NBA Lockout and Collective Bargaining Agreement Discussion

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Re: NBA Lockout and Collective Bargaining Agreement Discussion

SportsLawGuy Gabe Feldman
Stern on Kessler:"He has been the single most divisive force in our negotiations.His conduct is routinely despicable.”

Can't say I dont agree with that...and Billy knows this too

[TheMatrix31]

Re: NBA Lockout and Collective Bargaining Agreement Discussion

Why the hell is this Kessler guy around?

[TN3LL]

Re: NBA Lockout and Collective Bargaining Agreement Discussion

sam_amick Sam Amick
Major takeaway from today, both from players press conference and key convo I had with a source who has talked to ownership side recently...

sam_amick Sam Amick
Players are showing serious willingness to give more on BRI in order for system exchanges. Shred of optimism? Source says owners will..

sam_amick Sam Amick
...likely give on system so long as they get more BRI. That would make so much sense if system hardline was always a means to the BRI end.

[RedSceptile]

Re: NBA Lockout and Collective Bargaining Agreement Discussion

Kessler (who I honestly never heard of until now) sounds like the kid in high school who always tells your girlfriend how sneaky you are and how she should watch her back even when you guys have an open and honest relationship. God I hate those kids.

[cmebfresh]

Re: NBA Lockout and Collective Bargaining Agreement Discussion

I hope Stern’s owners allow him to give a little on the system issues or else the season may really be canceled.

[The 24th Letter]

Re: NBA Lockout and Collective Bargaining Agreement Discussion

I doubt if the owners move on anything......too busy beating their chest.

[TN3LL]

Re: NBA Lockout and Collective Bargaining Agreement Discussion

NBA lockout: Rhetoric escalates as deadline looms

Mary Altaffer/AP - NBA Commissioner David Stern blames attorney Jeffrey Kessler for the stalled contract talks between the league and its players.
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By Amy Shipley, Tuesday, November 8, 4:12 PM

With the clock ticking on the 5 p.m. Wednesday deadline set by NBA Commissioner David Stern for the league’s players to accept the latest contract offer from owners – or have it pulled off the table — the ire between the sides escalated on Tuesday.

Jeffrey Kessler, a prominent attorney for the players, accused the owners of treating his clients like “plantation workers,” a comment that drew a furious response from Stern.

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Kessler said the owners’ current offer to give the players half of basketball-related income was not a “fair deal” and that the soft salary cap functioned like a hard cap.

“To present that in the context of ‘take it or leave it,’ in our view, that is not good faith,” Kessler, who also represented the NFL players in their labor dispute with the NFL, said in a telephone interview Monday night. “Instead of treating the players like partners, they’re treating them like plantation workers.”

In a phone call Tuesday, Stern blamed Kessler for the stalled talks and said he deserved to be “called to task” for the remark.

“Kessler’s agenda is always to inflame and not to make a deal,” Stern said, “even if it means injecting race and thereby insulting his own clients. . . . He has been the single most divisive force in our negotiations and it doesn’t surprise me he would rant and not talk about specifics. Kessler’s conduct is routinely despicable.”

There were no talks between the sides Tuesday, and none scheduled for Wednesday. Player representatives met in New York with the union’s executive committee to consider their options.

The vitriol surely won’t help close the gap.

“It certainly is dire,” Stern said about the stalemate.

Unless the players cave or the owners back down, which seemed highly unlikely despite increasing indications of fracturing on both sides, more games will be in jeopardy once Stern’s deadline passes. Stern said his demand that players take the current deal — which he said included five of six recommendations offered by a federal mediator during a lengthy negotiating session Saturday — was not an ultimatum, but rather “a plea to focus. Let’s make a deal now.”

With the lockout entering its fifth month, all games through Nov. 30 have been canceled. Though a 50-game season could be theoretically played as long as there is an agreement by early January, hopes for a breakthrough in talks have become increasingly bleak. Stern said ownership did not plan to reach out to the players before the Wednesday deadline.

“This is absolutely at a breaking point right now,” said Robert Boland, a professor of sports business who specializes in antitrust law and collective bargaining at New York University. “We’re on track to have this escalate into a much larger legal battle. . . . I don’t know where the exit ramp is from this one.”

