The Official NBA Collective Bargaining Thread vol Phased in Hard Cap

[pmatic]

Full labor session not likely before August

While the basketball world was obsessed Tuesday with the release of an NBA schedule that may never happen, CBSSports.com has learned that the owners and players may not convene for another full-blown collective bargaining session until August.

It is up for interpretation, however, whether that would put the two sides behind the negotiating pace set during the 1998-99 lockout. Back then, it was 37 days between the imposition of the lockout on July 1 and the next bargaining session on Aug. 6.

But this time, the two sides have met once at the staff level -- last Friday -- and are scheduled to gather again this Friday for a second meeting. In the smaller sessions, which have not included commissioner David Stern or union chief Billy Hunter, the focus has shifted from the larger economic issues that led to the labor impasse to smaller-ticket system items such as how a new salary cap would be structured, according to sources familiar with the negotiations.

The highest-ranking figures involved in the smaller staff meetings have been deputy commissioner Adam Silver and Ron Klempner, associate general counsel for the National Basketball Players Association. NBPA attorney Jeffrey Kessler has not been involved, perhaps due to his obligations with hammering out the final details of a new NFL collective bargaining agreement. Kessler represents the players' associations in both locked-out sports.

It is possible that the two staffs could negotiate again next week, but sources said it does not appear likely that a full session -- including Stern, Hunter, Kessler, owners and players -- could occur until sometime in August. Though this technically would put the two sides behind the pace from 1998-99, when the lockout resulted in a shortened 50-game schedule, it is possible that the smaller meetings could create some much-needed momentum before the heavy hitters become involved in the process again.

When bargaining broke off June 30, hours before the owners officially imposed a lockout, both sides alluded to first making progress on less controversial topics when bargaining resumed, and then returning to the biggest philosophical divide -- the split of revenues.

"Both sides left the room still fully committed to getting a collective bargaining agreement done," NBPA president Derek Fisher said.
Link

 

[pmatic]

From this week's SI.

Derek Fisher Wants The Ball
The president of the NBA players' union, who happens to have been the point guard on five Lakers championship teams, might be the key player in ending the lockout and saving the 2011--12 season

Where am I going?" Derek Fisher asks himself, understandably distracted. Then he remembers. "I'm going to Newark," he tells the driver. "Newark Airport."

The Lakers guard had arrived in New York City on the red-eye early on this final day of June to participate in a last-ditch negotiating session between NBA management and the National Basketball Players Association, of which Fisher is president, and now in the late afternoon he is headed back to Los Angeles, where under normal circumstances he would be focused on winning his sixth NBA championship. But the normal NBA cycles have been eclipsed today: Only minutes earlier, after a three-hour meeting, he was informed by Spurs owner and chairman of the owners' labor relations committee Peter Holt that the owners would lock out the players at midnight.

"So here we are," says Fisher, now leaning into the limo's backseat in his navy suit and red tie, his legs sprawled out before him. He finds himself musing over the body language of Holt, NBA commissioner David Stern and deputy commissioner Adam Silver as they dropped the hammer on the players. "It was a very efficient, to-the-point sit-down—not as if they just arrived at their thinking. You wouldn't [show] a change in mood if this is where you thought you'd be anyway."

Where they are now is at the beginning of a lockout that threatens to be far longer and more contentious than what has paralyzed the NFL this year and at the very least equal to the disagreement that cost the NHL its entire 2004--05 season. The owners simply want to pay less money to the players, and the argument is especially complicated because each side has reason to believe it occupies the high ground and that its opponent simply is wrong. The prospects for a new collective bargaining agreement may hinge on the respect commanded on both sides of the table by Fisher, who sounds both sober and upbeat as his car pushes through the rush-hour clog of the Holland Tunnel. He looks as if he has lost Game 1 of a playoff series he remains confident of winning.

The NBPA is led by Fisher, the active player who has been union chief since 2006, and Billy Hunter, now in his 15th year—and second lockout—as executive director. "I don't think there's much difference between his demeanor as a player and as the person we've worked with here at the union," says Hunter, who communicates with Fisher almost daily. Traditionally Hunter has served as the point man in negotiations with Stern, while the president has been a liaison to the players. But Fisher has worked hard to extend the reach of his office, and union insiders say that no player leader has had a better, more nuanced grasp of the CBA or been better able to articulate a vision for the union.

When the union officials met with the NBA on the eve of the lockout at the Omni Berkshire Place in Manhattan, Fisher made his latest try at persuading the owners that a money-grab wouldn't solve their problems. He began his presentation by detailing the variety of roles he had embraced on behalf of the Lakers' consecutive championship teams of 1999--2000 through '01--02.

When Fisher mentioned that he had come off the bench during L.A.'s 2004 run to the Finals, he was interrupted by Holt. "Zero-point-four," the Spurs' owner said with a grin. The reference, of course, was to Fisher's turnaround jumper on an inbounds play with 0.4 of a second remaining to steal Game 5 of the '04 conference semifinals from San Antonio.

The dialogue, however, became less agreeable when Fisher raised his objection to one of the owners' key positions: the right to waive underperforming players with long-term guaranteed deals without having to pay the outstanding balance of their contracts. Holt responded that not every NBA player possesses Fisher's competitive spirit and work ethic.

"They talk about the money they have locked up on the Eddy Currys and the Stephon Marburys, and that it would free up money for everybody else," Fisher is saying now. "I don't follow that type of thinking, and it's going to be hard for me as president of the players' association to ever sign off on any agreement that would put us in that position."

