| July, 2011 |
| In the crusade of public opinion during the early days and weeks of the NBA lockout, the league has stridently defended its position that players must capitulate to its salary demands because the league is drowning in red ink. CBS Sports |
| The only thing the NBA has clutched more dearly than its talking points about devising a system that allows "all 30 teams to compete for a championship and make a profit" is the actual financial data proving its argument. CBS Sports |
League officials have released lengthy, point-by-point rebuttals each time their figures  are questioned, saying the documents turned over to the National Basketball Players Association prove that the league is sustaining "substantial and indisputable losses" -- $300 million last season and a whopping $1.845 billion during the six seasons of the collective bargaining agreement that expired on July 1. But the NBA has resisted the notion that publicly releasing the financial statements would end the debate and bolster its position that player costs must come down dramatically. CBS Sports |
| It's almost as though the documents would reveal, say, the purchase of an $87,000 Zamboni for a new arena that doesn't even house a hockey team. And, in fact, one such expense was incurred by the city of Orlando and the Magic as part of the $480 million cost of a publicly financed playpen known as Amway Center. CBS Sports |
| No wonder the players didn't cave by the July 1 deadline for a new CBA to be reached, resulting in a lockout that has shut down the league and threatening the 2011-12 season. CBS Sports |
| The NBPA maintains that a substantial portion of the owners' stated losses consists of non-operating expenses such as interest and depreciation, which resulted from purchasing the teams or building/renovating their arenas. The players should not bear the burden of these expenses, the union says, because they do not receive a cut of the equity when teams are sold. CBS Sports |
| According to sources close to the situation, the National Basketball Players Association is planning a series of player sessions in as many as six cities over "the next month or so," as a way to help with its planning during the lockout and update players on the state of negotiations with the NBA. Unless things unexpectedly change, there won't be much to report on that front. SI.com |
| While the details of the player meetings have not been set, the possible cities in which they will take place include Atlanta, Los Angeles, Houston, New York and Chicago, among others. The sessions -- which will involve Hunter and other staff members -- will be a discussion on lockout life and how best to handle it, with topics ranging from players' health insurance to the overseas option that continues to evolve. SI.com |
| As the NBA lockout heads into a fourth week, a former Blazers executive warns the labor dispute could make the NFL’s four-month lockout look like child’s play. “If the NFL is a badly sprained ankle, the NBA is a torn ACL, a microfracture and a ruptured Achilles,” says Tom Penn, who now works for ESPN as a salary cap expert. KATU.com |
| Penn says owners are so committed to change in the labor agreement, that he predicts there’s at least a 75 percent to 80 percent chance the NBA misses at least part of its season. And missing the entire season? Penn believes that’s a possibility. KATU.com |
| “More so than ever, I think the owners are (more) focused on the next ten years than the next ten months,” Penn said. “And that’s critical because people say how did we get here? How did it get so bad? And it’s because when it comes to deal-making time, the owners have typically said let’s get the deal because of how it’s going to affect business in the next ten months. They’ve talked about how this is an investment in the future to get it right. And they’re willing to lose a whole season if they have to. I hate to say it, but they’re aligned in this.” KATU.com |
| As the NFL wrapped up its lengthy off-season collective-bargaining battle, the NBA's lockout of its players continued Tuesday with no progress in sight. "If there's one thing us labor lawyers know -- and the public will see in this [NBA] case -- there's nothing like the prospect of deadlines, in this case, missing games, that forces action," said Seth Borden, a partner in employment and labor law for the Washington, D.C.-based firm McKenna Long and Aldridge. The NBA regular season isn't scheduled to begin until Nov. 1, so expect a slow summer. Los Angeles Times |
| "The best thing the union can do is get clarity on the actual profits and losses of these teams," said Dan Lazaroff, a Loyola Law School professor who specializes in sports labor matters. "The springboard would be in convincing players they are losing money." Los Angeles Times |
| The owners also need to resolve among themselves the issue of increased revenue sharing. Stern wants the league to triple its revenue-sharing pool to help smaller-market teams. That would help offset the imbalance of local television deals, with cash cows such as the Lakers about to enjoy a Time-Warner Cable deal that could be worth $3 billion over 20 years. "You might get some blowback from teams like the Lakers on that, but the players want [increased revenue-sharing] too, and if the future of the league is at stake … you need a healthy league to be a successful big-market team," Lazaroff said. Los Angeles Times |
| But for the most powerful and influential stars in a sport that is locked out, I wonder what all of these appearances, globe-trotting promotional tours and threats of signing with rinky-dink overseas teams are doing for the strength and resolve of the players association and its ability to unleash strong, meaningful voices against the owners' demands. Why have the loudest voices in the sport suddenly gone silent? CBSSports.com |
| "They should be talking about how horrible the owners' deal is and how little it's changed over two years of negotiations," one prominent player agent said. "The deal's horrific. It's draconian in what they're trying to do. I would be emphasizing that as much as possible. That I don't get; I would think they would just be hammering every chance they get." Instead, they're traveling the world selling shoes and apparel, tweeting about the Cowboys and emitting glorious twitpics of their view of the Pacific Ocean during breakfast. CBSSports.com |
| The NFL lockout was a different animal altogether, and the two sports are beyond comparison in many ways. But it was instructive to observe Monday, when the NFL lockout ended, how unity and leadership among the players in that sport went such a long way toward getting a fair labor deal that forced the owners to reopen their industry. CBSSports.com |
