NBA Lockout thread

[salsadancer7]

Maybe. It sounds like the owners REALLY want a hard cap. Then again, it's difficult to tell either way, because neither side is going to reveal their true line in the sand. And that line in the sand tends to get wiped out by the tide and redrawn a number of times during negotiations anyway.

Full negotiations scheduled for today in New York. Let's hope for the best.

Sandra

I was SHOCKED to find out the players took that much off the top. Even I cannot side with the players taking that much. I have NO issues with a 50/50 split. I also found out that the league pays out November to November....I always thought it was July to July. IF it had been July to July, this would have been resolved a long time ago.

 

[SandraC]

I was SHOCKED to find out the players took that much off the top. Even I cannot side with the players taking that much. I have NO issues with a 50/50 split. I also found out that the league pays out November to November....I always thought it was July to July. IF it had been July to July, this would have been resolved a long time ago.

Really? I think that's unusual. I thought all leagues pay out only during the regular season...I could be wrong.


Sandra

 

[salsadancer7]

Really? I think that's unusual. I thought all leagues pay out only during the regular season...I could be wrong.


Sandra

I heard this on 2 seperate radio stations this morning.

 

[salsadancer7]

You knew THIS was coming!

Battle lines drawn for NBA, players, agents

By Adrian Wojnarowski, Yahoo! Sports
8 hours, 23 minutes ago

NEW YORK – Privately, the most influential player agents in the business swear they won’t let Billy Hunter cut a crippling collective bargaining deal. They won’t let his parting gift to the union membership be deeper concessions, givebacks to the owners. They can’t storm the negotiating room in New York this week, but they believe they can ultimately stop the ratifying of a deal. They can deliver the percentage of players needed to decertify the union. They believe they still can unleash holy hell on this sure, steady capitulation to the NBA.

“The players don’t want to make these kinds of concessions, yet the union keeps giving them,” one agent in a prominent firm told Yahoo! Sports. “The union hasn’t been listening to its players.”

The agents are pushing toward decertification of the union, but they aren’t there yet. Nevertheless, once the Players Association cuts a deal, is there truly a deal? What happens when Hunter says he has an agreement, and the agents get the rank-and-file players to reject it?

Everyone knows this is Hunter’s final stand as executive director of the Players Association, and he ultimately won’t have to live with the consequences of the agreement. He’ll take his millions of dollars, and go, and that leaves some agents and players suspicious of his willingness to fight NBA commissioner David Stern and the hard-line owners to a determined, defiant end.

Battle lines drawn for NBA, players, agents - NBA - Yahoo! Sports

 

[SandraC]

The NBA has postponed indefinitely the start of training camps, and cancelled 43 preseason games. If anyone remembers my stocks analogy from last month...they've just fallen through the first level of support. The next deadline is the regular season.


Sandra

 

[salsadancer7]

Man...talk about hitting it right on the nose!

He could lose some or all of that money, depending on how long the lockout lasts, but the veteran forward fully supports the players' union and plans to do whatever it takes to ensure that future generations of NBA players can experience the same benefits past veterans fought for in the last labor dispute.

"I'm willing to sacrifice my salary to get a fair deal," Lewis said after playing a game with Washington Wizards teammates John Wall, Jordan Crawford and JaVale McGee here at the Impact Basketball Competitive Training Series. "It's only fair." [...]

"Talk to the owner. He gave me the deal," Lewis said. "When it comes to contracts, the players aren't sitting there negotiating that contract. I'm sitting at home and my agent calls me, saying, 'I got a max on the table.' I'm not going to sit there and say, 'Naw, that's too much. Go out there and negotiate $20 or $30 [million] less.' "

"I thought my agent did a good job of negotiating my contract, and at the time I was coming out of Seattle, averaging 23 points, playing well. It was perfect timing for me," Lewis continued. "At the same time, I understand the owners don't want to overpay players, but you've got to do better negotiating. Try your best to save money."

- From Michael Lee for The Washington Post (via SB Nation)

Lewis is making an argument here that makes intuitive sense: If someone offers you the maximum amount of money for your services, you are going to sign that contract. That's not a greedy argument -- it's just an obvious decision to make. People like money, because it allows you to purchase goods and services while gaining a measure of security for the future. I'm pretty sure that's the first thing you learn in Economics 101.

Again, what's important to note is that the desire to sign a large contract is not a sign of greed. Lewis was offered his current deal by the Orlando Magic in 2007 and he accepted it. It's possible to make a legitimate argument that any system that allows a player of his stature to earn that much money is fundamentally flawed. But it's unfair to make an emotional case based on one side being morally deficient. If Lewis crowed about making too little even as he failed to perform to the level of play suggested by his salary, then he would be greedy. He's doing nothing of the sort; he just wants to point out that he's making what he was offered.

There's a tendency in tough labor fights like this one to paint the one side as lacking scruples, which in turn means that they don't deserve the terms they're looking for in a potential deal. That's a load of hogwash: Lewis has proven that he's willing to acknowledge his own status as an overpaid player. He's not greedy. He just wants everyone to acknowledge that he's paid so much because Orlando offered it to him.


