NO DEAL!!! Now there is a GREAT chance there will be no season.
Ken Berger break down :
NEW YORK — Unable to reach a collective bargaining agreement with the NBA, the union representing the players dissolved Monday and paved the way for a potentially lengthy and ugly anti-trust lawsuit to be filed within days.
With a unanimous show-of-hands vote from as many as 50 players, the union sent a disclaimer of interest letter to commissioner David Stern, which effectively ended the National Basketball Players Association’s role as the collective bargaining agent for the players. Outside counsel Jeffrey Kessler and star attorney David Boies — whom the players met for the first time Monday — will lead the legal team that will sue the NBA alleging anti-trust violations.
“We’ve negotiated in good faith for over two years,” said Billy Hunter, who now becomes executive director of the National Basketball Players Trade Association — no longer the leader of the players’ union. “The players just felt that they’ve given enough.”
Stern, speaking live on league broadcast partner ESPN, called the players’ tactic “a charade” and characterized it as a “magical trick” that ultimately will fail.
“What they’ve done is destroyed incredible value that would’ve gone to the union membership,” Stern said. “… We were very close, and they decided to blow it up.”
Stern made no pronouncements about further cancellation of games, but added, “The calendar takes care of that.” Although the disclaimer action initiated by union executive director Billy Hunter is more expeditious than a decertification vote initiated by the players, the legal fight that will ensue certainly imperils the 2011-12 season.
During a meeting attended by the players’ executive committee, player reps from all 30 teams and about 20 more players — including superstar Kobe Bryant, Tyson Chandler, Carlos Boozer, Rajon Rondo and Elton Brand — union officials presented and explained details of the league’s most recent offer. It had been characterized as the final revised proposal the league intended to offer, and if the players didn’t accept it, Stern’s negotiating position would revert to a harsher offer — including player salaries being dervied from a 47 percent share of revenues, a hard team salary cap and rollbacks of existing contracts.
The deal on the table for the players Monday included a 50-50 split of revenues — a 12 percent reduction from their previous share of 57 percent — and a long list of system and spending restrictions. Hunter said the meeting gained momentum and changed in tone once players raised the option of decertification. They ultimately chose the more expeditious option of a disclaimer, with Hunter saying a summary judgment in the anti-trust case could possibly be reached in 60 days — about the length of time it would’ve taken the National Labor Relations Board to authorize an election through a player-initiated decertification.
About 200 players already had signed decertification petitions, displeased with the league’s negotiating tactics and the concessions made by the union. Among these were 15 players in the meeting Monday, Hunter said.
The former union executive director said he has no intentions of withdrawing the NBPA’s unfair-labor practices charge with the NLRB, although it is not clear how the agency will view it now that the union has been dissolved.
for the article and more see CBSsports.com
Tags: basketball, cancel, court, fight, fisher, hunter, ken berger, Kobe, lockout, NBA, no, over, owners, Played, Rumors, season, Stern, union
Miss. Basketball 