| In a winding career, however, Hunter has traveled to all sorts of far-flung stops to get to where he is now, in his office in the heart of Harlem, on top of Marcus Samuelsson's new eatery, just a few buildings down past Sylvia's. Grantland |
This is where Hunter, the longtime executive director of the National Basketball Players  Association, stages his second stare down with the NBA and commissioner David Stern. Four years ago, when Hunter and Gary Hall, working on behalf of the union, met with Stern and Adam Silver, Stern suggested phasing in a new labor deal that would help all of the league's owners turn a profit on their investment. Hunter said he left with the impression that the league would lock the players out if the requests were not fully met. Grantland |
| Since that meeting, neither side has blinked. There is no end in sight to a lockout that is nearing a month in duration. Despite an uptick in basketball-related income from $3.64 billion to $3.82 billion, league-wide losses were expected to exceed $300 million, a figure the union disputes. Grantland |
| After the 2007 meeting, Hunter said he started prepping players for the inevitability of a lockout. "[Stern has] pretty much followed [his original] road map," Hunter said, as he leaned back in his chair. On a whiteboard behind his head, figures and proposals from both sides had been written up in black marker. "I was convinced when he told me then that he would do it, so I started to prepare the players." Grantland |
| Hunter says the owners are asking for the same concessions they asked for 13 years ago: a hard salary cap, shorter and reduced salaries, and a better split on basketball related income. "They are trying to do the same thing here that they did in the case of the NHL and they're following the same blueprint. I know it, and I preached it time and again to our players from the inception. Grantland |
| "I've said the same thing: They're not negotiating in good faith; they have no desire or intentions of getting a deal without a lockout because if they think they can threaten us or lock us out for a year or whatever, that the players will cave and they'll get everything they want." Grantland |
| "We've come to a place where when you add it all up and look at the investment the owners are making, the arenas that the owners are providing for the stage, the thousands of people that are hired to create revenue without in any way diminishing the contribution that the players make, it's time for there to be a return on the investment that's being made, and while we're at it, making sure that where we are now, that 30 teams, if well managed, have an opportunity both to compete and to make a profit," Stern said. "And we've tried unsuccessfully to persuade the players and the union that that's a working proposition." Grantland |
| To understand the divide that separates owners and the union, take a good look at the conjecture of NBA players moving overseas to play in Europe next season. From the owners' point of view, this is incomprehensible: The players aren't willing to accept an 8 percent wage cut next season, but they're willing to pursue contracts in Europe that would pay millions of dollars less than they would earn in the NBA? From Stern's side of the table, this makes no sense. SI.com |
| But look at it from the players' side. First, players say they'll lose much more than 8 percent, insisting they could surrender billions of dollars over the course of the owners' current 10-year proposal, depending on the future growth of the NBA. SI.com |
| Even more to the point, the players have yet to accept that the owners deserve so much additional money, or that it is needed for the future health of the league. This is the hardest fact of them all: The players don't believe the story that the owners are selling. SI.com |
| This is how the players see it: They've been locked out and they want no part of the future NBA as envisioned by owners. In addition, the players believe they have no control over the NBA's decision to lock them out. But they can, in the meantime, seek work elsewhere. And even if playing in Europe means making much less than they're used to earning, it's still better than surrendering to the lockout and not being paid at all. SI.com |
| August, 2011 |
| As the calendar flips to August, the NBA still unmoved with a take-it-or-leave-it offer for the Players Association, here’s the question the union ought to be asking itself: Why is the easiest, most logical target in this labor Armageddon untouched, unscathed and remarkably unchallenged? Why is the union so afraid of David Stern? Yahoo! Sports |
The union talks about the owners, and it never registers with the public. The owners are a  vague, fairly anonymous cast of characters who elicit no loathing, no emotion. Hard to rip Mark Cuban when he’s willing to go deep into the luxury tax, lose money and win a championship. Most fans wish he owned their team, instead of some of these deadbeats. And yet, Stern is the figure who most fans are dubious over, from his iron-fist control of officiating, to his complicity in hustling the Sonics out of Seattle, to his arrogance of ruling the league like a small-town mayor without term limits. Yahoo! Sports |
| The reason for the union finally scheduling a meeting with the owners on Monday in New York City is simple: Union officials are trying to convince the players they’re doing something, but it’s worthless. This is a show. There’s nothing to negotiate, nothing to discuss. The NBA commissioner has made sure of it. Stern promised a new crop of owners that should they buy into the NBA, he’d give them the most one-sided labor deal in the history of sports. No fan has sympathy for these two sides, nor should they. Just understand this, though: When the NBA goes silent for a full year following a most wildly successful season, Stern will deserve full blame for the sport’s shutdown. Yahoo! Sports |
| The NBA lockout is headed to the courts, which is a discouraging sign for fans hoping the season begins on time. The owners made a preemptive strike Tuesday by filing an unfair labor practice lawsuit against the players, attempting to squelch any chance of decertification. Boston.com |
| Two legal experts said the move will do nothing but extend the work stoppage and perceived the legal action as the league’s way of seizing full power in building a new collective bargaining agreement. Boston.com |
| Players Association executive director Billy Hunter said the union has not decided whether to decertify, but several high-powered agents are pushing for the players to do so. There is a league-wide perception amongst players and agents that owners have no intention of budging on a hard salary cap and many other union demands. Boston.com |
