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NBA players delivered a resounding but risky response to one more ultimatum from NBA commissioner David Stern: See you in court.
The players' association rejected the league's latest proposal for a new labor deal Monday and began disbanding, paving the way for a yet-to-be filed lawsuit and throwing the 2011-12 season into jeopardy.
Negotiating went nowhere, so now the union is going away.
And Stern said "nuclear winter" is coming.
"We're prepared to file this antitrust action against the NBA," union executive director Billy Hunter said. "That's the best situation where players can get their due process."
And that's a tragedy as far as Stern is concerned.
"It looks like the 2011-12 season is really in jeopardy," Stern said in an interview aired on ESPN. "It's just a big charade. To do it now, the union is ratcheting up I guess to see if they can scare the NBA owners or something. That's not happening."
Hunter said players were not prepared to agree to Stern's ultimatum to accept the current proposal or face a worse one, saying they thought it was "extremely unfair." And they're aware what this battle might cost them.
"We understand the consequences of potentially missing the season; we understand the consequences that players could potentially face if things don't go our way, but it's a risk worth taking," union vice president Maurice Evans said. "It's the right move to do."
But it's risky. The league already has filed a pre-emptive lawsuit seeking to prove the lockout is legal. And it contends that without the union that collectively bargained them, the players' guaranteed contracts could legally be voided.
Monday on "SportsCenter," Stern said offer on the table was no ultimatum, but "a revised proposal which met many of their concerns."
"When you negotiate for 2½ years and finally get to where the parties are ... that's not an ultimatum. That's a proposal that's ready to be voted up or down," Stern said.
"The chances of the season slipping away from us and the players losing that they have worked very hard to achieve ... it's really a tragedy," Stern added. He said the league had anticipated the union's actions, which was why it filed a lawsuit against the union and a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board.
"They seem hell-bent on self-destruction and it's very sad," Stern said.
During oral arguments on Nov. 2, the NBA asked U.S. District Judge Paul Gardephe to decide the legality of its lockout, but he was reluctant to wade into the league's labor mess. Gardephe has yet to issue a ruling.
Stern, who is a lawyer, had urged players to take the deal on the table, saying it's the best the NBA could offer and advised that decertification is not a winning strategy.
Players ignored that warning, choosing instead to dissolve its union, giving them a chance to win several billion dollars in triple damages in an antitrust lawsuit.
"This is the best decision for the players," union president Derek Fisher said. "I want to reiterate that point, that a lot of individual players have a lot of things personally at stake in terms of their careers and where they stand. And right now they feel it's important -- we all feel it's important to all our players, not just the ones in this room, but our entire group -- that we not only try to get a deal done for today but for the body of NBA players that will come into this league over the next decade and beyond."
Fisher, flanked at a press conference by dozens of players including Kobe Bryant and Carmelo Anthony, said the decision was unanimous.
Hunter said the National Basketball Player's Association was in the process of converting to a trade association and that all players will be represented in a class-action suit against the NBA by attorneys Jeffrey Kessler and David Boies -- who were on opposite sides of the NFL labor dispute, Kessler working for the players, Boies for the league.
"The fact that the two biggest legal adversaries in the NFL players dispute over the NFL lockout both agree that the NBA lockout is now illegal and subject to triple damages speaks for itself," Kessler said in an email to The Associated Press. "I am delighted to work together with David Boies on behalf of the NBA players."
In a letter, obtained by ESPN.com, sent by Hunter, Fisher and the union's executive committee to union members, the union's leadership team explained the reasoning behind the move.
"It has become clear to us that we have exhausted our rights under the labor laws, and continuing in that forum (collective bargaining) would not be in the best interests of the players," the letter said.
"With no labor union in place, it is our sincere hope that the NBA will immediately end its now illegal boycott and finally open the 2011-12 season," the letter said. "Individual teams are free to negotiate with free agents for your services. If the owners choose to continue their present course of action, it is our view that they subject themselves to significant antitrust liability."
