David Stern wants to resolve the NBA - labour union dispute out of the court
After looking at the situation that has arisen as a result of the dispute between the National Football League (NFL) and their labour union, the National Basketball Association’s (NBA) commissioner David Stern has hinted that NBA
management would like to keep their dispute with the players’ union out of the court.
Stern said that the court case is "not appropriate to making a deal."
He also added, "We understand what a chaotic situation looks like, so we won't need to give away the negotiating process to a process that is nowhere near as controlling."
It seems that Stern has learned a good lesson from NFL’s case, where the locked-out players and owners are now stuck in a sour dispute and the matter is still in the court.
The dispute between NBA and the players union arose when league proposed the players a new Collective Bargaining Agreement, according to which the league planned to trim down their wages by about $750 million per annum. The players
immediately rejected that offer, which also detailed as a hard salary cap, swapping the current system that provides certain exemptions to the players. In reply, the players sent their own proposal last summer, but the league showed no interest in it and since
then there has been no further development.
The league argues that it is bearing losses mounting around $300 million per annum and it should get more out of the NBA related earning, 57 percent of which goes into the pockets of the players at the moment. The union on the
other hand argues that the numbers shown by the NBA is not a clear depiction of the actual scenario and these losses are majorly amount to loans and the interests on it.
The league has never gone on a strike since 1998, where few games were lost due to a lock out. Stern is however confident that there will be no work-stoppage this year.
The NBA's current CBG is expiring on June 30, and Stern has made it clear to the players if they deny inking the new pact, the owners will lock them out.
The league amended the old proposal and sent a new version to the players for a fresh contract in the previous week. In this regard, Union President Derek Fisher told media on Wednesday that they are going through the new contract.
However, it looked quite close to the previous one, which they discarded early last year.
When Stern was asked about the report, he swiftly handed over the microphone to Deputy Commissioner of NBA Adam Silver. Silver said that negotiations are in progress and they will conduct more meetings with the union leadership.
He also added that it is a lengthy procedure, but definitely they are working very hard to conclude the deal.
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