| “I think people have to realize that the lockout is a weapon, it’s not an end to itself,’’ said Jay Krupin, Chair of the National Labor Practice for Epstein Becker Green, a law firm based in Washington D.C. “It’s an economic weapon and what’s happened here is the owners and the league mean business. The lawsuits basically mean the owners plan on taking an aggressive offensive approach. And I think we’re going to be in [a lockout] for a long time unless the players in essence cave in or realize they are going to be playing in a brand new league.’’ Boston.com |
| Commissioner David Stern, despite NBA owners and players being far apart in reaching a labor accord, told the Globe tonight that he "expects" an eventual agreement that would prevent cancellation of the season. Boston Globe |
| “I would say that we have very smart players who recognize that this system is very good to them,'' he said. "You've got 13 players on a roster averaging $5 million apiece, that’s $65 million and what the owners have said is, ’we’re going to try very hard as we reset this thing to keep you as close to that number as we can.’ Boston Globe |
| “I expect that we’ll make a deal because the alternative is very destructive,” he said. “It’s destructive of $2 billion worth of player salaries and it’s destructive most important to our fans of the game. And if it spirals badly everyone gets hurt. But in some ways I worry because the players have more to lose, especially those in the later stages of their career. So we’re going to do everything we can when the rhetoric slows down to get this thing back on track.” Boston Globe |
| I don’t think so. Many of the owners seem resolved to cancel the season and lose less money, unless the players will recede considerably from the offer that is on the table. Portland Tribune |
| This is all a shame, since the NBA enjoyed one of its best seasons ever in 2010-11 in terms of popularity and fan involvement. Portland Tribune |
Hall of Famer Charles Barkley predicts owners are going to insist on major changes in  free agency in the next collective bargaining agreement. 'When you have a player like LeBron (James) going to Miami, owners have a problem with that,' Barkley said at the Hall of Fame induction ceremony on Friday. 'Teams like Cleveland, to do well and increase in value, they need to keep their star players. This isn't like baseball where one team can put a bunch of stars together.' NY Daily News |
| David Stern thought he'd grab your attention by admitting something that few league commissioners would ever do, at least publicly: the NBA would consider contracting a team or two as a means to improve revenue. In a Bill Simmons podcast, which ultimately was Stern again using the ESPN platform (the NBA's most important corporate partner also recently had The Commish on SportsCenter) as a means to get his message out to the people, Stern acknowledged contraction as "not a subject that we're against." Newsday |
| "In fact, when you talk about revenue sharing, a number of teams have said that if you have a team that is perpetually going to be a recipient, aren't you better off with the ability to buy them in? Because between the revenue sharing and the split of international and the TV money, we could almost buy them in with their own money." Newsday |
| But wait, there's actually a veiled threat here: contraction, of course, means the loss of jobs. It's like a major corporation responding to a strike by saying they can meet demands, but would have to shut down a few factories. So the union may get what it wants, but at the expense of its members. And you thought he was serious. Newsday |
| Relocation is a more likely scenario and it's possible we could see those avenues explored once the lockout ends. Kansas City and the glistening Sprint Center are awaiting a second shot at owning an NBA franchise and the Hornets are in its sights. The Kings' future in Sacramento, even after the failed flirtation with Anaheim, remains tenuous. San Jose, with the HP Pavilion ready to make major renovations, could welcome the Kings as a second tenant with the NHL's Sharks. Newsday |
| The league will have a lot of internal issues to address once a deal is finally reached with the players and those issues will likely be a residual of the deal. Stern has insisted that there has been solidarity among the owners in the lockout, but how long will that last? When do the big market teams, such as the Knicks, Lakers, Celtics, Heat, Bulls and Mavericks begin to grumble about losing games early in the season? This, of course, is what the union is waiting on, too. Newsday |
| “When we had Tariq Abdul-Wahad, he didn’t seem to want to train, didn’t really want to practice — he really was interested in a lot of things besides basketball,” the Dallas owner said, according to three participants who attended the meeting, all of whom spoke on condition of anonymity. The Washington Post |
| Cuban added Abdul-Wahad, the former player whose physical ailments sidelined him for a full two seasons while with the Mavericks, had a guaranteed contract of six years, $40 million. “And I’m stuck with that,” he said, the participants remembered. The Washington Post |
| A lawyer for the players’ union then shot back that J.J. Barea, an emerging spark off the bench for the Mavericks en route to their first NBA championship, was making a pittance of $1 million for his considerable talent. “How about that? You’re getting a bargain in a guy like J.J. Barea.” The Washington Post |
| Finally, NBA Commissioner David Stern could not take it anymore. “All right, you want to go tit for tat, I’ll go tit for tat,” Stern said, according to the participants. “I’ll see you J.J. Barea and raise you Eddy Curry.” A shot to the gut, just like that. The Washington Post |
| Beyond finding a more equitable split of income, stale contracts are why the union and the league may not come to terms this fall and perhaps beyond. The Washington Post |
| The sides might or might not remain far apart on the split of basketball-related income, a hard vs. soft salary-cap system, the length of player contracts and a bushel of other pending issues. With one apparent exception, based on the popular Las Vegas credo: What gets discussed in the NBA labor sessions now stay in the NBA labor sessions. NBA.com |