The league contends that owners and players together will grow financially and thrive in competitive balance as long as the richest teams aren't permitted to overspend and the smallest markets are assured of profitability. The players respond that management is fooling itself to think that reclaiming money from the union will set the NBA on the road to growth. Fisher says he doubts dysfunctional franchises will be incentivized to become more efficient if they're guaranteed a windfall of new cash. "Decision-making on which players to draft and how best to develop them and which front-office personnel to hire and which community-relations programs to run—all of these go into running a successful business," says Fisher. "But it doesn't seem like those things are fully valued [by the owners]."

Fisher's union will face its harshest struggles while navigating these areas of conflict:

• The split of revenues. The last collective bargaining agreement between the two sides, signed in 2005, assured players of 57% of all basketball-related income. When factoring in the additional non-basketball-related revenue the owners receive, both sides acknowledge, the players now receive 50% of the league's $4.3 billion in total revenues. Fisher contends that the owners' current proposal would drop the players' annual take below 40% over the length of a 10-year deal, a reduction he calls "astronomical."

The players' latest offer, to surrender $530 million over a five-year period, has been dismissed as "modest" by Stern, whose owners have reported losses totalling $1.1 billion over the last three years, including a projected $300 million for the 2010--11 season. (The NBA declined to speak on the record about the CBA.) "Even if we said today that we had agreed to wipe out all your losses at $300 million a year [in player givebacks], we've been instructed that still wouldn't do it," says Fisher. "That's why it's been so hard for us to continue to make major economic proposals, because you're telling us that no matter what we offer, unless it's much, much closer to where you are, there's really no chance of us getting a deal done." The owners insist that none of the other issues can be discussed until a revenue split has been negotiated.

• The actual losses. The NBA projects that 22 teams lost a combined $450 million this year while eight franchises reported profits totaling $150 million, thus creating an aggregate loss of $300 million for the league. While the players tacitly concede that the league is losing money, they dispute the owners' accounting in part because, according to Fisher, it includes about $130 million in debt taken on by owners who borrowed money to purchase their teams. The owners insist that interest and amortization payments are a legitimate cost in any business, but so far the players reject that position largely because they get no revenue-sharing benefit if an owner later sells his franchise at a profit.

• Hard cap. The owners maintain that a hard ceiling on team salaries is crucial, citing the failure of even the luxury tax to curb teams' overspending. Fisher says that a hard cap would encourage each team to budget the majority of its payroll for two or three stars, leaving other players to not only compete for the remaining money but also to do so largely on nonguaranteed contracts. "What we envision is a cannibalist-type system, where you would constantly be in competition with your teammates over shots and points and minutes," says Fisher. "We've had a problem over the years convincing fans that guys really do care about playing as a team and wanting to make a sacrifice to win a championship and not just thinking about themselves."

But a hard cap itself is not a deal breaker. Hunter has indicated the union could accept one if the ceiling was high enough to prevent huge salary cuts for most players. And a source from the owners' side tells SI the owners are willing to discuss alternatives to a conventional hard cap, including an entirely new system in which salaries would be slotted to preexisting tiers, representing a variety of income levels.

Based on the owners' proposals to not only reduce salaries but also implement a hard cap on them, it becomes likely that this lockout will wipe out the season. After all, why would the majority of players vote for a system that slashes their salaries and job security? The last NBA lockout ended only after a ceiling was applied to the biggest stars' salaries that funneled more money to the middle class.

Fisher hopes to convince both sides to pursue the middle ground. There is little question that the NBA veteran, who will turn 37 in August, commands respect on both sides of the table. "It definitely matters," says Silver of Fisher's standing in the league. "There's a reason he has won five championships. He's a strong advocate for all of the players in the league and he's well-versed in all of the issues. He has set the tone for a very professional atmosphere."

Since the Lakers picked him No. 24 in the famed 1996 draft, Fisher has worked hard to become the NBA's most prized everyman. He has never been an All-Star, and last season he made about 15% of Kobe Bryant's $24.8 million salary, yet Fisher is celebrated as one of the great clutch shooters in playoff history. In 2007, during the final season of a three-year hiatus from the Lakers, Fisher rushed back from New York—where his 10-month old daughter Tatum had undergone emergency surgery and chemotheraphy that would save her left eye from retinoblasta, a cancerous tumor (now in remission)—to arrive in Salt Lake City for the third quarter of Game 2 of a second-round playoff series. That night, he would make the momentous three-pointer in OT that would lead the Jazz to victory and set the tenor in a 4--1 Utah series win.

Fisher entered union politics with an ambitious agenda. "So many athletes are riding along with our agents and our general managers and our coaches and our advisers, when we should be driving the ship," he says. Since succeeding Antonio Davis as president, Fisher has immersed himself in the fine print of the deal while seeking to increase the role of player president. He launched a negotiating session at All-Star weekend in Los Angeles with a presentation about the players' role in growing the league. "Fish has a stabilizing presence in terms of the way he carries himself," says Bryant, who has nicknamed his teammate Derek Obama in reference to his regal bearing. "He always stays in control, and he has a unique way to communicate and inspire."

But the job isn't all about speechmaking: During the past season Fisher invested hours each day in reading reports, studying numbers and participating in conference calls, sometimes while on board the team bus. He routinely communicates with players around the league on subjects ranging from the CBA negotiations to the outcome of fines and suspensions. "Guys want to know everything—everything," says Fisher.

By the end of the month Hunter is hoping to receive a ruling from the National Labor Relations Board that could result in an injunction against the lockout. If that complaint should fail and no headway can be made in negotiations, the executive director says the union will strongly consider decertification. He says the union may reach that decision before January—when the 1998--99 lockout was solved in time to allow a 50-game season—and that it may also encourage a group of players to file a lawsuit against the NBA, even though such a move could take time to be resolved in the courts.

