NBA labor talks broke down on October 20; No new meeting scheduled

[Fiasco]

Chris Bosh is not phased. WNBA tryouts next week, he's getting paid either way.

[bagelred]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CABCIseO8Zo#t=0m51s

[longtime lurker]

It's official. The NBA and NBAPA are trolling the fans. There's no other explaintion.....

[MeLO MvP 15]

The owners are so ridiculous IMO. Seriously the players are giving back 4.5 percent of billions of dollars and you want more? That covers their supposed losses and they still want more. Not to mention this whole system BS. They want to limit their own stupid decisions with a hard cap and they have the gall to say it's for parity. There can't be parity in sports... I mean you don't expect every team to be competitive all the time and it's not like the only teams winning are the big spenders/ big markets. And if they want balance it won't work out because there will always be better cities and organizations. I just wish that these guys would put this much effort into their basketball decisions instead of just trying to bully the players into some crazy new system. The players have literally made multiple concessions and the owners are like that kid in that commercial "... and?" Greedy bastards.

I was completely against decertification but I think it's probably the only way to get these jerks exposed.

Jeez...

/end rant

[Gundress]

NBA should follow the NFL system so basically hard cap too, it is the best way to go.

But I am more excited College Basketball than NBA anyway but it sucks we won't have a nba season this year.

[cteach111]

NBA should follow the NFL system so basically hard cap too, it is the best way to go.

But I am more excited College Basketball than NBA anyway but it sucks we won't have a nba season this year.

Stern knows what he's doing.. he's had experience with this before...

On December 23, Stern announced that he would recommend canceling the season if there was no deal by January 7, 1999. As Stern's deadline approached, the NBPA showed signs of division from within. Highly paid players were seen as the ones most affected by the disputed issues, rather than the union's membership as a whole. Agent David Falk, who was considered an influential voice for the players, represented NBPA president Patrick Ewing and nine players on the union's 19-person negotiating committee.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1998%E2...99_NBA_lockout

Stern knows who will fold first. The players have no leverage and he knows it.

[SunsCaptain]

From now on when I don't want to talk to some1 or argue with some1 I'm just going to start saying, "50/50 or GTFO"

I think it will catch on.

[L8kersfan222]

Fvcking Lebron, niqqa doesn't want to compromise cus hes scared as fvck.

[DFish]

The owners proposed a 50-50 split on Wednesday. The players lowered their target from 53 percent to 52.5, Silver said, but the sides could not get any further.

Throwing away a season over 2.5%

Nice, players. You'll actually end up losing more of your millions by not playing a whole season, compared to that 2.5%. But I think we know the real reason the players won't accept 50%. They're probably salivating at the possibility of a 16-team league next year with nothing but super-stars and no smaller market teams. Owners don't want that. They want a little thing called parity.

[longtime lurker]

Watching the press conferences right now. Caught the tail end of the conference with Silver and Holt. Union is talking right now, saying that the owners lied about the negotiations and offered a take it or leave it deal.

[RazorBaLade]

Throwing away a season over 2.5%

Nice, players. You'll actually end up losing more of your millions by not playing a whole season, compared to that 2.5%. But I think we know the real reason the players won't accept 50%. They're probably salivating at the possibility of a 16-team league next year with nothing but super-stars and no smaller market teams. Owners don't want that. They want a little thing called parity.

owners want players to go from 57% to 50, AND bend the players over on free agency, MLE's and hard caps.

[DFish]

NBA Official: Progress Was Being Made Until Garnett Entered Room

NBA management believes negotiations with the players changed when Kevin Garnett entered the negotiating room on Oct. 4.

Sources say Garnett was 'defiant, determined and downright ornery.'

As one league official said, “We were making progress, until Garnett [expletive] everything up.”

Read more: http://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap...#ixzz1bNbCHYBn

"Kevin Garnett, who inexplicably turned into Norma Rae these past few weeks and led the charge to fight the fight and stand strong … without, of course, ever mentioning that his agent was savvy enough to defer a significant amount of money from his last contract extension so that he still has fresh money coming in this season (unlike 95 percent of the players), or that a 50-game regular season would be absolutely perfect for his aching knees, or that losing two months of 2011-12 money might help him with his next contract because he won't break down during a shortened season (increasing the odds that he'll get one last lucrative extension next summer).

Should someone who's earned over $300 million (including endorsements) and has deferred paychecks coming really be telling guys who have made 1/100th as much as him to fight the fight and stand strong and not care about getting paid? And what are Garnett's credentials, exactly? During one of the single biggest meetings (last week, on Tuesday), Hunter had Kobe Bryant, Paul Pierce and Garnett (combined years spent in college: three) negotiate directly with Stern in some sort of misguided "Look how resolved we are, you're not gonna intimidate us!" ploy that backfired so badly that one of their teams' owners was summoned into the meeting specifically to calm his player down and undo some of the damage. (I'll let you guess the player. It's not hard.) And this helped the situation … how? And we thought this was going to work … why?"

KG acting like a dick? This is my surprised face

owners want players to go from 57% to 50, AND bend the players over on free agency, MLE's and hard caps.

Hard caps and parity = good things.

And the 57% they were originally at = not fair in the first place.

It's blatantly obvious that many NBA teams are losing money and can't realistically pay the NBA players their ridiculous salaries.

This is completely different then the NFL lockout, in which I sided with the players.

[longtime lurker]

NBA Official: Progress Was Being Made Until Garnett Entered Room





KG acting like a dick? This is my surprised face





Hard caps and parity = good things.

And the 57% they were originally at = not fair in the first place.

It's blatantly obvious that many NBA teams are losing money and can't realistically pay the NBA players their ridiculous salaries.

This is completely different then the NFL lockout, in which I sided with the players.

And what's to stop the NBA owners from doing what the NFL owners did once this CBA is over? BTW Hard cap does not necessarily equal parity.

[NuggetsFan]

The owners are so ridiculous IMO. Seriously the players are giving back 4.5 percent of billions of dollars and you want more? That covers their supposed losses and they still want more. Not to mention this whole system BS. They want to limit their own stupid decisions with a hard cap and they have the gall to say it's for parity. There can't be parity in sports... I mean you don't expect every team to be competitive all the time and it's not like the only teams winning are the big spenders/ big markets. And if they want balance it won't work out because there will always be better cities and organizations. I just wish that these guys would put this much effort into their basketball decisions instead of just trying to bully the players into some crazy new system. The players have literally made multiple concessions and the owners are like that kid in that commercial "... and?" Greedy bastards.

I was completely against decertification but I think it's probably the only way to get these jerks exposed.

Jeez...

/end rant

Try and get Melo's dick out of your mouth for a second. Both sides are guilty. Gotta laugh at the fans picking sides. Like either one gives a f*ck about you. Both sides are completely stuck on getting the best deal for themselves. Clearly far apart.

People should hate the situation and how greedy both sides are, not just hate on side for not caving.

[DFish]

Try and get Melo's dick out of your mouth for a second. Both sides are guilty. Gotta laugh at the fans picking sides. Like either one gives a f*ck about you. Both sides are completely stuck on getting the best deal for themselves. Clearly far apart.

People should hate the situation and how greedy both sides are, not just hate on side for not caving.

I definitely feel that way too. But if one side has to compromise, I feel like the players compromising would ultimately be better for fans of small-market teams.

In the end though... players and owners are arguing over millions while arena workers can't feed their families and fans aren't getting the sport.