NBA players Union is a great example of how top performers get penalized. The Max contracts that the union agrees to is why top players are underpaid versus what they could command absent that, with most of the bench being overpaid.

Is there any evidence the highest-paid players in the NBA themselves want to get rid of their union? I.e, do you claim this is empirically verifiable?

Or, is this a hypothetical, rational-actor thought experiment you're conducting?