But the union's leadership also outlined some tradeoffs as a result of the move. Should it succeed in disbanding, the union will no longer be able to assert labor law rights or take up grievances on behalf of players. It will no longer be able to regulate player agents. And it will withdraw its unfair labor practice charge before the National Labor Relations Board.
Stern was not impressed with his legal adversaries.
"The union decided in its infinite wisdom that the proposal would not be presented to membership," Stern said. "Obviously, Mr. Kessler got his way and we are about to go into the nuclear winter of the NBA.
"If I were a player ... I would be wondering what it is that Billy Hunter just did."
The sides still can negotiate during the legal process, so players didn't want to write off the season just yet.
"I don't want to make any assumptions," union VP Keyon Dooling said. "I believe we'll continue to try to get a deal done or let this process play out. I don't know what to expect from this process."
Hunter said the NBPA's "notice of disclaimer" was filed with Stern's office about an hour before the news conference announcing the move.
Hunter said the bargaining process had "completely broken down." Players and owners have been talking for some two years but couldn't reach a deal, with players feeling the league's desires to improve competitive balance would hurt their free agency options.
And beyond that, the owners' desire for a 50-50 split of basketball-related income, after players were guaranteed 57 percent under the old deal, meant players were shifting at least $280 million per year to the owners.
"This deal could have been done. It should have been done," Hunter said. "We've given and given and given, and they got to the place where they just reached for too much and the players decided to push back."
Over the weekend, Stern said he would not cancel the season this week.
Regardless, damage has already been done, in many ways.
Financially, both sides have lost hundreds of millions because of the games missed and the countless more that will be wiped out before play resumes. Team employees are losing money, and in some cases, jobs. And both the NBA and NBPA eventually must regain the loyalty of an angered fan base that wonders how the league reached this low point after such a strong 2010-11 season.
"It's horrible," said Ty Agee, president of the Beale Street Merchants Association in Memphis, Tenn. "This is bad. Personally, I don't believe they will be able to fix it. This is really, really bad."
And it was seemingly destined. Hunter said he believed years ago owners were going to lock out the players until they could force through the changes they sought. Given that, he has been criticized for not disbanding the union sooner in hopes of creating some leverage that the union never had.
The proposal players rejected Monday called for a 50-50 division of BRI and proposed a 72-game season beginning Dec. 15. Players are still unhappy with what they believe are too many restrictions for big-spending teams that would limit their free agent options, but Stern said the proposal is far better for players than the one player reps said they would reject last week.
Now likely awaiting the players, should bargaining resume, is a proposal that will call for a 53 percent to 47 percent split of BRI in the owners' favor, a flex cap with a hard ceiling and rollbacks for current salaries.
On Sunday, the league made a very public push on the positives of the deal -- hosting a 90-minute twitter chat to answer questions from players and fans, posting a YouTube video to explain the key points and sending a memo from Stern to players urging them to "study our proposal carefully, and to accept it as a fair compromise of the issues between us."
In the memo, posted on the league's website, Stern highlighted points of the deal and asked players to focus on the compromises the league made during negotiations, such as dropping its demands for a hard salary cap, non-guaranteed contracts and salary rollbacks.
Union officials repeatedly have said the system issues are perhaps more important to them than the split of basketball-related income, but owners say they need fundamental changes in both to allow for a chance to profit and to ensure more competitive balance throughout the league.
The previous CBA expired at the end of the day June 30. Despite a series of meetings in June, there was never much hope of a deal before that deadline, with owners wanting significant changes after saying they lost $300 million last season and hundreds of millions more in each year of the old agreement, which was ratified in 2005.
Owners wanted to keep more of the league's nearly $4 billion in basketball revenues. And they sought a system where even the smallest-market clubs could compete, believing the current system would always favor the teams who could spend the most.
The NBA's last work stoppage reduced the 1998-99 season to 50 games. Monday marked the 137th day of the lockout; the NFL lockout lasted 136 days.
In its labor battle, NFL players tried to get the courts to overturn the lockout and let players return to work. Although a Minnesota judge initially ruled in favor of the players, that ruling was put on hold by the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
"Given the rulings that came down in the NFL case, which are not binding in the 2nd circuit but would be influential, right now the owners are not in a bad spot," said antitrust attorney David Scupp of Constantine Cannon in New York City. "It could very well be that the players have an uphill battle toward getting that lockout enjoined. If they can do that, then it might swing things in their favor."
