Jalen Rose sees ‘residue of slavery’ within NBA and NFL salary caps

Jalen Rose believes there is an element of racism behind the construct of NBA and NFL player salaries that doesn’t exist for sports with more white athletes.

Rose recently joined Fat Joe and Jadakiss for a live episode of their Joe and Jada podcast. And during a discussion about the Fab Five and top college players now being able to earn millions of dollars through NIL, Rose cited the history of leagues attempting to suppress Black athletes from earning the most money possible.

𝗧𝗥𝗘𝗡𝗗𝗜𝗡𝗚: Sports analyst Jalen Rose said only “black-led sports” have salary caps claiming it’s a residue of “slavery” for Black players.

“The only sports to have salary caps are black-led. So that’s Basketball and Football. That’s a residue of slavery.”

😳😳😳 pic.twitter.com/Cib964ftFD

— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) March 9, 2026

“I’ve been talking about this for 30 years,” Rose began. “The only sports that have salary caps are Black-led, first off. So, that’s basketball and football. Those are the only sports with salary caps. Baseball, golf, NASCAR, tennis, you could keep naming, they do not have a salary cap.”

“The second thing is they have no after high school restrictions,” Rose continued. “And so, that’s a residue of slavery, because we’re gonna get money off of you for multiple years for free. There’s no way around it.”

Major League Baseball doesn’t have after-high-school restrictions, but teams do generally control a player for at least six years of Major League service time before they’re eligible for free agency, which conflicts with Rose’s argument. It’s also hard to compare the NBA and NFL salary caps to individual sports such as golf or tennis.

But the glaring issue with this take is that Rose either intentionally glossed over the NHL in his argument, or it was just another example of the old “nobody cares about hockey” complaint. Because the NHL, which is mostly white, has a salary cap. They didn’t have one when Rose started talking about this 30 years ago, but have had one since 2005.

Further, the NHL has a hard cap, unlike the NBA’s soft cap, which owners regularly exceed. The NHL’s salary cap for the 2025-26 season is $95.5 million, while the NBA’s is $154.647 million. Even with that cap, the Cleveland Cavaliers have a payroll of $228 million this season, which is costing them closer to $400 million because of tax penalties.

There are certainly historical examples of league executives and team owners attempting to suppress or take advantage of Black athletes. But if Rose has been making this argument about salary caps for 30 years, it’s surprising no one ever stopped him to ask about the NHL.