Thursday in Las Vegas, players union president Derek Fisher and executive director Billy Hunter are going to face some tough questions from their rank and file constituents in a closed meeting — it will be 77 days since the lockout started and the players feel like negotiations are at square one. Basically because they are.
Talking in Las Vegas after some “lockout league” games (the Impact Competitive Training Series) players sounded like guys ready to except at least some games gone and maybe a full season.
They sounded pessimistic. Take this quote from union vice president Roger Mason, as reported by Ben Golliver at Eye On Basketball.“I’m an optimistic person at heart but what would make me think that we would have a season? Right now it’s looking like we’re going to miss training camp and some preseason games. Unless some things change, we could lose the season….
“I think there was a false sense of optimism leading into yesterday’s meetings,” Mason said. “That was a little tough because once we went to the meeting (Tuesday) it was really more of the same. The NBA and the owners want to change the system and they also want to make economic changes. We understand the landscape that the world is different so we’re willing to sacrifice and give money back. But a system with a hard cap is something we don’t want to do.”
Suns swingman Jared Dudley spoke to the Salt Lake Tribune and said Mason told him in the latest round of talks the players lowered their offer on the percentage of “Basketball Related Income” they get down to 53 percent. In the last labor deal they got 57 percent, they made an offer of 54.3 percent. That would be hundreds of millions in salary givebacks by the players in the future. But the players will not do that and accept hard cap, which they see as a push toward non-guaranteed contracts. (Which could have unintended consequences for the league.) The owners are staying strong on wanting a hard cap.
What the players want to hear from Hunter and Fisher on Thursday is a plan of action.
Dudley said union decertification — actually breaking up the union to allow players to sue the league on anti-trust grounds, which is what the NFL players union did at the start of their lockout — is still on the table. You can bet it comes up in Thursday’s meetings as some prominent agents are pushing for it. The league has already tried to stop that by a pre-emptive lawsuit asking for a ruling that the lockout is legal.
Hunter has said he wants to hold off on decertification, but the players are getting antsy and with agents pushing it well could happen.
None of this is good news. Things are going to get worse before they get better.