Lockout News Thread

[elcheato]

When NBA labor talks resume Friday, NBA commissioner David Stern is planning to threaten players with the cancellation of the entire 2011-12 season if the sides haven't made major progress toward a deal by the end of the weekend, according to sources close to the talks.

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/7031637/nba-lockout-owners-players-meet-friday-possibly-weekend

 

[elcheato]

NEW YORK – Here was David Stern playing the lockout bogeyman on a city sidewalk, reaching past Billy Hunter and Derek Fisher(notes) to speak directly to the players with a doom-and-gloom prophecy. Come on down to the posh Manhattan hotel on Friday, stay the weekend, and let me show you all over again how the commissioner buries the NBA bodies. When Stern dictates this lockout is over, it ends.

That’s the hard truth, the hard road to labor peace. Stern’s job is convincing the owners to pull off the press, take the 30-point victory and leave the floor with some grace and dignity.

This has been rigged for years and months and weeks, and here’s how a deal happens this weekend: In the carnage of a devastating collective bargaining loss for the union with billions of dollars redirected into owners’ pockets, Stern has to give Hunter something to take back to the players, so that the union’s bloodied, bruised and beaten executive director can still raise his arms and declare that, yes, we won.

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NBA commissioner David Stern says there will be "enormous consequences" to the season if a labor deal isn't reached soon.
(Getty Images)
Stern’s “going to make a real hard push to get a deal this weekend,” one team president told Yahoo! Sports on Wednesday. “If the union makes a slight move, David will move.

“But the players have to blink first.”

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.

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.

[Related: Stern warns season at risk if deal not reached soon]

This isn’t about right or wrong. Just or unjust. When the union didn’t decertify back in July, it was destined for this dark place. It’s too bad, too. Because the players have largely won the PR war. The public knows far more about the owners in the digital age, knows far more about their finances and agendas and, yes, incompetence.

Nevertheless, these cross-country exhibition games have been an awakening of sorts to the players, to everyone, about how much the players need the NBA’s machinery. They need its platform, its coaching, its competitive environment. There’s nothing but a devoted, narrow fan base that can watch these summer exhibitions. It’s bad basketball, and too much of it will devalue the NBA stars playing in the games.

The masses don’t want to watch LeBron James(notes) doing windmill dunks with defenders running out of the way. They want to watch him in the context of real competition, real stakes. This is foolery, and it has no staying power in a short summer – never mind a long lockout.

Several agents tried to plan blockbuster barnstorming tours of Asia, Australia, Europe, but they couldn’t find the corporate sponsors needed to make it a profitable endeavor. So, the big stars and the big owners are coming here for Friday’s meeting, and Stern won’t mind having them all in the room. He wants the players to hear all about how they’re going to lose money they’ll never get back by missing games now. And how they’re still going to get a bad deal later.

Back on All-Star weekend, Hunter had been bold in a locker-room address to the league’s stars, insisting the union wouldn’t bow to Stern. He cornered the commissioner, ambushed him, and the players loved it. Stern lost his cool, and left them all stunned: He knew where the bodies were buried in the NBA, he said, because he had buried a lot of them himself.

[Related: NBA owners budge on hard salary cap demands]

The stars were stunned to hear Stern talk that way, and rallied around Hunter for the way he had gone after the commissioner, a bully of monumental acclaim. In the end, Stern does bury the bodies in the NBA. This death march to a brutal deal was the union’s choice, and now it’s hard to see a way out. Stern warned the players there would be “enormous consequences” for failing to come out of this weekend’s bargaining sessions with the framework of a deal. The suggestion he would cancel the entire season now is ridiculous. That wasn’t his message on Wednesday. It was this, one team president said: “Once they start canceling regular-season games, all bets are off. The deal the players accepted in ’99 was worse than what was offered before games had been lost.”


Players Association executive director Billy Hunter still has to get players to ratify a new labor agreement once it's agreed to in principle.
(Getty Images)
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.

“We’ve already given back too much,” one NBA team player representative texted on Wednesday. Only, the players will have to give back more, and more, and more. What’s the alternative now? As long as the agents don’t get between the commissioner and union executive director, the owners and players are coming to try and cut a deal this weekend, coming to try and salvage the basketball season.

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.”

The message is unmistakable from the commissioner: Blink now, Billy Hunter. Keep coming with the givebacks, and I’ll still get you out of this with your arms raised in the air, with something to sell. Blink now, Stern is saying. Blink again and again. Once more, Stern’s come to bury the bodies.

