Derek Fisher says owners were never serious about the labour negotiations – NBA Lockout News
President of the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA), Derek Fisher, has blasted the owners after talks broke down over a new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). Clearly frustrated, Fisher accused the owners of never
really coming to the negotiation table in good faith.
He therefore said that it didn’t come as a surprise that the talks broke down without a resolution being reached.
"We've always felt there was still a place where they would just not go and they would lock us out as long as it would take in order to get us beyond that place. There was never really a willingness to negotiate beyond certain
points," Derek Fisher said.
The Los Angeles Lakers point guard said that the owners had already decided what they wanted and were not going to budge from that no matter what. In his view, the owners came prepared to lock out the players for as long as required
in order for their unfair demands to be met.
The players union, in Fisher’s eyes, met with the owners again and again to try and end the labour dispute so that the NBA season could begin. However, the meetings did not mean anything to the owners who just went through the
motions.
"There was just a line drawn, and regardless of what's going on, how many times we meet, 'we're not going past that.'”
Fisher said the union even decided to keep meeting after ridiculous demands by the owners. He said the willingness was there on part of the union, who even wanted to make things work until the last days.
"We've spent the last few days making our best effort to try and find a resolution here. Not one that was necessarily a win-win.”
A mediator was even brought in by both sides to try and help them end the NBA lockout. The NBA training camps and pre-season were already lost and the start of the season already delayed, when George Cohen was invited to help resolve
the issue.
Cohen, the head of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, held meetings with players and owners for three consecutive days. After long drawn negotiations, progress was made on minor issues but the owners refused to show
flexibility on the key ones.
With the split of Basketball Related Income and salary cap structure proving pretty much un-resolvable issues, Cohen broke off negotiations on Thursday.
The veteran mediator said that after exhaustive sessions, he had come to the conclusion that very strong differences remain between the two sides and continuing meeting for the sake of meeting seemed pointless. He offered his services
again if the two sides decided to soften their respective stances in the future.
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