At this stage the best hope of saving the season depends on continuing a dialogue that leads to a shared understanding. This is where Fisher's strengths come into play. Can a single player make the difference in time to launch a full season in late October? For Derek Fisher the next three months may feel like less time than 0.4 of a second. But at least the ball is in the right hands.
Link

 

[pmatic]

From this week's SI.

Derek Fisher Wants The Ball
The president of the NBA players' union, who happens to have been the point guard on five Lakers championship teams, might be the key player in ending the lockout and saving the 2011--12 season

Where am I going?" Derek Fisher asks himself, understandably distracted. Then he remembers. "I'm going to Newark," he tells the driver. "Newark Airport."

The Lakers guard had arrived in New York City on the red-eye early on this final day of June to participate in a last-ditch negotiating session between NBA management and the National Basketball Players Association, of which Fisher is president, and now in the late afternoon he is headed back to Los Angeles, where under normal circumstances he would be focused on winning his sixth NBA championship. But the normal NBA cycles have been eclipsed today: Only minutes earlier, after a three-hour meeting, he was informed by Spurs owner and chairman of the owners' labor relations committee Peter Holt that the owners would lock out the players at midnight.

"So here we are," says Fisher, now leaning into the limo's backseat in his navy suit and red tie, his legs sprawled out before him. He finds himself musing over the body language of Holt, NBA commissioner David Stern and deputy commissioner Adam Silver as they dropped the hammer on the players. "It was a very efficient, to-the-point sit-down—not as if they just arrived at their thinking. You wouldn't [show] a change in mood if this is where you thought you'd be anyway."

Where they are now is at the beginning of a lockout that threatens to be far longer and more contentious than what has paralyzed the NFL this year and at the very least equal to the disagreement that cost the NHL its entire 2004--05 season. The owners simply want to pay less money to the players, and the argument is especially complicated because each side has reason to believe it occupies the high ground and that its opponent simply is wrong. The prospects for a new collective bargaining agreement may hinge on the respect commanded on both sides of the table by Fisher, who sounds both sober and upbeat as his car pushes through the rush-hour clog of the Holland Tunnel. He looks as if he has lost Game 1 of a playoff series he remains confident of winning.

The NBPA is led by Fisher, the active player who has been union chief since 2006, and Billy Hunter, now in his 15th year—and second lockout—as executive director. "I don't think there's much difference between his demeanor as a player and as the person we've worked with here at the union," says Hunter, who communicates with Fisher almost daily. Traditionally Hunter has served as the point man in negotiations with Stern, while the president has been a liaison to the players. But Fisher has worked hard to extend the reach of his office, and union insiders say that no player leader has had a better, more nuanced grasp of the CBA or been better able to articulate a vision for the union.

When the union officials met with the NBA on the eve of the lockout at the Omni Berkshire Place in Manhattan, Fisher made his latest try at persuading the owners that a money-grab wouldn't solve their problems. He began his presentation by detailing the variety of roles he had embraced on behalf of the Lakers' consecutive championship teams of 1999--2000 through '01--02.

When Fisher mentioned that he had come off the bench during L.A.'s 2004 run to the Finals, he was interrupted by Holt. "Zero-point-four," the Spurs' owner said with a grin. The reference, of course, was to Fisher's turnaround jumper on an inbounds play with 0.4 of a second remaining to steal Game 5 of the '04 conference semifinals from San Antonio.

The dialogue, however, became less agreeable when Fisher raised his objection to one of the owners' key positions: the right to waive underperforming players with long-term guaranteed deals without having to pay the outstanding balance of their contracts. Holt responded that not every NBA player possesses Fisher's competitive spirit and work ethic.

"They talk about the money they have locked up on the Eddy Currys and the Stephon Marburys, and that it would free up money for everybody else," Fisher is saying now. "I don't follow that type of thinking, and it's going to be hard for me as president of the players' association to ever sign off on any agreement that would put us in that position."

The league contends that owners and players together will grow financially and thrive in competitive balance as long as the richest teams aren't permitted to overspend and the smallest markets are assured of profitability. The players respond that management is fooling itself to think that reclaiming money from the union will set the NBA on the road to growth. Fisher says he doubts dysfunctional franchises will be incentivized to become more efficient if they're guaranteed a windfall of new cash. "Decision-making on which players to draft and how best to develop them and which front-office personnel to hire and which community-relations programs to run—all of these go into running a successful business," says Fisher. "But it doesn't seem like those things are fully valued [by the owners]."

Fisher's union will face its harshest struggles while navigating these areas of conflict:

• The split of revenues. The last collective bargaining agreement between the two sides, signed in 2005, assured players of 57% of all basketball-related income. When factoring in the additional non-basketball-related revenue the owners receive, both sides acknowledge, the players now receive 50% of the league's $4.3 billion in total revenues. Fisher contends that the owners' current proposal would drop the players' annual take below 40% over the length of a 10-year deal, a reduction he calls "astronomical."

The players' latest offer, to surrender $530 million over a five-year period, has been dismissed as "modest" by Stern, whose owners have reported losses totalling $1.1 billion over the last three years, including a projected $300 million for the 2010--11 season. (The NBA declined to speak on the record about the CBA.) "Even if we said today that we had agreed to wipe out all your losses at $300 million a year [in player givebacks], we've been instructed that still wouldn't do it," says Fisher. "That's why it's been so hard for us to continue to make major economic proposals, because you're telling us that no matter what we offer, unless it's much, much closer to where you are, there's really no chance of us getting a deal done." The owners insist that none of the other issues can be discussed until a revenue split has been negotiated.

