NBA Lockout: Biggest Issues Separating Players and Owners

What is the true divide between the NBA players and owners during the lockout?

We've heard several items like the BRI split, "system issues" and revenue sharing as the most notable terms associated with the work stoppage, but that talk has become stale at this juncture.

We've listened to David Stern and his "back shmack" quotes, we've had fun making fun of Roger Mason's "hacked tweet," but what we haven't heard about is the real progress being made in the negotiating room.

There have been reports that point either to or away from real movement being made on integral issues, and each side has done a careful, delicate and precise job leaking information from the meeting room in an effort to gain public leverage, but what we haven't seen is the sides negotiating with one another in good faith.

I'm looking squarely at one side for its inability to do so. That's right—I'm talking to you, owners.

Those who made the decision to buy an NBA team with the current system in place without opposition.

The same people who now contend that the system is broken and the only way they can sustain as owners is to "negotiate" a new collective bargaining agreement that protects them from their own asinine decisions to give players more money than they may or may not be worth.

The same group of billionaire adults who are claiming the players aren't making enough concessions during these labor discussions, all in an attempt to stuff their oversized, fattened wallets to unforeseen proportions and destroy the momentum of the league after its best season since Michael Jordan retired.

After the two parties had been benefited by the presence of federal mediator George Cohen this week at the negotiating table, any progress that might have been made was effectively vaporized by a scathing laser in the form of the owners' demands on Thursday.

The owners, through Peter Holt, refused to discuss anything further that may have been separating the two sides until the parties could agree to a 50-50 BRI split (via Alan Hahn of Newsday).

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So Holt told the players, we don't go any further until you take the 50-50.

Chris Paul, the lone star in the room, was incredulous.

"Is that an ultimatum?" he shot back.

Then Holt's voice lost all its charming warmth.

"Take it," he said. "Or leave it."

"

Allow me to make something crystal clear: Any time an ultimatum is presented, there is no good-faith negotiating occurring. There is no interest in getting a deal that benefits both sides.

There is only one thing at the heart of that type of comment, and that is only what would benefit the power-hungry owners.

How can the players be expected to agree to a split of revenue when the system that comprises that money hasn't been agreed upon by both sides?

They can't.

The stance supports the theory that the owners were never going to negotiate in good faith or with any seriousness until players started missing paychecks. It also supports the idea that the owners remain divided in their own beliefs, as there has been a reported divide in the intentions within the group.

The follow-up comments from Thursday's meeting from the NBPA's side were telling, as for the first time at any point in the process, President Derek Fisher, Executive Director Billy Hunter and union lawyer Jeffrey Kessler held absolutely nothing back.

The owners have insulted players and fans and driven the league into the doldrums of the public eye, and it's a move that very well could effectively and emphatically cancel any surging momentum the league spent years building.

After the two sides promised to stop posturing through the media, the league has done an excellent job of throwing its players and the NBPA under the bus as the guilty party, and after yesterday it's impossible to fathom how anyone can support the owners.

Hunter and Fisher were both demonstrative and emotional in addressing the media, and Hunter even named owners like Micky Arison (Miami) and Mark Cuban (Dallas) as examples of owners who are hoping to concoct a deal.

Unfortunately, according to Alex Kennedy of Hoopsworld, others like Robert Sarver (Phoenix), Dan Gilbert (Cleveland), Wyc Grousbeck (Boston), Paul Allen (Portland) and Peter Holt (San Antonio) are impeding the pace of progress.

So round and round we go on the never-stopping carousel in an effort to hammer out a deal.

The fans continue to suffer and get the monumental shaft, the players are prevented from playing basketball and everyone is deprived from getting to watch basketball when the demand for it was never higher following the 2010-11 season.

When did this become a dictatorship?

Welcome to the new-look NBA, everybody.

How u?