Billy Hunter slams NBA owners over negotiation tactics – NBA Update
Billy Hunter has lambasted the NBA owners for reprehensible tactics that they have used during the current NBA lockout. The executive director of the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) said he was fed up with the owners’
antics as they refused to talk sense.
Hunter walked out of a negotiation session on Friday, October 28, after NBA Commissioner David Stern once again stuck to a 50 – 50 split of the Basketball Related Income (BRI). Billy believed the players had made significant concessions
over the last week on other issues, such as the salary cap, and if they were still going to get the same line from Stern then he saw no point in continuing the talks.
Hunter issued a letter to members of the union in which he explained how the league had been negotiating in bad faith and used all sorts of tactics to gain an unfair advantage. He warned the owners that this will only do more damage.
"They have given us 'take it or leave it' ultimatums, threatened to end the season prematurely, reached out to players in an attempt to divide us, misled the press, and pre-conditioned further talks on our acceptance of significant
concessions," he said. "This is an unacceptable form of negotiation.”
“Moreover, it does nothing but damage the relationship between the league and union."
The NBA Commissioner David Stern has in fact been overly aggressive with his handling of the dispute. He has earlier said that if a Collective Bargaining Agreement wasn’t reached soon he might have to cancel games through to Christmas
and even hinted at wiping out the whole NBA season.
Hunter has become increasingly frustrated with the smear tactics of the NBA. He said in his letter that it was the union making all the concessions while the owners just sat in on the meetings with a simple agenda of getting more
money.
He also assured players that although a final deal will not look how they wanted it to look; he would still fight for the core issues that are important to the union.
"Without question, we have given more than the owners, but at bottom, we are determined to defend the principles we have fought for throughout -- guaranteed contracts, healthy minimums, fair maximums, a strong middle class, and
a true market for free agency."
The lockout has forced some players to even head abroad and others have been discussing a league of their own. Decertification was a hot topic in the early months as well, with most player agents advocating suing the NBA on anti-trust
grounds.
So far though, Hunter and the union have persisted with talks, but the NBA owners now seem to be pushing them to the limit.
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