• The actual losses. The NBA projects that 22 teams lost a combined $450 million this year while eight franchises reported profits totaling $150 million, thus creating an aggregate loss of $300 million for the league. While the players tacitly concede that the league is losing money, they dispute the owners' accounting in part because, according to Fisher, it includes about $130 million in debt taken on by owners who borrowed money to purchase their teams. The owners insist that interest and amortization payments are a legitimate cost in any business, but so far the players reject that position largely because they get no revenue-sharing benefit if an owner later sells his franchise at a profit.

• Hard cap. The owners maintain that a hard ceiling on team salaries is crucial, citing the failure of even the luxury tax to curb teams' overspending. Fisher says that a hard cap would encourage each team to budget the majority of its payroll for two or three stars, leaving other players to not only compete for the remaining money but also to do so largely on nonguaranteed contracts. "What we envision is a cannibalist-type system, where you would constantly be in competition with your teammates over shots and points and minutes," says Fisher. "We've had a problem over the years convincing fans that guys really do care about playing as a team and wanting to make a sacrifice to win a championship and not just thinking about themselves."

But a hard cap itself is not a deal breaker. Hunter has indicated the union could accept one if the ceiling was high enough to prevent huge salary cuts for most players. And a source from the owners' side tells SI the owners are willing to discuss alternatives to a conventional hard cap, including an entirely new system in which salaries would be slotted to preexisting tiers, representing a variety of income levels.

Based on the owners' proposals to not only reduce salaries but also implement a hard cap on them, it becomes likely that this lockout will wipe out the season. After all, why would the majority of players vote for a system that slashes their salaries and job security? The last NBA lockout ended only after a ceiling was applied to the biggest stars' salaries that funneled more money to the middle class.

Fisher hopes to convince both sides to pursue the middle ground. There is little question that the NBA veteran, who will turn 37 in August, commands respect on both sides of the table. "It definitely matters," says Silver of Fisher's standing in the league. "There's a reason he has won five championships. He's a strong advocate for all of the players in the league and he's well-versed in all of the issues. He has set the tone for a very professional atmosphere."

Since the Lakers picked him No. 24 in the famed 1996 draft, Fisher has worked hard to become the NBA's most prized everyman. He has never been an All-Star, and last season he made about 15% of Kobe Bryant's $24.8 million salary, yet Fisher is celebrated as one of the great clutch shooters in playoff history. In 2007, during the final season of a three-year hiatus from the Lakers, Fisher rushed back from New York—where his 10-month old daughter Tatum had undergone emergency surgery and chemotheraphy that would save her left eye from retinoblasta, a cancerous tumor (now in remission)—to arrive in Salt Lake City for the third quarter of Game 2 of a second-round playoff series. That night, he would make the momentous three-pointer in OT that would lead the Jazz to victory and set the tenor in a 4--1 Utah series win.

Fisher entered union politics with an ambitious agenda. "So many athletes are riding along with our agents and our general managers and our coaches and our advisers, when we should be driving the ship," he says. Since succeeding Antonio Davis as president, Fisher has immersed himself in the fine print of the deal while seeking to increase the role of player president. He launched a negotiating session at All-Star weekend in Los Angeles with a presentation about the players' role in growing the league. "Fish has a stabilizing presence in terms of the way he carries himself," says Bryant, who has nicknamed his teammate Derek Obama in reference to his regal bearing. "He always stays in control, and he has a unique way to communicate and inspire."

But the job isn't all about speechmaking: During the past season Fisher invested hours each day in reading reports, studying numbers and participating in conference calls, sometimes while on board the team bus. He routinely communicates with players around the league on subjects ranging from the CBA negotiations to the outcome of fines and suspensions. "Guys want to know everything—everything," says Fisher.

By the end of the month Hunter is hoping to receive a ruling from the National Labor Relations Board that could result in an injunction against the lockout. If that complaint should fail and no headway can be made in negotiations, the executive director says the union will strongly consider decertification. He says the union may reach that decision before January—when the 1998--99 lockout was solved in time to allow a 50-game season—and that it may also encourage a group of players to file a lawsuit against the NBA, even though such a move could take time to be resolved in the courts.

At this stage the best hope of saving the season depends on continuing a dialogue that leads to a shared understanding. This is where Fisher's strengths come into play. Can a single player make the difference in time to launch a full season in late October? For Derek Fisher the next three months may feel like less time than 0.4 of a second. But at least the ball is in the right hands.
Link

 

[pmatic]

@WojYahooNBA NBA released audit of Basketball Related Income (BRI), saying total player compensation reached 57% of BRI. Aver. player salary: $5.15M

@WojYahooNBA League revenue rose 4.8% to $3.817 billion in '10-11, NBA says.

@WojYahooNBA If audit had shown league revenues down, you can bet the NBA wouldn't have snuck out these figures at 5 PM on a Friday.

@WojYahooNBA Owners will keep with same story. Yes, revenues went up, but that still doesn't outpace our operating expenses (mainly player salaries).

@WojYahooNBA Give Stern and owners this: Few businessmen anywhere take more pride in telling you how poorly they've run industry, how much they've lost.

 

[pmatic]

@WojYahooNBA NBA released audit of Basketball Related Income (BRI), saying total player compensation reached 57% of BRI. Aver. player salary: $5.15M

@WojYahooNBA League revenue rose 4.8% to $3.817 billion in '10-11, NBA says.

@WojYahooNBA If audit had shown league revenues down, you can bet the NBA wouldn't have snuck out these figures at 5 PM on a Friday.

@WojYahooNBA Owners will keep with same story. Yes, revenues went up, but that still doesn't outpace our operating expenses (mainly player salaries).

@WojYahooNBA Give Stern and owners this: Few businessmen anywhere take more pride in telling you how poorly they've run industry, how much they've lost.

