NBA Commissioner David Stern says owners are united: Lockout Update
National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) President Derek Fisher recently stated that the actual rift was between the franchise owners themselves and not between the players and owners. Fisher’s assertion created a few ripple
and recently Commissioner David Stern had to clear the air on the matter.
There have been reports that not all the owners agree to the idea of introducing a hard cap, however Stern refuted that notion. He made a public appearance after four hours long meeting with the owners on Thursday and tried to
nip the buzz by saying that in spite of these contrary hearsays the owners are unified.
“Some people might say they want a hard cap with this wrinkle and someone says I want a hard cap with that wrinkle. But I would say there is unanimity in favouring a hard cap — period.”
Deputy Commissioner Adam Silver also stressed the same:
“There is absolute agreement, and it’s a complete fiction coming from somewhere that there isn’t.”
According to reports, Stern and owners were close to accept the offer from the players on the basketball related revenue sharing. However Cleveland Cavaliers and Phoenix Suns owners were not ready to show any flexibility in hard
salary cap and few other points of the deal. This created a bit of an embarrassing situation and Stern had to clear up the mess later and re-iterated that the NBA owners were on the same page.
The players have indicated that they are ready to go down from the previous revenue sharing percentage which was 57 percent to four or five points, but they are not ready for hard salary cap. There has also been a huge disagreement
on the guaranteed contracts of the players. The owners want to get rid of the system so that they terminate the contracts of the players, who fail to live up to their potential. The players off course consider it as something against the very basic privileges
and have been very clear in their disapproval.
In negotiations, it is very difficult to protect the interests of everybody involved and the NBA owners seems to be going through the same phase.
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