Here’s how an NBA front-office executive described the document the commissioner’s office delivered to the union to start labor negotiations:
“It’s just a photocopy of Stern’s middle finger.”
He was
kind of kidding.
The owners delivered an opening proposal to the Players Association this week, CBSSports.com first reported, and months of private assurances turned out to be true: The owners want to fundamentally change the salary structure of the NBA. They don’t want to negotiate a fresh collective bargaining agreement, as much as they want to crush the union once and for all.
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The owners want to take a far greater percentage of the basketball-related income. They want to pay millions less for maximum deals and shorten contracts. Most of all, they want a hard salary cap and assurances that protect themselves against a diminished economy and, well, themselves.
Everything is hurtling toward a 2011 lockout, a negotiation that’ll likely feel far more like a standoff.
Owners have delivered commissioner David Stern an unmistakable mandate: Get our money back and get us profitable. The tone is downright nasty on the owners’ side. There exists an undercurrent of desperation within much of ownership, a sense they’re hell-bent on bringing the players to their knees...
