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I'm not surprised. This is going to go back and forth for awhile.
Union nixes NBA's CBA offer
Mike Monroe
DALLAS — The NBA's collective bargaining talks with its players' union are off to a halting start.
After a meeting that lasted most of the day Friday, National Basketball Players Association executive director Billy Hunter announced that the union had effectively asked the owners, who had brought a formal proposal to the talks, to start over.
“It was agreed at the end that the owners would tear up their proposal,” Hunter said. “That proposal for all intents and purposes is off the table. The players, we'll sit down and sometime in the near future, will put together our idea of what the proposal should or will look like.”
Adam Silver, the NBA's Deputy Commissioner and the head of the league's negotiating team, issued a written response to the NBPA's rejection of the NBA's proposal.
“While we do not agree with the Players Association's characterization of today's meeting or the status of the NBA's bargaining proposal, David (NBA Commissioner David Stern) will address the subject of collective bargaining during his media availability prior to All-Star Saturday night.”
Lakers point guard Derek Fisher, president of the NBPA, characterized the league's proposal as seeking a hard salary cap, something he said the players could not accept.
“What we made clear today is where they are is not relevant to where we are,” Fisher said. “We're not going to begin where they said to begin.”
Hunter stressed that the talks remain contentious, but civil.
“Initially, it was a bit contentious and heated,” Hunter said. “We were pretty forceful in our position. They may have sensed things got out of control a bit because of the nature of the proposal, sort of like they would go for the jugular.”
Tim Duncan, the Spurs' 12-time All-Star, said all players understand the importance of the collective bargaining talks and accept that they are a necessary distraction during All-Star weekend.
“It's not odd at all,” he said. “You understand the situation you're in and you understand it's coming, whether we like it or not. It's something we're going to have to face.”
Duncan said the players who went through the lockout in 1998 are better prepared for potential problems.
“It's definitely a concern,” he said. “A couple of us have been through the last one that came about. Changes were made then, and we understand the owners want to make changes again.
“It's going to be a fight, back and forth, and trying to find a happy medium somewhere.”
I'm not surprised. This is going to go back and forth for awhile.
Actually, I see VERY little negotiation going on until the owners lock out the players, they have money coming in, and the players don't. Everything before that will be posturing. Everything after will be actual negotiation.
If the players and owners are dumb enough to get into a work stoppage with the current economic client, then they deserve whatever negative press comes to them..
Idiots.
It's going to happen with both the NFL and the NBA, and at the same time: fall 2011.
If it does, I hope the stadiums come back bareass empty.
The owners are determined to be absolute assholes this time around. Who's fault is it they sign all these lousy contracts? Their own damn fault.
They've got the edge, thanks to the networks. The owners will have TV revenues coming in from the networks during the shortage. They can pay their fixed costs like employees and arena rent, equipment etc. The players will not have revenue streams during that time. Since negotiation is a game of give and take, and the owners have no incentive to "give", they'll impose their wills after the players are locked out. It'll only be a matter of time before the rank and file, the "little guys" making minimum, or close to it, have the votes to accept the owners contract, and get back to work.
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.”
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