Union says NBA may have been profitable. This lockout is going to suck.

In his press conference before Game 1 of the NBA finals, David Stern stood by his assertion that NBA owners have been bleeding money. That the business model has to change, that there need to be cutbacks on salaries negotiated. That the league as it operates now is bad business.

Manure formed by uncastrated adult male cattle, says NBA Players Association President Billy Hunter.

In a podcast given to players (and obtained by Yahoo’s Adrian Wojnarowski) Hunter says the league and owners may have made money.

“We believe that the NBA owners may have actually been profitable over the past several seasons,” Hunter said in the podcast obtained by Yahoo! Sports.

It gets better. Hunter goes on to suggest that the NBA’s projections on how far the salary cap would fall because of the decline in revenue may have been collusion by the owners to keep costs down.

“We are mindful of the potentially negative impact that last summer’s NBA’s cap predictions had on the offers made to the 2009 free agent class and our staff attorneys are currently considering whether the union should file a claim of collusion against the NBA,” Hunter said.

Stern said they have opened the books to the union in an unprecedented way and there is no dispute. Hunter notes that teams like Dallas and New York are tied to television networks that their owners also have, so money can essentially be shifted from one pocket to another to make the team look worse off than it is.

Tuesday night, really savor and enjoy the NBA finals. Starting next October, watch all the NBA basketball you can and marvel in the athleticism and beauty.

Because in the fall of 2011 there is going to be a lockout, and it is going to be ugly.