Tag: commissioner

Deadline passes, but labor negotiations continue on Thursday

After 12 hours of meetings that extended into early Thursday morning, NBA players and owners have decided to come back again for more talks again on Thursday.

And in the process, NBA commissioner David Stern’s ultimatum to accept an offer by 4 p.m. CT Wednesday or it would be replaced with a much harsher one has passed.

Stern reacted with a smirk when asked why he allowed the deadline to pass earlier in the day when queried after midnight on Thursday.

“I wouldn’t read into this optimism or pessimism,” Stern said.

The meetings will continue at noon Thursday.

“We can’t say there was significant progress made today, but we decided to come back again tomorrow,” NBPA president Derek Fisher said.

We’ve been to this point several times before in the negotiations.

Several reporters say that players are prepared to decertify their union if they don’t see some give on the luxury tax, even if they agree to a 50-50 split in basketball-related income.

We’ll see if they get to that point after tomorrow’s session.

Mike Monroe: NBA season died with courtroom move

Forget the 2011-12 NBA season.

Please.

If you think the lawsuits filed Tuesday by the trade association formerly known as the NBPA is going to soften the stance of hard-line owners, someone needs to break the bad news to you about the tooth fairy. The owners’ goal, all along, has been to crush the union and remind the players that they are merely employees.

Blame who you choose, but get over that quickly, too. It will just make you angry and depressed.

Some Spurs fans couldn’t sleep Monday night because they were so upset about the likelihood they won’t see their heroes for a full season. They also were worried about the effect the missed season might have on the team.

Renowned attorney David Boies, representing plaintiff players, including Spurs draftee Kawhi Leonard, announced the filings and said settlement talks can begin at any time and “might be a pathway” to agreement.

I can begin a column tomorrow that might be a pathway to a Pulitzer prize.

Does moving the battle to the courtroom give fans reason to believe there will be NBA games this season? Only if they enjoy serial disappointment.

If the owners and players want to get serious about ending the lockout, they must focus more sharply on the true fallout from this fiasco: How a lost season will forever change the dynamic between the league and fans; between the teams and fans; and between the players and fans.

We know it is changing because fans haven’t been silent as billionaire owners insisted on imposing their will and millionaire players lined up, like lemmings, to follow their leaders as they leaped into a sea of lost paychecks.

Outrage in South Texas is understandable. The Spurs are the only major league sports franchise in town, so San Antonians feel an especially strong bond. They know Tim Duncan is the greatest player in club history, the only one on all four Spurs title teams and the greatest power forward in history. They know he is in the final season of his contract and will be 36 in April. They know the lockout threatens a sad end to his career.

Tyler Remmert, 24, is a Spurs season ticket holder. But he says he won’t be going back to the ATT Center as long as Peter Holt owns the team, David Stern remains NBA commissioner and Billy Hunter is executive director of whatever it is the players union might call itself if, and when, it re-forms.

He has a message that merits consideration because it combines both the passion of Spurs fans and their sense of betrayal.

“When the NBA comes back in 2012 or 2013 or whenever this petty squabbling wears out its own PR machine, I don’t know that I will look at a Spurs game the same way,” Remmert wrote in an e-mail. “The next time the Spurs take the court, I don’t think I’ll be able to remove from my nose the awful stench of money, of the millions of dollars, and nothing more, that this game means to all parties involved in the lockout.

“I won’t stand for it. This is not the game I love.

“This is my plea to Tim Duncan: don’t come back. Walk away from this game, because I don’t want to think of you as one of those quibbling over millions as if they were table scraps while honest, hardworking people are out of a job for a year or more. Take the dignity you earned as the greatest power forward of all time and walk away. This league doesn’t deserve you any more.”

Duncan came to last season’s training camp trim and pronounced his intent to play “until the wheels fall off.” Presumably, this meant he would consider playing beyond season’s end, maybe another year or two.

After a season on the sidelines that will seem an eternity, would anyone blame Duncan for walking away?

Union to meet today to discuss league’s offer

MIAMI — Decision day for players may have arrived.

The players’ association will meet in New York this morning, a session that could lead to the end of the lockout or send it into a bigger tailspin. Representatives from all 30 teams are expected, as are other players, to examine and discuss a seven-page summary of the NBA’s latest collective bargaining proposal to the union.

The proposal, a copy of which was obtained by , was dated to be delivered to union executive director on Friday. At least some of the people who will be in the NBPA meeting said Sunday they had not yet seen the offer, creating more than a little confusion over what exactly is on the table.

“We haven’t asked for anything more than what we had,” player representative said Sunday. “We understand the times. We understand the economy. We just want a fair deal where both sides are bearing the weight of the present times and with an eye on the future of the game of basketball.”

Sounds so simple. But it’s not.

By today, things could finally become clear — because this union meeting may decide if basketball will be played this season.

Some project that team payrolls will exceed $100 million in the next five or so years, even to the chagrin of many owners. And on Saturday, commissioner said again if the current offer is rejected, a harsher one — where owners would keep about another $120 million of basketball related income, or BRI, each year, along with other so-called system issues that players didn’t want — will take its place.

“We’re not going to cancel the season this week,” Stern said. “We’re just going to present them what we told them we would.”

The NBA wants a 72-game season to begin Dec. 15. For that to happen, a handshake deal almost certainly would have to be in place this week. Stern says it will take about 30 days to get the season started once an agreement is reached.

There are 17 items in the memo, including how teams paying a luxury tax would not be able to acquire free agents in sign-and-trade deals after the 2012-13 season. One of the key points comes on Page 5, where the NBA says “there will be no limitations on a player’s ability to receive 100%guaranteed salary in all seasons of a contract.”

Players have repeatedly said they will reject a deal where contracts are not guaranteed.

“I’m going to sit down, take a look at the deal and analyze it,” Minnesota player rep said Sunday, as the lockout reached Day 136. “Not like it’s the first offer or the last offer, but just as one where I’ll say ‘Would I or my teammates want to play under these conditions?’

“I was a little bit more hopeful last week than I am this week. I’m trying not to be too negative, but it’s kind of hard not to when it’s been this long and this many meetings. It’s hard not to get continuously more pessimistic by the day. Hopefully this deal will blow me away in a good way. But it’s hard to believe that’s going to be the case.”