Long read but it's basically Wojnarowski saying that the players are only going to get a worse offer from the owners as the days go by and Stern will explain it to them. Seems like he thinks a deal will get done soon.

 

[ZigZag]

I wonder if they players will ever realize that playing overseas is not a viable long term option.

 

[RipCity32]

According to a person familiar with the negotiations, the owners and players met initially at about 2 p.m. ET and broke up to discuss the situation privately among themselves.

The players were furious at seeing first hand the owners' offer of 46 percent of basketball-related income (BRI), down from their previous level of 57 percent, were unanimous about what to do.

"Let's go," one of the players said, according to a source. "There's no reason to go back in there."

The players decided to return to the bargaining room with a much smaller group.

Among those joining Derek Fisher for the second session were LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Carmelo Anthony, Kevin Durant, Baron Davis and committee member Chris Paul. None of the players joining Fisher sat down during this portion of the talks, a person with knowledge of the meetings said.

It was at this point Wade took exception to David Stern's tone and gesturing.

So many different reports out there.
Articles like this make it seem so far away, other ones make it sound like great progress has been made.

 

[DJT]

Yeah, freaking greedy players. I'm sick of them. Walking in there with probably their few thousand dollar clothes, plus few thousand dollar accessories and such. Yet they want more money.

I'm with the owners all the way on this one.

But I can see how Wade yelled at Stern, Stern doesn't seem like much of a "people person"

 

[Elite]

Yeah, freaking greedy players. I'm sick of them. Walking in there with probably their few thousand dollar clothes, plus few thousand dollar accessories and such. Yet they want more money.

I'm with the owners all the way on this one.

But I can see how Wade yelled at Stern, Stern doesn't seem like much of a "people person"

The owners are 3 billion times richer than the players.

 

[DJT]

The owners got wealthy through other means than basketball.

The owners also use their money more wisely I think. They invest and buy companies and all that stuff.

 

[Elite]

Who cares how somebody got rich? Money is money, no matter how it was earned.

Yeah, the owners use their money more wisely, like throwing out monster deals to Travis Outlaw and Al Harrington.

 

[Mexi]

i just wish there was more sense of urgency like the NFL

during the NFL lockout there were meetings all the time
here, there's like 1 meeting a month and then we get the "they probably won't meet on sunday"

 

[DJT]

Its been better lately, met friday, saturday, monday, and now today.

From what I heard they have been talking in their own groups.

I don't see a deal coming today, but man it would be sooooo cool if they can get close to one.

 

[CameronCrazy06]

Wow we're so far from a deal DJT....

 

[jonathanlambert33]

Entire preseason/camps gone.

What's next? The first month/two months of the season?

 

[elcheato]

According to Derek Fisher and the players union, a 50/50 split is not fair to them..

 

[jonathanlambert33]

According to Derek Fisher and the players union, a 50/50 split is not fair to them..

This lockout is alot different from the NFL one.

The NFL one most were AGAINST the owners, but this one most are with them.

 

[CameronCrazy06]

There is a zero percent chance of an NBA season

 

[DJT]

:suicide:

Wow we're so far from a deal DJT....

Now your the one ignoring my posts...

This lockout is alot different from the NFL one.

The NFL one most were AGAINST the owners, but this one most are with them.

I don't know I've seen a few polls (one on iamagam) and people are siding with the players...

and no CC there is a lot, A LOT higher of a chance than 0%.

I just hope the owners play hard ball and don't budge past 50-50 split.

 

[CameronCrazy06]

From what I understand, the two sides are too far apart to reasonably believe that a deal will get done within the next 4 days.

 

[DJT]

The next four days from what I understand won't cancel the full season. There are still chances of a shortened season.

Despite what Stern says.

Also on ESPN players are nearly leading the vote for whose side you are on...neither is winning by a few percentage points, and owners are WAY behind.

 

[Elite]

We're not having a season. Get over it.

 

[jonathanlambert33]

:suicide: Now your the one ignoring my posts...


I don't know I've seen a few polls (one on iamagam) and people are siding with the players...

and no CC there is a lot, A LOT higher of a chance than 0%.

I just hope the owners play hard ball and don't budge past 50-50 split.

Everyone I've heard from is siding with the owners rather easily, as they should.