Players Union Rejects NBA Owners’ Latest Offer, Season Now in Serious Jeopardy
NBA players have rejected the latest offer from the owners in the ongoing labor dispute.
That decision, and the one to subsequently disband the players union, likely “jeopardizes the season,” ESPN reports. We imagine Monday’s news caused this reaction among NBA diehards:
Further, the players union, whose members have been locked out by owners since July 1st, also plans to file an antitrust lawsuit against the NBA. Players union executive director Billy Hunter said the players were not prepared to accept the latest ultimatum from commissioner David Stern.
He added the bread and butter of the league have given up enough at the negotiating table, while the NBA was “not willing and prepared to negotiate.”
“This is the best decision for the players,” union president Derek Fisher said. “I want to reiterate that point, that a lot of individual players have a lot of things personally at stake in terms of their careers and where they stand. And right now they feel it’s important – we all feel it’s important to all our players, not just the ones in this room, but our entire group – that we not only try to get a deal done for today but for the body of NBA players that will come into this league over the next decade and beyond.”
According to Sports Illustrated:
The proposal rejected by the players called for a 50-50 division of basketball-related income and proposed a 72-game season beginning Dec. 15.
On Sunday, the league made a very public push on the positives of the deal – hosting a 90-minute twitter chat to answer questions from players and fans, posting a YouTube video to explain the key points and sending a memo from Stern to players urging them to “study our proposal carefully, and to accept it as a fair compromise of the issues between us.”
In the memo, posted on the league’s website, Stern highlighted points of the deal and asked players to focus on the compromises the league made during negotiations, such as dropping its demands for a hard salary cap, non-guaranteed contracts and salary rollbacks.
Union officials repeatedly have said the system issues are perhaps more important to them than the split of basketball-related income, but owners say they need fundamental changes in both to allow for a chance to profit and to ensure more competitive balance throughout the league.
As the NFL lockout proved, when billions of dollars are on the table, the fairest way to divide that up isn’t always easy. Monday marked the 137th day of the NBA lockout; the NFL lockout lasted 136 days.
“Now likely waiting for the players is a proposal that will call for a 53 percent to 47 percent split of BRI in the owners’ favor, a flex cap with a hard ceiling and rollbacks for current salaries,” ESPN reports.
Whereas people seemed generally upset at the thought of no football on Sundays, it doesn’t exactly feel like the general public cares one way or the other if basketball comes back. Given the developments today, it seems like it’ll take a minor miracle to make that happen.
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