 

[statis22]

• http://www.sportsagentblog.com/2011/05/07/2011-nfl-draft-rounds-1-7-picks-playeragent/

Jul

25
[h1]Powerful NBA Agents Seek Use Of Decertification Weapon[/h1]
By Darren Heitner | Headline, Sports Law

/www.sportsagentblog.com/?p=14127">http://www.sportsagentblog.com/?p=14127">Leave a Comment


Over the weekend, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports Tweeted the following:
There was a problem with the blakbirdpie shortcode


Wojnarowski Tweeted that statement after Arn Tellem of Wasserman Media Group, Mark Bartelstein of Priority Sports, and many other prominent basketball agents met with National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) Executive Director Billy Hunter on Friday to talk about the NBA lockout (which began on July 1, 2011), including the possibility of decertification of the union.

As we have seen with the NFL, decertification of the NBPA would prevent it from collectively bargaining with NBA owners.  The NBPA would have to eventually recertify before agreeing to a new collective bargaining agreement.  A major perceived benefit of decertifying is allowing the players to individually and/or collectively file lawsuits against the NBA under United States antitrust laws based on a claim of unlawfully restraining trade.  Collective bargaining under U.S. labor laws effectively prevents players from bringing any suits against the league under antitrust laws.

While it is no doubt that NBA agents want to force the NBA to negotiate for real, there may also be a more basic reason that agents are thinking about decertification – they may not like the idea of being a part of a union at all.  In May, Arn Tellem wrote an article published in the New York Times, which questioned whether players’ unions have outlived their purpose.  Specifically, Tellem believes that unions have shielded owners from the scrutiny of antitrust laws and effectively allowed collusion.  Tellem stated, “something is fundamentally wrong when the only effective weapon in a union’s arsenal is dissolution.

 

[statis22]

• http://www.sportsagentblog.com/2011/05/07/2011-nfl-draft-rounds-1-7-picks-playeragent/

Jul

25
[h1]Powerful NBA Agents Seek Use Of Decertification Weapon[/h1]
By Darren Heitner | Headline, Sports Law

/www.sportsagentblog.com/?p=14127">http://www.sportsagentblog.com/?p=14127">Leave a Comment


Over the weekend, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports Tweeted the following:
There was a problem with the blakbirdpie shortcode


Wojnarowski Tweeted that statement after Arn Tellem of Wasserman Media Group, Mark Bartelstein of Priority Sports, and many other prominent basketball agents met with National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) Executive Director Billy Hunter on Friday to talk about the NBA lockout (which began on July 1, 2011), including the possibility of decertification of the union.

As we have seen with the NFL, decertification of the NBPA would prevent it from collectively bargaining with NBA owners.  The NBPA would have to eventually recertify before agreeing to a new collective bargaining agreement.  A major perceived benefit of decertifying is allowing the players to individually and/or collectively file lawsuits against the NBA under United States antitrust laws based on a claim of unlawfully restraining trade.  Collective bargaining under U.S. labor laws effectively prevents players from bringing any suits against the league under antitrust laws.

While it is no doubt that NBA agents want to force the NBA to negotiate for real, there may also be a more basic reason that agents are thinking about decertification – they may not like the idea of being a part of a union at all.  In May, Arn Tellem wrote an article published in the New York Times, which questioned whether players’ unions have outlived their purpose.  Specifically, Tellem believes that unions have shielded owners from the scrutiny of antitrust laws and effectively allowed collusion.  Tellem stated, “something is fundamentally wrong when the only effective weapon in a union’s arsenal is dissolution.

 

[noblekane]

!+%% the nba... [magic]the nfl is back yall![magic]

 

[noblekane]

!+%% the nba... [magic]the nfl is back yall![magic]

 

[duba169]

%+%! the NBA is right. Shady bastards

 

[duba169]

%+%! the NBA is right. Shady bastards

 

[pmatic]

Key points to heed in decertification talk

Keep one number in mind as powerful agents beat their chests about decertification: $4 billion. That's the total amount of guaranteed contract money in the system that the NBA and its owners insist will go poof if the players decide to dissolve the National Basketball Players Association. The only reason to decertify would be to hit the owners with an antitrust lawsuit that could, conceivably, net the players a huge financial windfall (treble damages, remember) that would then entice owners to the bargaining table. But it's a gamble.

Nonetheless, some of the game's most powerful agents are pushing NBPA executive director Billy Hunter to start the decertification process soon. Yahoo! Sports reported Friday that at the already-scheduled meeting between Hunter and the agents, they told him that time is running out.

Among the agents at Friday's meeting with Hunter, according to sources, were WMG's Arn Tellem, perhaps the game's most powerful agent (Tellem's basketball division represents, among others: Derrick Rose, Pau and Marc Gasol, Russell Westbrook, LaMarcus Aldridge, Joe Johnson, Al Horford, Brandon Roy, Antawn Jamison and Kendrick Perkins) and a longtime advocate of decertification strategy; Leon Rose, Creative Artists Agency's top basketball man (who has LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony and Chris Paul among his clients); Excel's Jeff Schwartz, who just signed Deron Williams to add to a client list including Paul Pierce, Jason Kidd, Lamar Odom, Blake Griffin and Kevin Love, and BDA Sports' Bill Duffy, whose company handles Steve Nash, Rajon Rondo, Brandon Jennings, Baron Davis, Greg Oden and the recently retired Yao Ming.

During the meeting, according to sources, decertification was just one option discussed among the group to push owners back to the bargaining table. But it was the one that most agents favored.

"At the end of the day, if the NBA doesn't want to negotiate -- which they clearly don't want to do -- you have to look at the other options that you have, and that's what we're examining," said Priority Sports' Mark Bartlestein, another prominent agent at the meeting who represents more than two dozen NBA players including Danny Granger, David Lee, Mo Williams, Jared Dudley and Taj Gibson.

