Union: NBA tears up proposal after heated meeting

[duncan228]

Union: NBA tears up proposal after heated meeting
By Brian Mahoney

The executive director of the NBA players’ association said Friday the league tore up its proposal for a new collective bargaining agreement after a “contentious” 90-minute session.

But Billy Hunter said that doesn’t mean the league is closer to a lockout when the current deal expires on July 1, 2011.

“No, I think that everybody has a different sense of things and nobody wants to see this thing that David Stern has worked and built, the NBA, the successful en y that it is, the brand, we’re not out to damage it or destroy it,” Hunter said after a press conference.

“So we’re going to make every effort to get an agreement done, we just want an agreement that’s a lot more equitable and one that doesn’t have a structure that’s oppressive.”

Hunter said the union will submit its own proposal, but offered no timetable for when that would happen. He’s in no rush, since the players believe the current system is working for both sides, and it doesn’t expire for another 16 months.

The sides met Friday, with negotiators for the players fortified by the presence of All-Stars such as LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony and Kevin Garnett, who came to the meeting instead of attending the community service events they were scheduled for. A number of top players vowed earlier in the day to get more involved in the process.

“We should be involved,” Anthony said before the meeting. “It’s not only going to affect the players with the lesser contracts, it’s going to affect us, too.

“When you walk into one of those meetings, one of those CBA meetings, and you see myself, you see the LeBrons and the Kobes and the Kevin Garnetts, it’s a stronger presence. So I think we should go in and make our presence felt.”

Hunter said the union received the proposal on Jan. 29. It calls for dramatic financial changes, with Hunter saying the league seeks a “hard” salary cap which would eliminate the Bird and midlevel exceptions that teams over the cap can use to sign players if they are willing to pay a luxury tax.

Los Angeles Lakers guard Derek Fisher, the union president, said the players made clear there was “not any way that we were going to be able to use (the proposal) as a starting point for future collective bargaining negotiations.”

[milkshakeballa]

Union: NBA tears up proposal after heated meeting
By Brian Mahoney

The executive director of the NBA players’ association said Friday the league tore up its proposal for a new collective bargaining agreement after a “contentious” 90-minute session.

But Billy Hunter said that doesn’t mean the league is closer to a lockout when the current deal expires on July 1, 2011.

“No, I think that everybody has a different sense of things and nobody wants to see this thing that David Stern has worked and built, the NBA, the successful en y that it is, the brand, we’re not out to damage it or destroy it,” Hunter said after a press conference.

“So we’re going to make every effort to get an agreement done, we just want an agreement that’s a lot more equitable and one that doesn’t have a structure that’s oppressive.”

Hunter said the union will submit its own proposal, but offered no timetable for when that would happen. He’s in no rush, since the players believe the current system is working for both sides, and it doesn’t expire for another 16 months.

The sides met Friday, with negotiators for the players fortified by the presence of All-Stars such as LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony and Kevin Garnett, who came to the meeting instead of attending the community service events they were scheduled for. A number of top players vowed earlier in the day to get more involved in the process.

“We should be involved,” Anthony said before the meeting. “It’s not only going to affect the players with the lesser contracts, it’s going to affect us, too.

“When you walk into one of those meetings, one of those CBA meetings, and you see myself, you see the LeBrons and the Kobes and the Kevin Garnetts, it’s a stronger presence. So I think we should go in and make our presence felt.”

Hunter said the union received the proposal on Jan. 29. It calls for dramatic financial changes, with Hunter saying the league seeks a “hard” salary cap which would eliminate the Bird and midlevel exceptions that teams over the cap can use to sign players if they are willing to pay a luxury tax.

Los Angeles Lakers guard Derek Fisher, the union president, said the players made clear there was “not any way that we were going to be able to use (the proposal) as a starting point for future collective bargaining negotiations.”

I understand his position and all bout his use of the word oppresive disgusts me.....these guys are getting MILLIONS...nothing oppressive bout that...

[Fpoonsie]

I understand his position and all bout his use of the word oppresive disgusts me.....these guys are getting MILLIONS...nothing oppressive bout that...

Careful, balla, lest you forget that a LOT of these players "have their families to feed."

[wijayas]

“We should be involved,” Anthony said before the meeting. “It’s not only going to affect the players with the lesser contracts, it’s going to affect us, too.”

