Why the NBA Players Would Be Wise to Make a Deal Right Now

It's all downhill from here.

The NBA players association went into Tuesday's meeting with the owners thinking that they would be on the verge of getting a deal done. The players union had even decided to compromise on the revenue split and take much less than their previous 57 percent split.

Billy Hunter, Derek Fisher and Co. told the owners that they're willing to take less money for the players assuming that most of the current system of soft cap, mid level exceptions and bird rights stays in tact. Three hours later, the owners came back with an answer: No way.

The owners are sticking to their guns and not backing off of their proposal of hard cap, non-guaranteed contracts and rolling back current salaries. They want a new system, a new cap, a new NBA. Granted, they are trying to fix their own mistakes of offering players such as Gilbert Arenas and Rashard Lewis insane amounts of money, but since they are the owners, they have the power to do that.

And the NBPA needs to realize this and realize it quick. If they don't come to an agreement now, the owners stance is just going to grow even more. The players will start missing checks and will become so desperate for a deal that they'll be willing to accept any of the owners proposal. The owners would basically have the players at the palm of their hands, and they know that.

The union needs to get it together and let the players know that any chance for compromise is now. The best deal they could get would be now, and so they need to work together to carve out a deal that would at least somewhat be beneficial to them. The only other option they have left is decertification, and once that happens, it means that the union has given up and lost control and decide to leave the matters into the hands of the court.

The time to get a deal done is now, or the players could face the consequences. Because when billionaires and millionaires fight, we all know who wins that battle.