As far as the $4 billion goes, the league's contention that the contracts would disappear is true only to a point. At some point, the league will reach a deal with the union, and would almost certainly have to reinstate the players' contracts once the union recertified. The alternative would be either implementing work rules on the players without a deal, which would leave the league vulnerable to a potential players' strike, or additional antitrust penalties if players sought redress while they continued to play under the imposed rules.

At any rate, the agents do not believe that the league would actually go ahead and void all of those contracts. Such a move could, at least theoretically, make every player in the league a free agent, able to go wherever they wanted. And owners like, say, Miami's Micky Arison, might have a problem with that.

"Think of the chaos of that," a prominent agent said Sunday afternoon. "All of a sudden Kobe and Chris Paul and Deron Williams are free agents? Some owners would lose their marbles. If your top 20 players in the league could, all of a sudden, do what they wanted?...can you imagine Oklahaoma City? (Kevin) Durant and Westbrook? See ya."

A source with knowledge of the meeting indicated that the idea of "involuntary" decertification did come up; basically, a decertification that woud take place over Hunter's objections. That would require 30 percent of the union's players to sign a petition requesting a vote of the full membership to decertify. That vote would take place at satellite offices of the National Labor Relations Board across the country. A simple majority of the union membership would cause the dissolution of the body.

This was the tactic that several agents, including Tellem and David Falk, tried in 1995, when they were unhappy with the progress made by then-executive director Simon Gourdine on a new CBA. Their clients, including Michael Jordan, Patrick Ewing, Reggie Miller and others, publicly lobbied their peers to decertify. But the players voted 226-134 against decertification. And in 1999, Hunter, who had been on the job for just three years, opted not to go that route during that year's lockout. After that lockout, the makeup of the union's executive director board changed dramatically.

Ewing, the president of the union in '99, was replaced by Antonio Davis, who served briefly until the Lakers' Derek Fisher took over in 2006. The executive committee, full of stars like Ewing and Alonzo Mourning, was replaced by more players representing the league's financial middle class, including Fisher, Miami swingman James Jones, Washington forward Mo Evans, Knicks guard Roger Mason Jr. and Bucks guard Keyon Dooling. (Chris Paul is the only current committee member from the players' upper crust.) That movement was not by accident; Fisher and the union have made protecting the middle class a priority, and there is some thought that the big-time agents want to reassert control over the union.

"I don't think it's about the stars," Bartlestein said Saturday. "The people that have been talking to Billy represent a large portion of the league. It's about reaching a consensus with a large group of players. I think Billy knows we represent a lot of players and we have a good feel of what's going on."

Regardless of their motivation, the agents' move should be a clear indication to commissioner David Stern and the owners that, just as there are owners who are willing to miss a full season to change the existing salary structure in the NBA, there are hawks on the players' side that are just as willing to drag this into the courts, where no one can feel confident they know what will happen.

Hunter, as NBA.com has been reporting for months, has grown more comfortable with the idea of decertification as a last-ditch strategy, and indicated during Friday's meeting that he is not necessarily averse to using the tactic. However, the ruling of the U.S. Eighth Circuit Court in St. Louis earlier this month that upheld the legality of the NFL owners' lockout -- begun after the NFL Players Association decertified -- has made that strategy even riskier.

The basketball union would likely file the case in a venue that is deemed more favorable, such as the First Circuit in Boston or the the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco. The ruling of the Eighth Circuit would not be binding in either of those courts. If the First or Ninth were to rule in the players' favor, that could -- potentially, according to legal experts -- lead to the Supreme Court taking on the case.

Hunter and the union would like to wait until their complaint filed against the NBA for not negotiating in good faith is heard. The NBPA amended the complaint earlier this month, saying that the league cancelled the Las Vegas Summer League without bargaining with the players. The union has believed the NLRB, historically slow to decide such matters, might fast-track its complaint and rule in the next few weeks. For the moment, the agents are willing to wait as well. But they won't be very patient.

Bartlestein insisted that the tenor of Friday's meeting was not confrontational.

"I think some people are portraying it like we were marching in there telling Billy what to do," Bartlestein said. "It was very positive. We all have the same goal. It was not contentious, or one side against the other side. Sure, voices get raised once in a while, because it's emotional and everybody has opinions. But nobody knows the exact perfect thing to do ... you have to sit down and analyze everything and come up with a consensus. And that's what the meeting was about, coming up with a consensus about what's the next thing to do."

Link

 

[pmatic]

Key points to heed in decertification talk

Keep one number in mind as powerful agents beat their chests about decertification: $4 billion. That's the total amount of guaranteed contract money in the system that the NBA and its owners insist will go poof if the players decide to dissolve the National Basketball Players Association. The only reason to decertify would be to hit the owners with an antitrust lawsuit that could, conceivably, net the players a huge financial windfall (treble damages, remember) that would then entice owners to the bargaining table. But it's a gamble.

Nonetheless, some of the game's most powerful agents are pushing NBPA executive director Billy Hunter to start the decertification process soon. Yahoo! Sports reported Friday that at the already-scheduled meeting between Hunter and the agents, they told him that time is running out.

Among the agents at Friday's meeting with Hunter, according to sources, were WMG's Arn Tellem, perhaps the game's most powerful agent (Tellem's basketball division represents, among others: Derrick Rose, Pau and Marc Gasol, Russell Westbrook, LaMarcus Aldridge, Joe Johnson, Al Horford, Brandon Roy, Antawn Jamison and Kendrick Perkins) and a longtime advocate of decertification strategy; Leon Rose, Creative Artists Agency's top basketball man (who has LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony and Chris Paul among his clients); Excel's Jeff Schwartz, who just signed Deron Williams to add to a client list including Paul Pierce, Jason Kidd, Lamar Odom, Blake Griffin and Kevin Love, and BDA Sports' Bill Duffy, whose company handles Steve Nash, Rajon Rondo, Brandon Jennings, Baron Davis, Greg Oden and the recently retired Yao Ming.