"It was a very engaging meeting," said union president Derek Fisher of the Los Angeles  Lakers. "We didn't waste a lot of time at all. ... We, kind of as a group, agreed to really continue just focusing on getting the deal done and really try to stay away from the semantics and the verbal jabs, the back-and-forth, and really try to remain focused on the deal points." Fisher represented the players at Wednesday's meeting, along with National Basketball Players Association executive director Billy Hunter and attorney Ron Klempner. The owners' reps were NBA commissioner David Stern, deputy commissioner Adam Silver and San Antonio's Peter Holt, chairman of the labor relations committee. They emerged with what sounded like a seriousness of tone and a renewed sense of purpose. NBA.com |
| Again, no new formal proposals were made -- there have been none since June, though Fisher said they covered topics "from A to Z" Wednesday. The owners continue to seek a reduction in player compensation to address what they say was an aggregate loss of $300 million in 2010-11, with 22 of the league's 30 teams losing money. They have proposed cuts either at the start of a new labor deal or, by excluding the players from anticipated revenue growth in coming seasons, over time in what essentially would be a long-term pay freeze. The owners also seek a hard salary cap as a means of improving competitive balance, compared to the current system that allows large-market teams to spend two or three times as much as small-market teams on player payrolls. NBA.com |
| The players contend that the pay freeze would cost them an estimated $7.6 billion over the term of a 10-year deal. They have offered givebacks of approximately $630 million via a reduction in their share of BRI from 57 percent to 54.3 percent. The union also wants to see the owners address their competitive-balance issues with more aggressive revenue-sharing, and feel that a hard cap would lead to fewer guaranteed contracts and shorter deals. NBA.com |
| September, 2011 |
| “We discussed virtually every issue that’s on the table,” Silver said, “and there was an agreement that we needed to continue meeting and pick up the pace.” It was unclear whether any new proposals were exchanged. But on the critical issues of the revenue split and the structure of the salary cap, it appeared the parties remain far apart, with Fisher saying, “Ideologically, we’re in the same place.” The NY Times |
| Progress? Maybe. The two sides at least have been able to agree on how to conduct the negotiations, even if they remain fairly entrenched in their positions. All precautions the league and players have agreed to -- limiting the number of people in the room for bargaining sessions, endeavoring to keep the timing and location of the talks secret and vowing not to publicly discuss what happens in the meetings -- have been steps that are conducive to constructive negotiations that actually could lead to a compromise. CBSSports.com |
| As for the legal developments, the federal court conference is a mere formality, but a reminder to all involved on both sides that the case will move forward at an excruciatingly slow pace if they don't reach an agreement in time to avoid the cancellation of games. In the players' NLRB case, which remains the most expeditious path to legal leverage for either side, the investigation has concluded and both sides are awaiting a decision from the board. No one on either side is willing to hazard a guess as to when that will happen. CBSSports.com |
| Here’s the dirty little secret about the NBA lockout, despite what both sides — the owners and the players — would have you believe: They are a lot closer to a settlement than most people realize. Sheridan Hoops |
| I know this because I talk regularly with a bunch of important people who tell me important things, and I am going to explain why I believe a settlement will be reached that will not only save the season, but also enable the NBA to have an “all is forgiven” honeymoon period (similar to what the NFL just experienced following its labor settlement) in which the frenzy of free agents signings, trades, training camps and exhibition games will make everyone forget all of the doomsday talk they’ve been hearing all summer. Sheridan Hoops |
| So what does that mean in terms of a deadline to save the current 82-game schedule? Here is a projected timeline that pushes things about as far as you can push them: Oct. 1: An agreement is reached on aggregate dollars. Oct. 4: All remaining issues are settled. Oct. 5-19: The agreement is put into writing. Oct. 20: Free agency opens and players already under contract are allowed to report to their teams. Oct. 21-31: Training camps are held, and each team plays two exhibition games. Nov. 1: The season opens on time, with three games: Bulls-Mavericks and Thunder-Lakers in a TNT doubleheader, along with Rockets-Jazz. Sheridan Hoops |
| The executive director of the NBPA is in a precarious position these days. Some agents question his every move, glossing over his respectable résumé and wondering aloud about the competency and leadership of the former U.S. attorney who took the union helm in 1996. They question why there wasn't a move to decertify the union at the outset of the lockout, some of them subtly suggesting that Hunter is more interested in saving his own skin (he wouldn't be paid in that scenario) than doing what's best for his constituents. Other player representatives simply stew about the state of affairs, unsure who to blame and ever-mindful of the fact that someone must lead their clients to a best-case scenario finish here no matter how draconian commissioner David Stern and the owners prove to be. A possible head Hunter, in other words, comes in many forms. SI.com |
| In the absence of extreme plays like decertification, the previous lack of negotiations had led to fair questions about Hunter's plan. The pressure put on so many agents by their clients is at the root of it, with the 'billionaires-beat-millionaires' credo meaning players are getting antsier about their money by the day while the 10-digit types are a long ways from hitting the panic button. And while the pending decision on the NBPA's claim against the league with the National Labor Relations Board is worth waiting for and potentially relevant, the union's inability to convince the owners to meet more than once in the first 61 days of the lockout was a shared failure of which Hunter certainly played a part.SI.com |
| SheridanHoops.com has learned that NBA owners have proposed adding a third round to the annual draft, a proposal that the players’ union has countered by offering an array of changes to the draft that would help address the owners’ desire for more competitive balance. According to sources involved in the league’s collective bargaining discussions, the union has proposed various changes to the draft: Sheridan Hoops |