Rashard Lewis is willing to become less overpaid - Ball Don't Lie - NBA Blog - Yahoo! Sports

 

[salsadancer7]

I KNEW that eventually this had more to do with the revenue percentage than the hard salary cap. I knew once the players would drop that unfair percentage closer to the 50-50 mark, that "hard cap" issue would be dropped. I cannot blame the owners.... but they WERE the morons who agreed to it in the LAST CBA, they have no one to blame but themselves.

NEW YORK – For the first time in two years of labor talks, NBA owners made a modest push from their rigid stance on implementing a hard salary cap, league sources told Yahoo! Sports.

More From Adrian WojnarowskiKobe has lot to gain on European tour Sep 27, 2011 NBA to delay start of preseason Sep 22, 2011 The owners proposed at Tuesday’s negotiating session an idea similar to the current system that allows teams to pay a luxury tax for going over the cap. Only, now there would be ultra-punitive measures against higher-spending teams. The current system has teams pay a dollar-for-dollar tax for exceeding the cap.


Players Association executive director Billy Hunter has called the hard cap a “blood issue” for the union, and insisted the players would never agree to it.


The owners’ proposal on Tuesday “would still have the affects of a hard cap,” one source with knowledge of the talks said.

The owners didn’t budge on a desire to change the basketball-related income percentage (BRI) to a split that takes the players from 57 percent to the mid 40s, sources said. The players had offered to drop from a 57-43 split to 54-46 at a meeting last week in New York.

NBA owners budge on hard cap demand - NBA - Yahoo! Sports

 

[SandraC]

I KNEW that eventually this had more to do with the revenue percentage than the hard salary cap. I knew once the players would drop that unfair percentage closer to the 50-50 mark, that "hard cap" issue would be dropped. I cannot blame the owners.... but they WERE the morons who agreed to it in the LAST CBA, they have no one to blame but themselves.



NBA owners budge on hard cap demand - NBA - Yahoo! Sports

Wow, that is a HUGE concession from the owners!


Sandra

 

[salsadancer7]

Wow, that is a HUGE concession from the owners!


Sandra

I honestly think the hard cap was like a decoy... I mean to me, the fact that the players were getting 57% of all revenue would bug me more....

 

[SandraC]

I honestly think the hard cap was like a decoy... I mean to me, the fact that the players were getting 57% of all revenue would bug me more....

EVERYTHING in negotiations is a decoy, on both sides. That's why it takes so long...neither side lays their cards fully on the table.


Sandra

 

[salsadancer7]

EVERYTHING in negotiations is a decoy, on both sides. That's why it takes so long...neither side lays their cards fully on the table.

Sandra

Yep. Now, hopefully, the real negociations starts and we will have basketball by the 1st week of November.

 

[SandraC]

Yep. Now, hopefully, the real negociations starts and we will have basketball by the 1st week of November.

From your fingers to God's ears.


Sandra

 

[salsadancer7]

From your fingers to God's ears.

Sandra

Yep...because, if my Raiders don't do well... I will desperately need the NBA.....

 

[SandraC]

Yep...because, if my Raiders don't do well... I will desperately need the NBA.....

Hoping for good news to come.


Sandra

 

[salsadancer7]

Hoping for good news to come.

Sandra

There is even a rumor of more scheduled talks... Who knew that IF you negociate in somewhat good faith, progress would be made...?

 

[SandraC]

There is even a rumor of more scheduled talks... Who knew that IF you negociate in somewhat good faith, progress would be made...?

Many negotiations use this same formula. People don't start negotiating seriously until they come up against a deadline.


Sandra

 

[HD MM]

Delonte West's Application to Work at Furniture Store is Priceless

It's hard out there for a locked-out NBA player. Bills to pay, mouths to feed, no money in the bank, and no money coming in. Take Delonte West, for example. The former Cavalier tweeted when the lockout began that he might need to find a job at Home Depot to make ends meet. He wasn't kidding.

It wasn't the big-box home store that got West's services, but Regency Furniture. Yes, Delonte West got a job in the stock room of a furniture store in D.C. His application, which he tweeted out, is below.

 

[meStevo]

"It's very possible. It would be a dream for me," ... "There's an opportunity that we've been discussing over the last few days. It's very possible and that's good news for me."

Kobe Bryant on playing in Italy.

 

[meStevo]

They said on ESPN Radio this morning that today is a break, and tomorrow negotiations resume. Stern said that if there is no meaningful progress from this next session that some or all of the regular season will be in danger of being cancelled. Now to see how long it takes to live up to the rhetoric.

 

[salsadancer7]

Another great article by Adrian Wojnarowski

This article is SCARY good.

Stern aims to close out labor win

By Adrian Wojnarowski, Yahoo! Sports

11 hours, 46 minutes ago

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.

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.”

Stern aims to close out labor win - NBA - Yahoo! Sports