Stern said the owners’ final offer of a 50-50 split on basketball-related revenues with a luxury tax system will be replaced at the close of business Wednesday by an earlier proposal offering a 53-47 split and a hard cap. Players have countered by threatening to start the process of decertifying their union, which would allow them to sue the owners for alleged anti-trust violations in federal court.

If either occurs — the current offer is replaced by a substantially less favorable one, or the players dissolve their union and challenge the owners in court, as NFL players did unsuccessfully when they were locked out last summer — the dispute likely will drag on for months.

Frustrated by the slow pace of talks, some prominent players have pushed for decertifying their union and taking the NBA to court. The thinking is that the league’s owners, eager to avoid such litigation, would quickly back off their hard-line demands and make concessions at the negotiating table during the 45-day window required for the National Labor Relations Board to approve the decertification.

Experts say that’s a risky proposition. During this summer’s NFL lockout, the NFL players disclaimed their union and sued the NFL on anti-trust charges, seeking an injunction against the lockout. Though they won at the district court level, they lost on appeal, a result that sent them back to the negotiating table with less leverage — and months of time at the negotiating table lost.

Even so, professional sports league have historically faced vigorous challenges in antitrust cases, so such litigation could be a major threat — as long as the players have the stomach for a long court fight.

“One thing seems clear . . . decertification . . . [will] not provide immediate relief,” Boland said. “It will not be the trick play that scores for you. It could be something with which you win over time.”

The NBA Players Association continues to hang on to hope that the National Labor Relations Board will rule on its May complaint that the owners had bargained in bad faith and take action against the NBA. If or when that will occur however, remains unknown.

[ProfessaPackMan]

Re: NBA Lockout and Collective Bargaining Agreement Discussion

Got them to go from 57 to 52.5, where the players said angrily "We will NOT go below that" blah, blah, blah to now willing to take 50% now.

[TheMatrix31]

Re: NBA Lockout and Collective Bargaining Agreement Discussion

Got them to go from 57 to 52.5, where the players said angrily "We will NOT go below that" blah, blah, blah to now willing to take 50% now.

Comical, huh.

[23]

Re: NBA Lockout and Collective Bargaining Agreement Discussion

Got them to go from 57 to 52.5, where the players said angrily "We will NOT go below that" blah, blah, blah to now willing to take 50% now.

They offered that before though... this is why Billy needs to be fired

Kessler throwing racism in there, thats why Stephen A was going off on his radio show in the link I posted

... Most of the agents dont even know the guy but he seems to have a voice bigger than the players.. SMH

Billy trying to call out MJ, is this something that they really want to bank on?

[TN3LL]

Re: NBA Lockout and Collective Bargaining Agreement Discussion

stevekylerNBA Steve Kyler
RT @JoshuaBRobbins: NBA spokesman says rumblings Hunter heard -- the league would cancel games thru XMas if no deal -- are "not accurate"

[WTF]

Re: NBA Lockout and Collective Bargaining Agreement Discussion

There are no room for negotiations on the system issues per David Stern, as of 3am Sunday morning.

I'm telling you... it's this deal, or else.

[ProfessaPackMan]

Re: NBA Lockout and Collective Bargaining Agreement Discussion

Comical, huh.

It's pimping at it's finest, I tell ya.

Players are like that girl who claims to be a Virgin and is saving herself for marriage and then when you ask her again a few weeks later she'll tell you she's not ready and then when you ask her again, she's ready...all this in a span of a few weeks LOL.

[The 24th Letter]

Re: NBA Lockout and Collective Bargaining Agreement Discussion

Got them to go from 57 to 52.5, where the players said angrily "We will NOT go below that" blah, blah, blah to now willing to take 50% now.

I know right. LOL..

That said, I would actually classify that as "negotiating" as opposed to these "doomsday dates" Stern keeps giving....all for the "good of the game" though!

[cmebfresh]

Re: NBA Lockout and Collective Bargaining Agreement Discussion

And when tomorrow come. People don't be fooled when hearing "Progress is being made" Please!!!!!