| Under one proposal, the 15 teams with the worst records would continue to pick 1st through 15th, but then would also have the 16th through 30th picks. The teams with the top 15 records would have the first 15 picks of the second round, then would have the 44th through 60th picks, too. Under this proposal, the Chicago Bulls (whose 62-20 record was the league’s best last season) would have the 45th and 60th picks instead of the 30th and 30th picks. The Minnesota Timberwolves, who had the NBA’s worst record (17-65), would have their lottery pick and the 16th pick, but would no longer have the first pick of the second round — No. 31 overall. Sheridan Hoops |
| There hasn’t been a third round in an NBA draft since 1988 (Anthony Mason, selected by Portland, was the most memorable pick of that third round), as the following season the draft was shortened to two rounds. The draft was seven rounds from 1985-87, and longer before that (Little-known fact: The Chicago Bulls drafted sprinter Carl Lewis in the 10th round in 1984, even though he had not played high school or college basketball. That was the same year Chicago drafted Michael Jordan No. 3 overall). Sheridan Hoops |
| Both league officials and those from the National Basketball Players Association expressed surprise that reporters were able to determine the location of the high-level bargaining session, which the parties had vowed not to divulge. To my personal knowledge, neither did. The reason for the secrecy? Both sides believe public rhetoric could be damaging to the bargaining work that is beginning to progress, if by no other evidence than the fact that the league and players will meet again Thursday -- the first back-to-back sessions of the lockout -- and possibly Friday, too. For there to be concern about damaging the process, there would have to be something worth damaging. As to the assembled scribes' ability to sniff out the one hotel among hundreds and hundreds on the island of Manhattan where the meeting was taking place ... well, what do they think we do? CBSSports.com |
| Here’s what we have learned: Ratifying a CBA requires the approval of 16 owners. But nobody expects anything like a 16-14 vote, for a few reasons. The first is that the league has been talking to owners throughout, and the people in the room know how much support they are likely to have for any position they might take. TrueHoop |
| The second is that it would be hard for Stern to govern a league with a CBA that nearly half his owners thought was rotten. Moving forward, as a league, requires more cohesion than that. So he is exceedingly unlikely to present owners a proposal that has any chance of struggling to attract broad support. TrueHoop |
| Our reporting finds that about 17 owners came into the bargaining process feeling hawkish -- hence the league's hard line in talks. David Stern's trick at the moment is to negotiate enough concessions from players as well as robust-enough revenue sharing from wealthy teams to bring some of those hawks into the fold. TrueHoop |
With the cadre of longtime owners loyal to Stern having dissipated -- replaced by the  hard-charging Dan Gilberts and Robert Sarvers of the world -- Stern is a CEO whose past in the NBA is a lot longer than his future. His heir apparent, deputy commissioner Adam Silver, is the one who will be around for the majority of the new owners' tenure, and perhaps even the bulk of the new collective bargaining agreement. CBSSports.com |
| ust as Stern has from time to time ceded the public spotlight to Silver, who also has taken a prominent role in the labor talks, the players have seen a clear leadership shift away from Hunter, for 15 years the executive director of the National Basketball Players Association, to union president Derek Fisher. CBSSports.com |
| While Hunter has taken heat from high-profile agents over his negotiating strategy, Fisher has stood front and center in nearly all of the union's public appearances during the lockout. The 37-year-old, 15-year NBA veteran also has commanded the respect of both sides in the bargaining sessions, which reached a critical juncture this past week with high-level meetings on consecutive days in New York. CBSSports.com |
| Some 70 players are expected to meet in Vegas on Thursday, to get a sense of where they stand. Right now, with a $190 million dispersal from the escrow account headed their way, and before their first pay date comes and goes without any money deposited into their accounts, the players are on firm ground. They have overseas options that weren't viable in the 1998 lockout. There's no reason to capitulate to the owners' demands at the moment. ESPN.com |
| The owners have had season ticket renewal funds sitting in their accounts all summer and don't have to issue any refunds or credits for missed games yet. So there's no urgency on their part. That's why I don't see a major breakthrough occurring this week. ESPN.com |
| Once again, the union had made an offer of significant concessions. And once again, it wouldn’t matter. New system, new rules, new day for the owners. And after all that time, the NBA’s message was numbing: Yes, we want the favorable split of revenue percentages the players are offering … and still we want it within our new system. Hard salary cap. Non-guaranteed contracts. Rollbacks on current deals. The NBA’s owners want everything, because they don’t believe they’ll need to compromise. They want everything, because they believe this union will crumble, and bow before them. Yahoo! Sports |
| Three hours of waiting, and Hunter had to be sick to his stomach on Tuesday. Now, the 2011-12 season is certain to be delayed, and yes, games will be lost. Perhaps Hunter gave too much, too fast, but the players desperately wanted to make a deal this week. They’ll lose this collective bargaining fight to the owners; they just don’t want to lose in a complete bloodbath. Yahoo! Sports |
Hunter has a plan for Thursday, and it’ll center around what he calls “the division of interest” within ownership. Big-market owners want a deal, small and mid-markets want a prolonged war. Hunter and Players Association president Derek Fisher(notes) believed the owners were bickering among themselves in those three hours away from the players on Tuesday, debating how they should respond to the players’ capitulations at the bargaining table. The union gave the Jerry Busses and Jim Dolans reasons to sit down, and start hammering out a deal. The Dan Gilberts and Robert Sarvers don’t want compromise, they want total annihilation, and they’re willing to miss games, perhaps even the season, to get it. Yahoo! Sports |
