AP Source: Union says NBA hasn’t moved in talks
By Brian Mahoney

The NBA players association has told its members that the league has not moved off its original negotiating position, and reiterated to them it would not accept a hard salary cap or the massive salary rollbacks being sought.

The players have received an audio podcast and mailings outlining the owners’ proposal for a new collective bargaining agreement, along with details of a union counterproposal that includes rolling back the draft age requirement to 18, a person with knowledge of its contents told The Associated Press on Wednesday. The person requested anonymity because the contents were not made public.

The players rejected the league’s initial proposal during All-Star weekend in February and delivered their own on July 1, one that the person said was “designed to move the negotiations forward and the union’s intent was to come up with a proposal that addresses the concerns of both sides.”

It even offers to negotiate a reduction in the players’ guarantee of 57 percent of basketball revenues, which Commissioner David Stern has said is a central issue in the negotiations.

Stern said it was too similar to the current system and was rejected, and both sides say there has been little progress since. Union executive director Billy Hunter said last month he was “99 percent sure” there would be a lockout when the CBA expires June 30, 2011.

Stern has said the league wants to cut salary costs by $700 million to $800 million, a reduction of almost 40 percent. The league also wants to eliminate fully guaranteed contracts.

“Our goal remains the same,” NBA spokesman Mike Bass said. “A sustainable business model that encourages teams to make necessary investments and provides the opportunity for all 30 teams to compete for a championship.”

The union also told players that the league seeks to eliminate all exceptions that allow teams to exceed the salary cap and that they “will not agree to a hard cap on the heels of the league generating record revenues year after year.”

The union argues that the current system has largely worked, telling members that with its proposals it is “shifting the responsibility to the teams to make better business decisions.”

The players’ proposal calls for increased revenue sharing, saying small-market teams need relief and it shouldn’t be strictly from the players. They say a “portion of national revenue, plus a meaningful percentage of unshared local revenue should be reallocated.”

Stern has said expanded revenue sharing will come along with a new CBA, but not as a part of it. The league is still determining what model it wants to use, and the union likely will want details of it during negotiations.

Other highlights of the union’s proposal, according to the person:

— Enhanced “trade and signing flexibility,” such as the elimination of base-year compensation and altering the rule requiring salaries in a trade to match within 125 percent when a team is over the cap, which the union says would benefit both sides by making deals easier. The players also seek to reduce the window for teams to match offers to restricted free agents, which is currently a week.

— Rolling back the draft age requirement from 19 to 18, with perhaps a financial incentive for athletes who attend college. The league has been expected to push for a new limit of 20.

— Neutral review of on-court discipline. Players currently can only appeal to an arbitrator for suspensions of more than 12 games. Less than that, the appeal goes to Stern’s office.

— Replacing the biannual exception, worth $2 million, with a second midlevel exception, available to teams each year for the value of the average NBA salary that season ($5.8 million this season), and reducing the maximum length of both midlevels from five years to four.

— A request to negotiate “enhanced pension benefits” for retired players.

*********************

Players union draws line in the sand: no hard salary cap or rollbacks
Kurt Helin

Right now, the negotiations between the owners and the NBA Players Association is a lot of posturing.

In any situation, there needs to be a deadline to spur real negotiations. Technically, for the NBA that deadline is July 1, when the current Collective Bargaining Agreement expires and a lockout would start. In reality, the real deadline is when camps open and then games would start — a loss of Summer League will be forgiven by fans, a loss of regular season games would be a much deeper wound.

So with the knowledge that we are still posturing, we bring you Billy Hunter, executive director of the Players Association, laying out the union’s position and counter offer to the owners in a podcast sent to players (via Howard Beck at the New York Times and Art Garcia at NBA.com).

The big issues were that the union would not accept a hard salary cap nor rollbacks on existing contracts, Hunter told the players.

The union is offering flexibility on the big number — the percentage of Basketball Related Income (BRI) that has to go to the players. Currently the players get 57 percent of that money. What Hunter proposes is that 57 percent is the ceiling but to create a new floor so players could make a smaller percentage of the pie.

The union also offered to loosen trade restrictions — currently teams making a trade have to match salaries within 125 percent, the union wants to double that number. It would make it easier for teams to unload contracts if they so wished.

The union has offered to reduce the maximum length of mid-level exception contract to four years (currently five) but they want a second one.

The players also want the age limit put back down to 18 and for owners to do more increased revenue sharing.

That is all radically different than the owners first offer last All-Star break, which called for a rollback of existing player salaries of more than one-third, a hard salary cap, an elimination of the mid-level and all cap exceptions, and a reduction in the length of guaranteed contracts.

The owners have not submitted a new proposal since then and a number are willing to take a more hardline stance to reverse what they see as a growing financial problem with the league.

Hunter says that with league revenues increasing year after year, there is no need for this kind of radical restructuring. Owners say revenue is not the issue, it’s expenses.

Lockout people. Learn to love it. Or at least tolerate it. Because it is coming.