NBA Lockout: Players Caught in No-Win Situation in Standoff with Owners

The players were always destined to lose their battle with the owners in this latest NBA lockout, a fact that has become all too apparent as the never-ending string of negotiations, press conferences, pointed fingers and shrugged shoulders has dragged on.

Now, the Players Association, led by executive director Billy Hunter and president Derek Fisher, must take David Stern's latest offer to its constituents over the weekend, stuck between a rock and a hard place and with little opportunity to save face.

If the players accept the offer, they will be back to the business of basketball by mid-December, but with far less in their pot than they came in with. The players had previously enjoyed the better end of a 57-43 split of basketball-related income with the owners but have, over the course of the negotiations, acquiesced to a 50-50 split.

Well, Hunter and Fisher have, anyway. The players reportedly never authorized their leadership to dip below the 53 percent mark, though a split even as favorable as that would seem to be a pipe dream at this point.

However, if the players stand strong—which, in the grand scheme of the all-time struggle between labor and business, they should—they will only find themselves in an even worse position. A rejection of the latest proposal by the players would trigger the owners to reduce their offer to a 53-47 divide, with the players receiving the short end of the proverbial stick. That deal would likely also include a hard salary cap and rollbacks on current guaranteed contracts.

Should that be the case, the players and their agents may well push to decertify the union, which could throw this whole fiasco into further chaos and put the entire 2011-12 season in jeopardy. That would ultimately leave the players in an even worse position, both economically and from a public relations standpoint. In that situation, the players would have to worry not only about a smaller piece of the revenue pie, but also a smaller pie overall from which to draw, as a lost season would infringe significantly on the profitability and popularity of the league as a whole.

Which would be a shame, considering the tremendous success that the 2010-11 season proved to be. To sacrifice this campaign would be to squander an opportunity to grow the game and the league at its all-time peak. Though the owners deserve plenty of blame for creating this mess, it's the players who will get the lion's share of the flak from fans, as they are the names and faces that casual observers recognize.

The key for the players, then, regrettable as it may be, is to minimize their losses in an effort to get back to work and grow the overall revenue stream in the process. They've fought admirably to protect their interests and prevent the owners from eating their lunch, but if the players push this situation much further, they will be left with but scraps of humble pie on their plates.