| So Hunter will tell the players: Eventually, Stern and the owners will crack and negotiate a deal with us. We just have to stay together. Of course, he’s kidding himself. It’s always been, and always will be, far easier to keep 29 NBA owners on board than it will be 400 NBA players. Hunter wants more time to wait on his NLRB filings, more time to watch how the owners go after each other. Yet still, it’s been 2½ years now, and this fight is precisely where the owners always promised it would be, where they always wanted it. Yahoo! Sports |
| "So do we accept a deal that totally butchers our game? Because what they don't understand, if you take out mid-tier deals and say, 'Fend for bare minimum at the bottom,' they'll be individualizing our game so severely." ESPN.com |
| That's something I hadn't thought about. Take away guarantees, turn most rosters into extremes of max guys and minimum guys, and you've got a squad full of guys trying to get their numbers to get paid. I saw that dynamic in play with the Clippers before, when Donald Sterling didn't extend the contracts of any of his free-agents-to-be and it was every man for himself. ESPN.com |
| Baseball and football teams benefit from players in contract years. They get more home runs, more tackles, more wins. In basketball, selfish goals destroy teams. ESPN.com |
| The only thing both sides agreed on after this latest round of posturing and semi-negotiating was that the players had come to the table with economic concessions the owners and NBA negotiators could live with -- or at least could envision writing into a new CBA. Though no written proposals were formally exchanged, hidden amid all the rhetoric and doomsday prognosticating was something extraordinary for how lost it became: the NBA and its union are on the verge of solving the biggest dispute between them, as in how much money each side gets. CBSSport.com |
| Neither side would say how far the players moved economically, but a person with knowledge of the negotiations said they expressed a willingness to move lower than the 54.3 percent of basketball-related income they last proposed on June 30 as a starting point in a six-year deal. Stern disputed the players' contention that the owners haven't made an economic move since the day before the lockout was imposed. Nobody outside the room knows how many millions the two sides shaved off the gap, but it hardly matters since everyone seemed willing to concede that they've at least dipped their toes on common ground when it comes to dollars. CBSSport.com |
| The players' astonishment at the owners' ongoing demands can be summed up like this: The owners want significant salary concessions, which they're on the verge of receiving, and they want a more restrictive cap system to go with it. They can't have both, say the players. It's straight out of the cake-and-eat-it-too negotiating handbook. CBSSport.com |
| Silver eloquently explained how a hard cap would enhance competitive balance and instill parity -- as it has in the NFL and NHL -- but conveniently glossed over the fact that revenue sharing is the appropriate tool for those problems. Hunter again called a hard cap "a blood issue," to which Silver replied, "That makes the point. You don't hear us using words like 'blood issue' and 'non-negotiable.'" CBSSport.com |
The immediate message from the NBPA executive committee after  the meeting closed approximated the sentiment expressed in a letter sent Wednesday from Fisher to every NBA player: Player solidarity is important, there is a fundamental split among the owners, and decertification of the union is not imminent. To underscore that solidarity, the NBPA distributed gray t-shirts, featuring a silhouette image of basketball players above the word "STAND" in yellow block letters. More than 30 players wore the t-shirts and stood behind Hunter and Fisher as they addressed reporters in an adjacent press conference room. CBSSports.com |
| Asked whether he thought the 30 NBA owners were united in a willingness to sacrifice a season in general and to sacrifice a season over the institution of a hard cap, Fisher was clear. "No. Not even close. Nowhere near 30 teams and 30 owners. [Less than half], in my opinion. Obviously, I'm not in the room when they take votes but in my opinion there are not as many teams and owners as people would think that are interested in throwing away a season over a hard cap issue. I think [deputy commissioner] Adam Silver and commissioner [David] Stern have even said it themselves. If we can find a way to find some common ground on economics, they don't see throwing away a season over the system. And so that's the way we've attacked the matter. If we can get into a range where the economics are acceptable for both sides, the system will stay where it is." CBSSports.com |
| "The most recent meetings in New York were effective," Fisher wrote. "What you have been told by your agents, representatives and the media is probably speculative and inaccurate. What actually happened in those meetings was discussion, brainstorming and a sharing of options by both sides. The turning point this past Tuesday was not a disagreement between the players and the owners. It was actually a fundamental divide between the owners internally. They could not agree with each other on specific points of the deal and therefore it caused conflict within the league and its owners." ESPN.com |
| Sources confirm to ESPN The Magazine's Chris Broussard that there were disagreements among owners. Owners and players initially found reason for optimism during Tuesday's meetings. Commissioner David Stern and Peter Holt, the head of the owners' executive committee, felt that the players' proposal to take 52 or 53 percent of basketball-related income, compared to 57 under the previous agreement, was basically fair, sources said. ESPN.com |
Owners were seriously considering coming off of their demand for a  salary freeze and would allow players' future earnings to be tied into the league's revenue growth, a critical point for players. The owners also were willing to allow the players to maintain their current salaries, without rollbacks, sources said. But when the owners left the players to meet among themselves for around three hours, Cleveland's Dan Gilbert and Phoenix's Robert Sarver expressed their dissatisfaction with many of the points, sources said. The sources said that the Knicks' James Dolan and the Lakers' Jerry Buss were visibly annoyed by the hardline demands of Gilbert and Sarver. ESPN.com |
| Much has been made of which owners will go to the wall for a hard cap and which won't, but commissioner David Stern seemed to downplay the owners' intransigence on system changes when he said last week that everything would be negotiable when the talks resumed. Indeed, people familiar with the league's bargaining position maintained last week that the owners are willing to negotiate the specifics of a new system, but will remain committed to the requirement that it gives all 30 teams an equal chance of competing. Some of this can be achieved through system changes, and some of it is in the owners' hands through enhanced revenue sharing. The devil is always in the details, and after two years it would appear to be time for the owners to come forward with some. CBSSports.com |
