NBPA vows not to accept “unfair” 50/50 split of BRI – NBA Labour Dispute Update
The National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) believes that the NBA owners’ recent offer of splitting the Basketball Related Income (BRI) in half was unfair.
In this context, the union has expressed its resolve not to agree to such a deal. This vow was communicated through a letter to NBA players in the aftermath of an unsuccessful negotiation meeting on Tuesday, October 4, 2011.
NBA Commissioner David Stern and Deputy Commissioner Adam Silver came down hard on the union after the meeting, saying that they made a sincere offer of a 50-50 split in BRI to the players, which they refused. The NBPA refrained
from mentioning the 50-50 offer in their press briefings and didn’t expect the NBA to go that route. However, after Stern did it to gain some mileage in the press, the union felt compelled to respond.
NBPA President Derek Fisher and Executive Director Billy Hunter therefore jointly issued the letter. In it, they made the argument that it is not fair to ask the players to sacrifice so much when the owners are doing nothing in
return. The players have already conceded enough ground and will not be bowing down to any more demands.
“We each explored different scenarios that our respective sides might consider. During those talks, the owners suggested that they might consider a BRI split likely to yield the players 50% of current BRI. After seriously considering
whether we should proceed down this path, our group determined not to do so. ... Reducing our share of BRI by 7 points to 50%—a level we have not received since the early 1990s—is simply not a fair split. We refused to back down. As we have done since the
beginning, we again indicated willingness to compromise, and asked the owners to do the same. They refused.”
The players got 57 percent of the BRI in the now expired CBA. When the league argued that it had consistently been losing money and 22 of the 30 teams suffered losses last season, it was clear to everyone that the players share
will have to come down.
The players agree to this, but the difference of opinion lies in the amount of percentage to be conceded. The players started off saying they will come down to 54 percent, and have now indicated a willingness s to maybe come to
52.
That though, is not nearly enough for the owners, who, before the 50 percent offer, wanted the players to come down to 47 percent.
With such a clear statement coming from the players, it is hard to see how negotiations can move further without a compromise from the owners. The NBA has already cancelled training camps and the entire pre-season, if a deal is
not reached by Monday, regular season games will also start to disappear.
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