NBA Lockout: New Twitter Account Symbolizes Pathetic Nature of Negotiations

The NBA just opened a new Twitter account entitled @NBA_Labor to help people understand the lockout situation and clear up rumors.

The only problem is, the NBA has been reduced to bickering with players through the same Twitter account.

Detroit Pistons forward Charlie Villanueva tweeted on Wednesday that the owners' 50-50 split proposal is actually closer to 46 percent or 47 percent for players because some $500 million is shaved off the top to account for "basketball-related income."

The NBA responded, in a rather snippy way at that, saying that money off the top was already agreed to by the league and players...by the way.

For some reason, the NBA decided to include Oklahoma City Thunder center Nazr Mohammed in the response.

Big mistake.

Mohammed in turn questioned the NBA's no-contact rules under the lockout.

So, as soon as the NBA opens up a new Twitter account, it starts aggravating the other side right away.

Yeah, that's effective.

Lockout talks have already been laughable, with neither side agreeing to concede and four weeks of the regular season already cancelled. At this point, it's looking like there won't be an NBA season at all.

Now this.

It's worth noting that Villanueva didn't directly tweet at the NBA. There was no @NBA_Labor mention or any hashtags. So, in essence, the NBA went after Villanueva unsolicited.

I can understand they want to clear things up, but you don't do it by calling out your own players. That only makes the situation even worse.

But it is a prime example of how labor negotiations have gone so far. Forget the day-to-day reports, citing numerous details. You only have to look at @NBA_Labor to understand how bad things are right now.