During the meeting, according to sources, decertification was just one option discussed among the group to push owners back to the bargaining table. But it was the one that most agents favored.

"At the end of the day, if the NBA doesn't want to negotiate -- which they clearly don't want to do -- you have to look at the other options that you have, and that's what we're examining," said Priority Sports' Mark Bartlestein, another prominent agent at the meeting who represents more than two dozen NBA players including Danny Granger, David Lee, Mo Williams, Jared Dudley and Taj Gibson.

As far as the $4 billion goes, the league's contention that the contracts would disappear is true only to a point. At some point, the league will reach a deal with the union, and would almost certainly have to reinstate the players' contracts once the union recertified. The alternative would be either implementing work rules on the players without a deal, which would leave the league vulnerable to a potential players' strike, or additional antitrust penalties if players sought redress while they continued to play under the imposed rules.

At any rate, the agents do not believe that the league would actually go ahead and void all of those contracts. Such a move could, at least theoretically, make every player in the league a free agent, able to go wherever they wanted. And owners like, say, Miami's Micky Arison, might have a problem with that.

"Think of the chaos of that," a prominent agent said Sunday afternoon. "All of a sudden Kobe and Chris Paul and Deron Williams are free agents? Some owners would lose their marbles. If your top 20 players in the league could, all of a sudden, do what they wanted?...can you imagine Oklahaoma City? (Kevin) Durant and Westbrook? See ya."

A source with knowledge of the meeting indicated that the idea of "involuntary" decertification did come up; basically, a decertification that woud take place over Hunter's objections. That would require 30 percent of the union's players to sign a petition requesting a vote of the full membership to decertify. That vote would take place at satellite offices of the National Labor Relations Board across the country. A simple majority of the union membership would cause the dissolution of the body.

This was the tactic that several agents, including Tellem and David Falk, tried in 1995, when they were unhappy with the progress made by then-executive director Simon Gourdine on a new CBA. Their clients, including Michael Jordan, Patrick Ewing, Reggie Miller and others, publicly lobbied their peers to decertify. But the players voted 226-134 against decertification. And in 1999, Hunter, who had been on the job for just three years, opted not to go that route during that year's lockout. After that lockout, the makeup of the union's executive director board changed dramatically.

Ewing, the president of the union in '99, was replaced by Antonio Davis, who served briefly until the Lakers' Derek Fisher took over in 2006. The executive committee, full of stars like Ewing and Alonzo Mourning, was replaced by more players representing the league's financial middle class, including Fisher, Miami swingman James Jones, Washington forward Mo Evans, Knicks guard Roger Mason Jr. and Bucks guard Keyon Dooling. (Chris Paul is the only current committee member from the players' upper crust.) That movement was not by accident; Fisher and the union have made protecting the middle class a priority, and there is some thought that the big-time agents want to reassert control over the union.

"I don't think it's about the stars," Bartlestein said Saturday. "The people that have been talking to Billy represent a large portion of the league. It's about reaching a consensus with a large group of players. I think Billy knows we represent a lot of players and we have a good feel of what's going on."

Regardless of their motivation, the agents' move should be a clear indication to commissioner David Stern and the owners that, just as there are owners who are willing to miss a full season to change the existing salary structure in the NBA, there are hawks on the players' side that are just as willing to drag this into the courts, where no one can feel confident they know what will happen.

Hunter, as NBA.com has been reporting for months, has grown more comfortable with the idea of decertification as a last-ditch strategy, and indicated during Friday's meeting that he is not necessarily averse to using the tactic. However, the ruling of the U.S. Eighth Circuit Court in St. Louis earlier this month that upheld the legality of the NFL owners' lockout -- begun after the NFL Players Association decertified -- has made that strategy even riskier.

The basketball union would likely file the case in a venue that is deemed more favorable, such as the First Circuit in Boston or the the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco. The ruling of the Eighth Circuit would not be binding in either of those courts. If the First or Ninth were to rule in the players' favor, that could -- potentially, according to legal experts -- lead to the Supreme Court taking on the case.

Hunter and the union would like to wait until their complaint filed against the NBA for not negotiating in good faith is heard. The NBPA amended the complaint earlier this month, saying that the league cancelled the Las Vegas Summer League without bargaining with the players. The union has believed the NLRB, historically slow to decide such matters, might fast-track its complaint and rule in the next few weeks. For the moment, the agents are willing to wait as well. But they won't be very patient.

Bartlestein insisted that the tenor of Friday's meeting was not confrontational.

"I think some people are portraying it like we were marching in there telling Billy what to do," Bartlestein said. "It was very positive. We all have the same goal. It was not contentious, or one side against the other side. Sure, voices get raised once in a while, because it's emotional and everybody has opinions. But nobody knows the exact perfect thing to do ... you have to sit down and analyze everything and come up with a consensus. And that's what the meeting was about, coming up with a consensus about what's the next thing to do."

Link

 

[rashi]

Average NBA salary is $5 million guaranteed? That's the highest in U.S. sports.


I gotta say I believe the league when they say the salaries aren't correlating well with the operating costs, 22 teams lose money every season. So a little less than 1/3 of the league is propping up the 2/3? NBA players have it made. You have 6 teams that aren't even in the Top 30 Media Markets and a watered down talent pool.

 

[rashi]

Average NBA salary is $5 million guaranteed? That's the highest in U.S. sports.


