lockout negotiations

[elindholm]

I keep reading about how this or that owner is taking a much more aggressive stance than the others, refusing to budge on issues that the majority of owners are ready to be flexible on. The latest bogeyman is the Blazers' Paul Allen, who reportedly is trying to cancel the season singlehandedly. (That's a bit of an extrapolation.)

I'm confused. Do the owners have to approve a deal unanimously? If 25 of them are satisfied with a proposal and the other 5 hate it, why do the other 5 have so much power? When it comes time for the players to vote, it will just be a simple majority, right? Do they really need to come up with something that all 30 owners will individually sign off on?

 

[Town Drunk]

From what I understand, all it takes is a simple majority of owners to ratify a new CBA.

 

[Town Drunk]

Voting on the new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) is not limited to the committee, however. According to Abbott, it requires a majority vote of 16 owners to ratify a new CBA.

http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/post/_/id/31683/nba-owners-bargaining-positions

 

[elindholm]

Hmm, well then I'm even more confused. Why (or how) are a few hard-liners preventing any real discussion from taking place?

 

[Mainstreet]

Hmm, well then I'm even more confused. Why (or how) are a few hard-liners preventing any real discussion from taking place?

And reading the bit about Portland, why must they be a persistent money-loser?

 

[Mainstreet]

http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/post/_/id/31683/nba-owners-bargaining-positions

I forgot to say, thanks for the link Town Drunk.

 

[BC867]

I saw an interesting article online about the complexity of the negotiations. Evidently it is not just the owners but, for example, the league as well. Specifically Deputy Commissioner Adam Silver. Here is an excerpt.

Howard Beck of the New York Times drops a small footnote to the ongoing labor negotiations. Don't expect a new proposal from either side just because the full negotiating committees are joining in on the discussions. Beck reports that both sides hope to begin a collaborative effort to construct a new plan together.

Neither side is expected to deliver a complete new proposal. The hope - at least among the optimists on either side - is that last week's brainstorming sessions will become the basis for a collaborative new effort. They are actively seeking a compromise.

Now I am not going to pretend to know if this is common practice but after the long stalemate we have had this summer it does seem to bring a new angle to the negotiations.

David Stern's voice has always rang the loudest when it came to CBA negotiations and the NBA. Billy Hunter follows along in the shadow although it is the players who have seemed to be the winners of the most recent CBA details. Two new voices are stepping to the forefront in these negotiations. Writes Ken Berger, Deputy Commissioner Adam Silver and Union President Derek Fisher have taken lead roles in the negotiations and have the unenviable task of selling their individual groups on compromise.

In other words, both sides will still have to make some pretty substantial concessions to get this deal done even with all of the optimism and play nice talk of the last two weeks. As Berger describes, that is going to take quite a sell job by Silver and Fisher to get it done.

http://www.peachtreehoops.com/2011/9/13/2422885/nba-lockout-2011-adam-silver-derek-fisher

 

[slinslin]

Hmm, well then I'm even more confused. Why (or how) are a few hard-liners preventing any real discussion from taking place?

The hardliners are the majority, simple.

The majority of the owners lost money.

 

[JCSunsfan]

The hardliners are the majority, simple.

The majority of the owners lost money.

This is the only explanation. It also clearly reveals that even billionairs like Allen do not like to lose money. Of course, thats probably how they got to be billionaires.

The players have to understand that owners have to be able to make enough profit to risk ownership. Without that, the league cannot survive.

 

[Skratchy_Seal]

Really good article on Nash's and Hill's take...

http://msn.foxsports.com/nba/story/...-want-wall-street-bailout-from-players-102611

...I reached out to the NBA’s highest-profile, most-thoughtful liberal, a man with an impeccable reputation for integrity and class, a man who desperately needs to get involved in this labor dispute before irreparable damage is done to a league that is on the cusp of a transcendent renaissance.

“I agree with you,” Phoenix Suns point guard and two-time MVP Steve Nash told me during our private phone conversation. “I’m not so one-sided that I don’t think there are ills within (the NBA business) model. But the majority of the things preventing this model from working are the owners policing themselves and not signing as many bad (player) contracts.

 

[SactownSunsFan]

Nash answered pretty much all of my questions. He was critical of Suns owner Robert Sarver, but the point guard said he was unsure if Sarver was a negotiating hardliner because he wants to sell the Suns. Nash declined to discuss Bryant Gumbel’s controversial, plantation-overseer comments about commissioner David Stern.

Please tell me Sarver is thinking about selling the team

 

[elindholm]

Although that sentence is intriguing, I suspect it arose from a conversation pretty similar to this:

Reporter: Do you think Sarver is a hardliner because he wants to sell the team?
Nash: I wouldn't know anything about that.
Reporter: So you're not sure one way or the other?
Nash: Right, there's no way for me to know what Mr. Sarver's plans are.

 

[SactownSunsFan]

Although that sentence is intriguing, I suspect it arose from a conversation pretty similar to this:

Reporter: Do you think Sarver is a hardliner because he wants to sell the team?
Nash: I wouldn't know anything about that.
Reporter: So you're not sure one way or the other?
Nash: Right, there's no way for me to know what Mr. Sarver's plans are.

Don't you try to crush my hopes!

 

[Mainstreet]

Please tell me Sarver is thinking about selling the team

This would breathe new life into me so long it is not a long drawn out process and Sarver is not just looking to sell the Suns to just any old buyer who pays the highest price. I want the Suns sold to someone who cares about the future of the franchise. This may not be consistent with how Sarver views the team. My recollection was he bought the Suns to sell the Suns at some point in time.

 

[Griffin]

Although that sentence is intriguing, I suspect it arose from a conversation pretty similar to this:

Reporter: Do you think Sarver is a hardliner because he wants to sell the team?
Nash: I wouldn't know anything about that.
Reporter: So you're not sure one way or the other?
Nash: Right, there's no way for me to know what Mr. Sarver's plans are.

That's what I was thinking too. Even if Nash thought or knew that Sarver is planning on selling the team, I doubt he would publicly comment on it.

But we can hope.

 

[Folster]

Paul Allen is probably making threats to ensure the new CBA provides him a way to dump Brandon Roy's contract.