Chicago Bulls reserve shooting guard Kyle Korver blames NBA over lockout stalemate
The NBA labour dispute, which is about to enter its second month, continues to harm the game of basketball. The negotiations between the NBA owners and players have pretty much been non-existent since then. There has been one round
and that also landed in hot waters. Instead of coming up with a timetable for the conflict resolution, the NBA filed two lawsuits against the union and its players and the blame game is going on since then.
Chicago Bulls guard Kyle Korver is one of the many players upset over the situation and he blamed the stalemate in negotiations on the NBA owners.
Since the lockout began, the players and owners have met just once to negotiate a new CBA. A scheduled meeting was also cancelled a while ago, reportedly because the players demanded of the owners to come up with a new proposal,
which they refused to do. It is that rigidity of the owners’ stance that has drawn criticism from Korver, who believes that the negotiations will go nowhere if the owners are not prepared to show some flexibility.
"I have not heard many good things," Kyle said. "I haven't heard a real sense of urgency to be honest. It feels like the owners have it set in their minds what they're going [to want] ... they haven't budged one bit. It's hard
to negotiate when only one side is willing to negotiate, and that's what it feels like right now. If you're on the other side of a negotiation and you know the other side's not budging, how do you really talk to them?”
The National Basketball Players Association have been crying out the same mantra for a while The NBPA have even filed a complaint in the Labour Relations Board against the NBA owners for negotiating in bad faith. The players believe
they are in the right because they are willing to negotiate still. They dismissed calls for the union to decertify and sue the league in federal court. They have even offered to take cuts in salaries to get a new CBA in place.
However the owners seem determined to get exactly what they want. NBA Commissioner David Stern time and again paints a bad picture of the players union while failing to mention the drastic financial sacrifices he is asking them
to make. The players are prepared to come down from 57 percent share in BRI to 54 percent, but Stern would have them around 40 percent.
Furthermore the league has already gone to court against the players. They also show no sign of budging from their demands whilst the days to the beginning of the NBA season continue to wind down with urgency.
Many analysts have commented that an NBA season for 2011-2012 is unlikely at present, some even suggesting that the owners and David Stern are fully prepared to lockout the whole season just to get their way.
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