| At some point, the owners' allegiance to a hard-cap system and the players' refusal to accept one will collide in a moment of truth for both sides. It is at that point when each side will have to determine the difference between what it wants and what it needs from this negotiation. CBSSports.com |
| If the owners have moved off their initial demand for the players to take a 33 percent pay cut -- down from 57 percent of BRI to 35-40 percent -- and if they, as sources indicate, are willing to move off their proposal of a multi-year salary freeze, then what happens next? Presumably, the players will have to be willing to discuss what specific system changes they'd accept and which ones they wouldn't. My guess is, that conversation doesn't begin until the owners divulge at least some details of their plans to aggressively share more revenues among themselves. CBSSports.com |
| The NBA is expected to announce Friday it will postpone the start of training camp and the opening slate of exhibition games after a negotiating session Thursday in New York between players union executive director Billy Hunter and commissioner David Stern ended without a labor agreement or progress toward one soon, league sources said. ESPN.com |
| The next negotiating session has not been scheduled, but the two sides agreed to contact each other with possible dates to reconvene next week, sources said. Whenever a deal is struck, it is expected to take at least two weeks to write out the complete terms and hash out the finer points. A period for free agency and then a training camp, however truncated, also would be necessary before the regular season could begin. Most experts agree a minimum of four weeks is necessary to get it done, making the last week in September the absolute deadline for a deal to be struck before regular season games would have to be postponed or canceled. ESPN.com |
| Who knows when the lockout will end. But when it does, free agency will be a free-for-all waged in short time period, as recently with the NFL. Teams have to be ready to move fast. That's especially true for Portland, which faces some difficult decisions involving high-profile players. Oregonlive.com |
| “In general, we haven’t made any progress,” Hunter said. ”I really don’t think they’re ready to do a deal. My position is that they said 2 years ago they were prepared to lockout for a year to get what they wanted, and I think the way they’ve negotiated gives every indication that that’s bearing out. And while they’re talking about not wanting to miss the season or having to cancel games, I’m not really sure that that’s the truth,” Hunter said. Sheridan Hoops |
| But despite hand wringing over the imminent delay of training camps and the cancellation of preseason games -- an announcement is expected Friday, according to sources -- what happened here actually had the potential to be productive. For the first time since their initial proposal in January 2010 -- when they offered a $45 million hard cap that would deliver the players well below 50 percent of BRI -- the owners proposed a revised BRI split that was closer to, but still below what the players have indicated they would be willing to accept. In this impossibly slow negotiating dance, that qualifies as progress. CBSSports.com |
| Given that the owners moved off their $2 billion to somewhere between that and the players' number, we're talking about perhaps as little as $75 million per year holding up the future of the NBA. That's why, as one person familiar with the talks said Thursday, a deal is "there for the taking." When will each side be ready to take it? Not yet. Not Thursday, and maybe not next week, either. The drop-dead date to preserve the season intact -- Oct. 13 or 14 -- is still three weeks away. CBSSports.com |
| A lot can go wrong, and probably will, between now and Oct. 14. But that still leaves three weeks to get a deal, and about half of it's done, as far as I can tell. How hard will each side be willing to push to get what it wants? That we don't know. When will they be ready to take a deal that's there for the taking? They'll be ready when they're ready. They'll be ready when they have to be. If not, shame on all of them. CBSSports.com |
| Training camps (which had been set to open Oct. 3) and preseason games usually combine to last a month, and while they help teams work out the kinks and develop chemistry, you can squeeze all of that into the last two weeks of October and start the season on time without losing much in terms of team-building. But starting on time probably requires at least a handshake agreement on the economic parameters of a new deal by early next week, which would give the legal teams 10 days or so to hammer out a new CBA and set the stage for a nutty free-agent period. If there is no initial agreement in the range of Oct. 5-10, regular-season games will be lost. SI.com |
| "There are a number of team owners that will not lose the season over the hard cap system. We've been clear from Day 1 of this process that we cannot sign off on a deal that attempts in any way to include a hard salary cap for our teams. That has not changed," Fisher said. "Unless you, the group we represent, tell us otherwise, we are prepared to hold the line for as long as it takes to preserve the system we've worked so hard to build." ESPN.com |
| "The same way our max players sacrificed for the larger body of players in the last collective bargaining agreement, it's time for our large market teams to share some of the wealth with each other. We continue to remain firm on the idea that not all of the purported loss figures should be made up solely through the reduction of player salaries," Fisher said. ESPN.com |
| "I want to make something absolutely clear about this process," Fisher wrote. "You ultimately have the voice and the power in these negotiations. Those of us that are in the room negotiating with the NBA cannot agree to any deal or deal points, good or bad, without taking your vote. Despite what you may hear, we don't have the authority to sell you out or sell you short." ESPN.com |
| "We are a group of some of the most talented, savvy, businessmen and business owners in the world," Fisher added. "We have built our own brands, launched our own and other people's companies, helped our communities. I keep that in the forefront of my mind each time we go into a negotiating session. ESPN.com |
