The Blame game continues as the Players union and NBA owners remain far apart over the new CBA
A full month after the NBA lockout began on July 1, the NBA owners and players finally met on Monday to try and restart the negotiations that landed in hot waters before. While the fans might have been forgiven for being optimistic
about the latest round of talks, it looks like they are set to follow the same direction the previous ones did i.e. nowhere.
The league and the players are embroiled in a long battle over a new CBA. The old one expired June 30 and without a new one there will be no NBA.
The players want a deal similar to the one before and have shown a willingness to take cuts in order to accommodate the losses that David Stern claims the league has been suffering. However the owners are not OK with just that.
They want the majority of the BRI, which is net revenue coming into the league. Currently the players get 57 percent, but owners want to drastically change that and bring it down around 40. They also want hard salary caps and non-guaranteed
contracts, again non-starters with the players.
The National Basketball Players Association and the league owners met Monday, with both sides hoping the other would show some flexibility in their stance. However, both were disappointed as no one appeared to be willing to concede
ground to the other party.
NBPA President Derek Fisher came out of the negotiations and took a diplomatic stance on the matter, saying that progress was not made but he was still hopeful. The players and owners also agreed on holding more talks in the current
month and try to get a deal done.
Fisher’s soft spoken press release gave way to a fire breathing David Stern, who was visibly perturbed by the fact that the players did not show an inclination of bowing down to his excessive demands,
“I don’t feel optimistic about the players’ willingness to engage in a serious way,” Stern said.
He did endorse the idea of further meetings, right after he take another swipe at the slow negotiating process,
“I think it’s fair to say that we’re in the same place as we were 30 days ago,” Stern said. “And we agreed we’d be in touch to schedule some additional meetings.”
“There’s always a reason for more meetings because that’s the only way you’ll ultimately get to a deal, at the negotiating table. You never know, but right now we haven’t seen any movement.”
With the owners still on the offensive rather than backing down from their demands of radical change, it is unlikely that any deal will be reached without losing NBA games. The whole season could actually be lost, let’s just hope
that it doesn’t get to that.
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