NBA Lockout: Owners Will Eventually Get Their Way in New Deal
As the days go by we lose more and more games in the NBA season. And it’s not just the players fault or the owners fault, as to why we are losing NBA games. It’s both of their faults, as someone needs to get a deal done and now. But, the deal will not happen until the players cave into the owners demands on the new NBA Collective Bargaining Agreement.
We continue to hear both sides bickering about 51-50 percent in revenue sharing, which is a drop from what the NBAPA was making in their last CBA. However, every proposal that the owners and the league throws at the players association, they continue to turn it down.
According to the Washington Post, Commissioner David Stern refused to refer to the proposal as the league’s “last best offer,” but intimated that it was the case after conferencing with members of the owners’ labor relations committee.
“There comes a time when you have to be through negotiating and we are. We have done everything possible that was possible to do,” Stern said. “There is nothing left to negotiate about.”
Did you read that, nothing left to negotiate about? Now that does not mean that Stern and the NBA owners are just throwing up the white flag and canceling the season like the NHL did in 2004 for the 04-05 season. But, that is an alarming statement from the man who is responsible for the future of the NBA.
What the players do not realize is that they need the NBA more than the owners need the NBA.
Just like when former Boston Celtics guard Chris Herren told me in an interview when asked about the NBA Lockout, “I think there can be a 50-game season. They will get an agreement sometime, but the owners can sit this out longer than the players so they have a trump card.”
The Owners made their money well before the Lockout and will continue to make their fortunes without the NBA. The players will have to suck up their pride, accept the 51-or-50 percent revenue sharing, and get back to work playing in a shortened season.
If they do not, you’re going to see players who start turning on their Players Association, for not allowing them continue to earn a living to support their lifestyles.
Just like Herren said, “Guys are going to run out of money and they’re going to have to come to an agreement.”
The NBAPA can say they’re a united group right now in November. But just wait until December and January comes around. You will see the players get desperate and accept a deal that is worse than the one that in front of them now.
