NBA commissioner David Stern has given the players’ union until 5 p.m. Wednesday to accept a labor deal it already has rejected, while union officials dismissed the deadline and called for further negotiations.
Stern said there still could be more negotiations if the deadline passes without players accepting the owners’ offer. But Stern said owners would replace the current offer with a “reset” proposal that decreases players’ share of revenues from 50 percent to 47, rolls back existing salaries and institutes a “hard” salary cap.
Union executive director Billy Hunter, speaking Tuesday at a news conference in New York, suggested Stern is bluffing about the deadline.
Hunter said he expects to meet with Stern before the deadline in an attempt to negotiate further. He also said he believes owners would offer their proposed 50-50 revenue split even after Stern’s deadline, which players called an “ultimatum.”
In any event, Hunter said the salary-cap system is more important to players than split of revenues. Players, who have been locked out since July 1, received 57 percent of revenue in the previous agreement.
“It’s about the system and the inability and flexibility for a player to get his market [value] and go to the team he is interested in,” Hunter said.
In an interview on NBA TV on Tuesday night, Stern said he is willing to talk to Hunter before his deadline, but indicated a decision on restarting negotiations would be guided by owners on the league’s labor-relations committee.
“We are always willing to negotiate [after Wednesday], but the starting point is the new proposal,” Stern said.
The league already has canceled games through November, and Stern said it would take at least 30 days to “get up and running” once a labor deal is reached. He said there has been no discussion about canceling more games after the Wednesday deadline.
Hunter said the unacceptable elements of the owners’ current offer include restrictions on sign-and-trade transactions that allow players to sign for more favorable terms before a trade, more limits on an exception that allows teams over the salary cap to sign middle-class free agents, an increase in the percentage of players’ salaries to be held in escrow and a more punitive luxury-tax system that discourages teams from carrying high payrolls.
Forty-three players, including representatives from 29 of 30 teams, were at the union meeting Tuesday. Hawks center Zaza Pachulia is the team’s union representative, but he was unable to attend the meeting because he’s playing in Turkey. Al Horford took his place.
Hunter and union president Derek Fisher said there are no plans to present the owners’ offer to players for a vote because it’s a “bad deal.” Hunter said there was “very little discussion” about decertification of the union, a process that would lead to players players filing antitrust lawsuits against owners.
Hunter acknowledged there is a “diversity of opinion” among the roughly 450 members of the union.
“But we are convinced that the vast majority of players stand behind the position we have adopted,” he said.
Fisher said the players have made “unprecedented” concessions on the revenue split relative to previous labor agreements. He said they would allow owners “to increase franchise values and increase profitability for, if not everybody, darn near everybody.”
Stern has said teams lost a combined $300 million last season despite record attendance and national television ratings. Owners are seeking economic concessions from players as well as a salary-cap system they say would increase competitive balance between large- and small-market teams.
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