The Carmelos, the Lebrons, the Kobes will make a million less. And they complain abut it. Many of us here make the minimum wage and support these millionaires.

[silverblk mystix]

i would also scrutinize the owners and their profits---not only the players and their high salaries.
I don't believe greed exists on only one side.

[boutons_deux]

Pull a St Ronnie, and fire all the players.

Management's war on employees, who are nothing but costs to reduced to a minimum, is accepted, preferred business practice.

Any savings the management realizes will go straight into their pockets, not into reducing fans' exorbitant, punishing ticket prices.

"It's (Just Another) Business", not a basketball game.

[BlackSwordsMan]

Guess we're watching that all white basketball club next year on TNT

[MiamiHeat]

They need to add stipulations that lower ticket prices.

[TheManFromAcme]

Team loyalties aside, screw NBA players. There are countless of scientists and people in medical research sticking their hands out for research money and we have these bafoons who want millions and millions to bounce a leather ball. Screw that. The NBA is a business period. No different from what any of us do as a job. Go ahead and tell your boss you demand more money because you feel your skills warrant it. He will either tell you he will or to take a hike.

Call me wierd, but in all seriousness folks, what have we made these players into? It's our fault these guys demand this kind of money.
I'd venture to say most of us in here could live semi-lavishly with about 250K a year.

This is stupid. Go owners. I am behind you.

[ChrisRichards]

Team loyalties aside, screw NBA players. There are countless of scientists and people in medical research sticking their hands out for research money and we have these bafoons who want millions and millions to bounce a leather ball. Screw that. The NBA is a business period. No different from what any of us do as a job. Go ahead and tell your boss you demand more money because you feel your skills warrant it. He will either tell you he will or to take a hike.

Call me wierd, but in all seriousness folks, what have we made these players into? It's our fault these guys demand this kind of money.
I'd venture to say most of us in here could live semi-lavishly with about 250K a year.

This is stupid. Go owners. I am behind you.

Why should NBA players give more money to its owners?

[TheManFromAcme]

NBA owners sell a product. The product is the game of basketball. The employees are the players.

In essence WE all, through our employment, assist our repective employers in making a profit. It's called employment and as an employee you are tool in achieving that.

Look, this isn't complicated. If as a salesman I am salaried as opposed to straight up commission and I make the compay 5 million dollars thats my job. I was hired to do that up front.

Not hard to understand at all.
Screw unions. I've always thought they've been an ubstruction to free enterprise.

You don't like the working conditions and pay?......Go somewhere else.

[benefactor]

The are going to have to find a way to meet in the middle somewhere with the cap. There is no way in the union is going to agree to a hard cap that eliminates the Bird exception and the MLE. Perhaps they could go with a hard cap that is certain amount above the tax line. For example, the cap this year is 57.7 million and the tax line is 69.9 million. They could keep those, but set a hard cap at 80 million. Just a thought.

[Dex]

Sounds like this is going well.

[DUNCANownsKOBE2]

Pro sports in general is going to have a real problem recovering if both the NBA and NFL wind up locking out in 2011, in particular the NBA.

[ElNono]

NBA owners sell a product. The product is the game of basketball. The employees are the players.

In essence WE all, through our employment, assist our repective employers in making a profit. It's called employment and as an employee you are tool in achieving that.

Look, this isn't complicated. If as a salesman I am salaried as opposed to straight up commission and I make the compay 5 million dollars thats my job. I was hired to do that up front.

Not hard to understand at all.
Screw unions. I've always thought they've been an ubstruction to free enterprise.

You don't like the working conditions and pay?......Go somewhere else.

If owners don't like the union, then they're free to fire all the players (employees) and start over with non-unionized players.
I don't see where's the obstruction to free enterprise, really.

The problem for the owners is that they get a load of their revenue by putting certain players on a pedestal, and implicitly giving them outstanding bargaining power.

And players that didn't like working conditions and pay have gone somewhere else already... Josh Childress comes to mind.

[TheManFromAcme]

If owners don't like the union, then they're free to fire all the players (employees) and start over with non-unionized players.
I don't see where's the obstruction to free enterprise, really.

The problem for the owners is that they get a load of their revenue by putting certain players on a pedestal, and implicitly giving them outstanding bargaining power.

