NBA Players Union leaves door open for further talks – NBA Lockout News
The National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) has made it clear that they are still willing to sit and negotiate with the owners to get deal done, even after another round of labour talks collapsed here on Friday, October
28.
The NBPA took this stance after a whole month of regular season games were cancelled by the NBA.
NBA Commissioner David Stern made the announcement that wiped out all scheduled basketball in November, after meeting with the NBPA in New York, where talks broke off over a few, but critical, issues were left unresolved.
Both sides expressed disappointment over their failure to come to an agreement, even after engaging in talks for over a year and a half. The president of the NBPA, Derek Fisher, however made it clear that they are still open to
discussions as it was the only way forward.
"We're here, we've always been here, but today just wasn't the day to try and finish this out," he said.
His sentiments were echoed by Billy Hunter, executive director of the union. Hunter said the players wanted to be out on the courts and perform in front of their fans as soon as possible. He suggested that the players union had
made a lot of sacrifices already in the talks over a new Collective Bargaining Agreement, but at the moment they didn’t seem sufficient enough.
"We made a lot of concessions, but unfortunately at this time it's not enough, and we're not prepared or unable at this time to move any further," Hunter said.
The players and owners have resolved a lot of the issues that were outstanding at the start of this lockout, roughly 4 months ago. The main issue that remains is that of the Basketball Related Income. Both sides seemingly want
the bigger piece of pie worth around $4 billion, based on last season’s figures, and neither is so far willing to give in.
The players though insist that it is not all about the money for them. They have cited the fact that their offer of 52.5 percent is much less compared to what they got under the previous CBA; 57 percent. Furthermore, Fisher and
Hunter want to secure certain facets of the salary structure and cap system that allows the players some freedom.
"We want our mid-level players to be able to have the opportunity to sign contracts wherever they would like to play," Fisher said. "[Even] if it's for less money or for less years, we want our players to have that choice and not
be completely locked out of teams that are in the tax."
The league on the other hand is wary of such measures, which they observe leave open loopholes for the bigger market teams to exploit.
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