I gotta say I believe the league when they say the salaries aren't correlating well with the operating costs, 22 teams lose money every season. So a little less than 1/3 of the league is propping up the 2/3? NBA players have it made. You have 6 teams that aren't even in the Top 30 Media Markets and a watered down talent pool.

 

[duba169]

that's the average but do you how severely underpaid players like lebron and wade are? I promise the knicks are making extreeeeme amounts of money off melo. that 20 million is chump change

In an open market lebron would be making 35-40 million a year. It all averages out

maybe the owners shouldn't be handing average players 10 million dollars a year? Maybe joe johnson shouldn't be making 120 million? Rasahrd lewis making 100 million?

Sure there are some teams with financial issues. Maybe they shouldn't have over expanded into the middle of nowhere and places like New Orleans where they simply can't economically support more than one sports team.

They want an idiot proof system. Plain and simple. They want to be saved from incompetent management.

There are legit things that can be changed instead of focusing on a 40 million dollar cap which is ridiculous. This is going to turn to owner vs owner very fast btw. The main problem is revenue sharing not the players

 

[duba169]

that's the average but do you how severely underpaid players like lebron and wade are? I promise the knicks are making extreeeeme amounts of money off melo. that 20 million is chump change

In an open market lebron would be making 35-40 million a year. It all averages out

maybe the owners shouldn't be handing average players 10 million dollars a year? Maybe joe johnson shouldn't be making 120 million? Rasahrd lewis making 100 million?

Sure there are some teams with financial issues. Maybe they shouldn't have over expanded into the middle of nowhere and places like New Orleans where they simply can't economically support more than one sports team.

They want an idiot proof system. Plain and simple. They want to be saved from incompetent management.

There are legit things that can be changed instead of focusing on a 40 million dollar cap which is ridiculous. This is going to turn to owner vs owner very fast btw. The main problem is revenue sharing not the players

 

[pmatic]

There's blame to go all around. I understand where both sides are coming from, I just wish they'd be receptive to one another and compromise.

 

[pmatic]

There's blame to go all around. I understand where both sides are coming from, I just wish they'd be receptive to one another and compromise.

 

[you go boy]

Originally Posted by DubA169

that's the average but do you how severely underpaid players like lebron and wade are? I promise the knicks are making extreeeeme amounts of money off melo. that 20 million is chump change

In an open market lebron would be making 35-40 million a year. It all averages out

maybe the owners shouldn't be handing average players 10 million dollars a year? Maybe joe johnson shouldn't be making 120 million? Rasahrd lewis making 100 million?

Sure there are some teams with financial issues. Maybe they shouldn't have over expanded into the middle of nowhere and places like New Orleans where they simply can't economically support more than one sports team.

They want an idiot proof system. Plain and simple. They want to be saved from incompetent management.

There are legit things that can be changed instead of focusing on a 40 million dollar cap which is ridiculous. This is going to turn to owner vs owner very fast btw. The main problem is revenue sharing not the players

THIS... its nobody's fault but the owners for overpaying players that are not worth the talent... they need to just take the L and learn from it instead of trying to change the system for their own fault

 

[you go boy]

Originally Posted by DubA169

that's the average but do you how severely underpaid players like lebron and wade are? I promise the knicks are making extreeeeme amounts of money off melo. that 20 million is chump change

In an open market lebron would be making 35-40 million a year. It all averages out

maybe the owners shouldn't be handing average players 10 million dollars a year? Maybe joe johnson shouldn't be making 120 million? Rasahrd lewis making 100 million?

Sure there are some teams with financial issues. Maybe they shouldn't have over expanded into the middle of nowhere and places like New Orleans where they simply can't economically support more than one sports team.

They want an idiot proof system. Plain and simple. They want to be saved from incompetent management.

There are legit things that can be changed instead of focusing on a 40 million dollar cap which is ridiculous. This is going to turn to owner vs owner very fast btw. The main problem is revenue sharing not the players

THIS... its nobody's fault but the owners for overpaying players that are not worth the talent... they need to just take the L and learn from it instead of trying to change the system for their own fault

 

[duba169]

Originally Posted by PMatic

There's blame to go all around. I understand where both sides are coming from, I just wish they'd be receptive to one another and compromise.

Agreed. The NBA is stretching things but they aren't completely full of #*!%. Many teams are losing money.
the two main facotrs that should be changed imo are

1.guaranteed contracts (injuries and lazy players)

2. revenue sharing

I honestly just get the feeling that the owners have no intention whatsoever of compromising. They WANT to lose the season. They WANT to crush the players. Which is why I'm on the players side 

As a knicks fan I seen bad decisions destroy my team for a decade. And all I heard was jokes. I didn't get a bail out. Bad revolving door management is a huge reason why teams are losing money

the whole idea of privatizing profits and socializing losses drives me nuts

 

[duba169]

Originally Posted by PMatic

There's blame to go all around. I understand where both sides are coming from, I just wish they'd be receptive to one another and compromise.

Agreed. The NBA is stretching things but they aren't completely full of #*!%. Many teams are losing money.
the two main facotrs that should be changed imo are

1.guaranteed contracts (injuries and lazy players)

2. revenue sharing

I honestly just get the feeling that the owners have no intention whatsoever of compromising. They WANT to lose the season. They WANT to crush the players. Which is why I'm on the players side 

As a knicks fan I seen bad decisions destroy my team for a decade. And all I heard was jokes. I didn't get a bail out. Bad revolving door management is a huge reason why teams are losing money

the whole idea of privatizing profits and socializing losses drives me nuts

 

[statis22]

With increased revenue sharing they should have salary floors too.

 

[statis22]

With increased revenue sharing they should have salary floors too.