not suitable for everyone so be aware about certain terrifying scenes. By: Emanuel Abebe, News Editor The protesting of pro-athletes started during the national anthem before the football games. Before going in furthermore the protest was started by one particular individual, a quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers, Collin Kaepernick. He kneeled during the national anthems for what he believed was right. Despite the fact that we think we live in a just society he protested against the system and the fact that colored people weren’t being treated equally, or justly, or fairly. For his actions, he lost his contract with the 49ers, and later became a full-on activist for equality. Currently pro-athletes, coaches, trainer, team owners, and even the gaming commissioners came hand in hand regardless of race, color, religion or ethnicity and protested against this events by taking a knee during the nation anthem. Despite many people are against this action players and other iconic figures that have the power to share light on important incidents to the mass of the people are taking matters into their own hand and protesting in a non-violent and safe way. By Brianna Gardner, Student Contributer
In 2015, laptops were introduced to Logan High School. These laptops were designed to improve the quality and quantity of education that students at LHS received. But are these laptops truly helping students and teachers? Based on my findings, the answer is yes. Laptops distributed at Logan High School have assisted in making teaching and learning more enjoyable as well as beneficial. First, let’s talk about the laptop itself. The laptops distributed to students are MacBook Air’s. They are lightweight, have good hardware specifications, and have a decent battery life. They are easy to use and most problems are easy to fix. However, they are also easy to break, and need a lot of updates. Students at Logan High were extremely excited when they heard the news of the laptops. “I was excited to be able to have something that made me feel like I had responsibility. I was also excited to watch Netflix!” said student Lacey Erickson. In her statement, we find one of the major problems found with laptop distribution at LHS. Students do not always use them to do work or learn. However, when asked about the percentage of time that they spend on their laptop not doing something related to school work, most students said that they tend to do their work and focus before letting themselves do something like play a game. Additionally, on a poll asking whether students thought that laptops were helpful or hurtful to their education, 33 students said they were helpful while 9 students said that they were hurtful. If this trend were to remain constant with all of the students, it would mean that 22% of students believe that laptops are hurtful towards their education. When asked if laptops were beneficial to student’s education, Mark Rugg, the head of the IT department at LHS says “Boy that’s a hard question. If they use it properly, it is helpful. But there are kids out there who abuse them. We see it every day.” To further explain “abuse” of laptops, he says “playing games, watching Netflix or YouTube, trying to get to porn sites, um, not using it for the purpose, which is education. The laptops are a great resource to use as furthering their education, but some students do not recognize it.” There have been many times that the techs at Logan High have had to assist in suspending or even expelling students for inappropriate use of their laptops. Whether is be watching or possessing pornography, or selling drugs online, the IT department deals with it all. Not only do the techs at Logan High have to deal with situations like this, they also spend a gross amount of time assembling and distributing them. “Michael Nelson spent his whole summer at Logan High, 8 hours a day, 40 hours a week getting laptops ready. From the time they get turned in, to the time we distribute them, we spend hundreds and hundreds of hours working with them. I was working 12 hour days.” Marie Rugg, Mark’s wife says “Well, it provides him with a job, and he did spend the same amount of time working on other things at the school.” There are many different ways to look at the time spent on laptop distribution, but in the end, Mark says “it is worth it for the education the students are receiving.” At the beginning of the year, students pay $50 to insure their laptop. They also sign a Responsible Use Agreement. On www.loganhigh.org, it says the following: “Students and parents will be required to attend a training session and sign required paperwork before being issued a school laptop. Dates of trainings will be announced through Parent Link and a phone call. It is the student’s responsibility to bring their laptop device charged every day to school. It is also the student’s responsibility to read and sign the Logan High School (LHS) Responsible Use Agreement before they can acquire a laptop for use with the 1 to 1 program at LHS. Students who choose to not participate in the insurance program are required to check in their laptop daily and may NOT take the laptop off school property.” If a student takes a laptop home, and the IT department locks their computer. They have a software that will tell them if a laptop has been returned. When they lock the laptop, it forces the student to bring it to the IT department to have it unlocked. During this process, the tech department talks to the student to figure out why the student took it home. If it happens too frequently, they will be issued a chrome book that must be returned every day. Laptop distribution does not just happen at Logan High. In fact, according to thejournal.com, one-third of the schools in the US use school-issued mobile devices. Cache County School District has not distributed laptops to their high schoolers, but they do have technology available to them during the school day. In their elementary schools, they use iPads. At River Heights elementary, they use iPads in classrooms almost daily. Jack Rugg, a second grade student at RHE, says “we do reflex, lexia, and core5 on the iPads every day. They have fun games you can unlock in a few days. It’s easy if you know about it. It teaches you a lot. I like both the iPads and my teacher teaching me. If I had to choose, it would be all iPads.” Technology is being used in schools almost everywhere, and students are mostly loving it. With all the issues that seem to pop up with the distribution of laptops, they all seem to get solved. If student’s are using them improperly, student’s can ask them to put them away just like cell phones. If a student is doing something inappropriate, the will most likely be found out. While some students use their laptops for things other than education, the ratio between use of laptops for education and fun seems to balance out. Laptops are beneficial to education, and Logan High as well as other schools in our city have taken a big step by implementing the use of laptops into their curriculum. By Elizabeth Needham
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January 2019
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