David Falk says the onus to sort out NBA labour dispute lies on Billy Hunter and David Stern
Powerful NBA player agent David Falk believes, that the responsibility to churn out a new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) and end the NBA lockout lies on two men - David Stern and Billy Hunter.
Stern is the NBA Commissioner and the lead man representing the NBA owners in the labour dispute, while Billy Hunter is the Executive Director of the NBPA, a post he has held for many years.
Both have been locked in discussions over the NBA labour dispute for a while. They have even been seen by some as men working the media and spreading propaganda against the opposite side and Falk believes that this has to end. The responsibility of the two is to sit down and work out a deal because a lot of people are relying on them, especially the players and the workers at the franchises.
“The agent for the owners is David Stern … and the agent for the players is Billy Hunter. It’s their job, collectively, to get a deal done. … We all lose if there’s no deal.” David said according to Sports Radio Interviews.
The situation is tense at the moment between the two sides. The NBA pre-season and the training camps have already been cancelled and time is running short on agreeing to a new deal.
On the surface, the sticking point recently has been the salary cap issue, but there are other issues still to be sorted. Chief among them is the split of the Basketball Related Income or BRI. The players are willing to let go of around 3 to 4 percent while the NBA owners want at least an 11 percent waive.
Falk admitted it is a tough situation and it would be unfair to put the blame entirely on one side.
“There are no bad guys. I think that the owners are trying to change a system that they feel isn’t working. Obviously there’s a number of teams losing money. … The players are reluctant to give up gains made over a long period of time. So there are no bad guys. This is a difficult challenge,” he said, before adding, “but this is what you hire agents for.”
Those agents, as stated earlier, are Billy Hunter and David Stern. Both have been around long enough to understand the importance of reaching a deal, but both are also extremely savvy negotiators, which is not always a good thing.
They have been posturing since the lockout began and apparently their aim so far has been to paint the other side as unfair, and gain an advantage for the people they represent. In any other situation, that would have been good agent work. However, this is not a normal situation and the sooner the two leading negotiators realize this, the better it will be for the NBA owners and players.
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