| "If a Bill Gates, Warren Buffett or Russell Simmons were in this, there is no way they would take a deal that is unfair. Not when we are the talent, the most coveted asset, the most valuable resource that drives this business. Keep that in your mind as we walk down this road shoulder to shoulder," he said. ESPN.com |
| Sources told ESPN The Magazine's Ric Bucher that the owners did not offer players a finite annual team limit on salaries but as of Tuesday night were willing to relax the cap only if the following conditions are met: • The "Larry Bird exception," which allows teams to exceed the cap to retain their own free agents regardless of their other committed salaries, is limited to one player per team per season. • The mid-level exception, which the league valued at $7.4 million last season and could be extended by as many as five years, is reduced in length and size. • The current luxury tax, the $1-for-$1 penalty a team must pay to the league for the amount it exceeds the salary cap, is to be severely increased. ESPN.com |
| In last week's negotiating session, the owners proposed that the players' share of basketball-related income, or BRI, be sliced from 57 percent to 46 percent, and a source told ESPN.com's Chris Broussard that the players were offered 48 percent of BRI on Tuesday. The owners also want a five-percent reduction on all existing salaries for this season, a 7.5 percent reduction of all 2012-13 salaries and 10 percent reduction of 2013-14 salaries, a source said. ESPN.com |
| Even before Tuesday's session, several agents expected that the owners would relent on the hard cap but dubbed it a negotiating ruse. One prominent agent, who requested anonymity, said the players already were effectively working under a hard cap in the last deal because of the existing escrow system, whereby owners were allowed to hold and keep eight percent of each player's salary if total salary expenditures exceeded 57 percent. Although it was not outlined in Tuesday's proposal, presumably the same escrow system would be in place, only with the threshold being 46 percent of BRI. ESPN.com |
| That means, then, sources said, that the only concession owners made Tuesday -- in the face of an array of cuts sought by the players -- is no concession at all. ESPN.com |
| Here is another one: SheridanHoops.com has learned that the owners have proposed four different levels of the luxury tax, with the tax increasing from a dollar-for-dollar levy on teams slightly above the luxury tax threshold (which was $70.307 million last season, when the Lakers, Magic and Mavericks were reportedly the only tax-paying teams), up to a 4-to-1 tax for teams that go more than $10-15 million over the threshold. There are also separate triggers for a 2-to-1 tax and a 3-to-1 tax. Sheridan Hoops |
| When Stern decides to give Hunter an escape valve, this is over. When Stern can convince his owners to back off, this is over. Stern needs to give Hunter something to take back to the union, and say, “We won.” Maybe it’s the illusion of a soft salary cap, the preservation of the midlevel exception, a 50-50 revenue percentage split. Whatever. This isn’t about a fair deal, it’s about a deal the union can rationalize to the players for ratification. Yahoo! Sports |
| Hunter has no leverage, and no way out. This isn’t about getting the players a great deal, it’s about getting out of this without the agents overthrowing him. The union keeps insisting its players will go the distance, sit out the season, and that’s not happening. It sounds noble and strong, and there are players with the stomach to do it. Yet, there aren’t enough of them. What’s more, there’s the sobering understanding that the bad deal being offered now becomes worse in December. Yahoo! Sports |
| Yes, the players need to blink on Friday for the Emperor, blink and bow, because he’s decided this is the time to make a deal with them. A lot of these owners don’t love Stern anymore, but they know he’s a closer, know he’s cutthroat and know he can deliver their billions of dollars over the next decade. Yes, Stern knows where the bodies are buried, and he’s telling the players again: Cut the deal, cut your losses, or you’ll get whacked, too. Yahoo! Sports |
| The owners have already won this fight, and it’s just a matter of how greedy they want to get. It’s Stern’s job, his moral duty, to sit the hard-line owners and empty the bench so late in a blowout. This lockout was always ending when the owners were done running up the score, and now it’s on David Stern to be the closer. “There are two victory speeches being written up now,” one Western Conference executive said. “Stern just needs to give Hunter his.” Yahoo! Sports |
| From what I can gather, it is looking more and more like a deal is going to be cut in the 51/49 or 50/50 range when it comes to the split of basketball related income. The owners also have moved only slightly off their late June flatlined offer of $2 billion per season with no increases over the following six seasons. But move they will, and if they come to the table with an offer that keeps salaries and benefits close to where they were in 2010-11 — $2.19 billion, that’ll be the clincher in getting players to ratify the deal. Sheridan Hoops |
| I have been telling you since this site opened for business early this month that the two main words to keep in mind throughout this process were “aggregate dollars” — especially the number of dollars that are separating the sides in Years 1-6. That remains the key point, with the settlement number coming in somewhere between $12 and $15 billion over the first six years, as I wrote in my debut column for this site. That would give the players $13.84 billion in salaries and benefits over six years, an average of $2.307 billion per season. It is a far cry from what the players were getting percentage-wise under the old deal, but it is palatable enough — no matter how it is categorized percentage-wise — to ensure a high probability that it will pass a ratification vote. Sheridan Hoops |
| And again, once they agree to terms on the money, the remaining aspects of the deal (including an amnesty clause that would likely remove at least $100 million from payrolls for the upcoming season, thereby allowing players to avoid salary shrinkage through the escrow tax, the phasing in of a more punitive luxury tax, adjustments to the mid-level exception, etc.) could be worked out quickly. Then they take two weeks to put the thing on paper, and camps can open in mid-October with enough time to save the scheduled Nov. 1 start of the regular season. So that is my prediction. Sheridan Hoops |
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