And players that didn't like working conditions and pay have gone somewhere else already... Josh Childress comes to mind.

That's the thing Nono, it's not a problem nor should it be. They're the owners. It's theirs (the team). They should do whatever they want, literaly, and I mean that.

I am going to be and will always be hard pressed to root for any basketball player that claims $1,000,000 a year is not enough to live on and on top of that players that have double digit I.Q.'s and have the smarts of Forrest Gump and still have the cojones to "insist on more millions"?

Give me a break.

btw, thanks for pointing out my sp on Obstruction. I just type way to damn fast.

[pauls931]

Best solution is for people to stop buying tickets, or the expensive ones and leave courtside seats empty. Stop buying overpriced nba gear. You gotta hit them both in the wallet.

[duncan228]

Stern: NBA projects $400 million in losses
By Brian Mahoney

David Stern said Saturday the NBA is projecting league-wide losses of about $400 million this season and has lost hundreds of millions in each previous year of the current collective bargaining agreement.

The commissioner said it has shown the players’ association those numbers in hopes of demonstrating why the league feels it needs “significant changes” in the next deal.

The NBA’s first proposal for a deal to replace the one that expires in July 2011 was thrown out Friday after what players association director Billy Hunter called a “contentious” 90-minute meeting. Hunter said the proposal called for harsh changes that would affect every NBA player.

“The right adjectives were thrown around, and our proposal appropriately denounced. Our response is, ‘You can denounce it, tear it up, you can burn it, you can jump up and down on it, as long as you understand that it reflects the financial realities of where we are,”’ Stern said during his annual All-Star press conference.

“And if you would like to have your own proposal, as long as it comes back and deals with our financial realities, that’s OK with us. That’s fine with us. In fact, that’s what we would like to do.”

Stern criticized the union’s behavior at the session, saying it earned “high marks on the list of theatrical negotiations.” He revealed that the players’ side brought in a lawyer who threatened that the union would be decertified, making negotiating more difficult.

He also had sharp words for his own side, denouncing anonymous comments made by team executives that served to inflame the bargaining process.

“If you know me, and you know our owners, that’s not what we do. That’s not us. And the players were upset with those quotes, which I find cowardly, if they were actually said,” Stern said. “And if I ever found out who said them, they would be dealt with; they would be former, former NBA people, not current. And we assured the stars of that.”

[Double-Up]

Hard cap is the way to go...4 year max length...and overall lower max salary. It will happen after the lockup that much I'm sure about.

[ffadicted]

I agree with a hard cap and lower maximums, you'd see a much more even playing field in the league, and less of these stupid pick ups by contenders from scrub teams wanting to save cash (ala jefferson/gasol/butler/etc...)

[BRHornet45]

LOL at these greedy, bags (Lebron, Melo, Garnett) who have nothing more than high school diplomas for education acting as if they know something about negotiating labor deals.

[Lakers2009champs]

Basically some of these players are saying THE FANS. What they don't know is that their are more talented unknown players all over the WORLD that wish that they can play in the NBA. I hope these selfish s get taught a lesson in 2011.

I can see the Headlines now, Certain NBA players REPLACED.

Half of them are always injured anyway lol.

[baseline bum]

NBA owners sell a product. The product is the game of basketball. The employees are the players.

In essence WE all, through our employment, assist our repective employers in making a profit. It's called employment and as an employee you are tool in achieving that.

Look, this isn't complicated. If as a salesman I am salaried as opposed to straight up commission and I make the compay 5 million dollars thats my job. I was hired to do that up front.

Not hard to understand at all.
Screw unions. I've always thought they've been an ubstruction to free enterprise.

You don't like the working conditions and pay?......Go somewhere else.

that . The players are the league. LMFAO that you're ing about the players getting in the way of free markets when you have owners in collusion that have successfully capped player compensation and limited player movement. The NBA is anything but a free market, so quit living in your Reaganesque neoliberal fantasy world.

[baseline bum]

Basically some of these players are saying THE FANS. What they don't know is that their are more talented unknown players all over the WORLD that wish that they can play in the NBA.

ROFL. Like who?

[Findog]

This is stupid. Go owners. I am behind you.

I bet you're a big fan of Goldman Sachs too. The NBA wants to partially guarantee contracts like the NFL. If I'm the players, I'm not giving that up.