But time is not on anyone's side.
"If you look at what happened with the NFL case, that whole legal battle surrounding the temporary injunction was resolved relatively quickly, and it still took a few months," Scupp said. "There's not a few months to spare this time around."
Source: AP
The players' association rejected the league's latest proposal for a new labor deal Monday and began disbanding, paving the way for a yet-to-be filed lawsuit and throwing the 2011-12 season into jeopardy.
Negotiating went nowhere, so now the union is going away.
And Stern said "nuclear winter" is coming.
"We're prepared to file this antitrust action against the NBA," union executive director Billy Hunter said. "That's the best situation where players can get their due process."
And that's a tragedy as far as Stern is concerned.
"It looks like the 2011-12 season is really in jeopardy," Stern said in an interview aired on ESPN. "It's just a big charade. To do it now, the union is ratcheting up I guess to see if they can scare the NBA owners or something. That's not happening."
Hunter said players were not prepared to agree to Stern's ultimatum to accept the current proposal or face a worse one, saying they thought it was "extremely unfair." And they're aware what this battle might cost them.
"We understand the consequences of potentially missing the season; we understand the consequences that players could potentially face if things don't go our way, but it's a risk worth taking," union vice president Maurice Evans said. "It's the right move to do."
But it's risky. The league already has filed a pre-emptive lawsuit seeking to prove the lockout is legal. And it contends that without the union that collectively bargained them, the players' guaranteed contracts could legally be voided.
Monday on "SportsCenter," Stern said offer on the table was no ultimatum, but "a revised proposal which met many of their concerns."
"When you negotiate for 2½ years and finally get to where the parties are ... that's not an ultimatum. That's a proposal that's ready to be voted up or down," Stern said.
"The chances of the season slipping away from us and the players losing that they have worked very hard to achieve ... it's really a tragedy," Stern added. He said the league had anticipated the union's actions, which was why it filed a lawsuit against the union and a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board.
"They seem hell-bent on self-destruction and it's very sad," Stern said.
During oral arguments on Nov. 2, the NBA asked U.S. District Judge Paul Gardephe to decide the legality of its lockout, but he was reluctant to wade into the league's labor mess. Gardephe has yet to issue a ruling.
Stern, who is a lawyer, had urged players to take the deal on the table, saying it's the best the NBA could offer and advised that decertification is not a winning strategy.
Players ignored that warning, choosing instead to dissolve its union, giving them a chance to win several billion dollars in triple damages in an antitrust lawsuit.
"This is the best decision for the players," union president Derek Fisher said. "I want to reiterate that point, that a lot of individual players have a lot of things personally at stake in terms of their careers and where they stand. And right now they feel it's important -- we all feel it's important to all our players, not just the ones in this room, but our entire group -- that we not only try to get a deal done for today but for the body of NBA players that will come into this league over the next decade and beyond."
Fisher, flanked at a press conference by dozens of players including Kobe Bryant and Carmelo Anthony, said the decision was unanimous.
Hunter said the National Basketball Player's Association was in the process of converting to a trade association and that all players will be represented in a class-action suit against the NBA by attorneys Jeffrey Kessler and David Boies -- who were on opposite sides of the NFL labor dispute, Kessler working for the players, Boies for the league.
"The fact that the two biggest legal adversaries in the NFL players dispute over the NFL lockout both agree that the NBA lockout is now illegal and subject to triple damages speaks for itself," Kessler said in an email to The Associated Press. "I am delighted to work together with David Boies on behalf of the NBA players."
In a letter, obtained by ESPN.com, sent by Hunter, Fisher and the union's executive committee to union members, the union's leadership team explained the reasoning behind the move.
"It has become clear to us that we have exhausted our rights under the labor laws, and continuing in that forum (collective bargaining) would not be in the best interests of the players," the letter said.
"With no labor union in place, it is our sincere hope that the NBA will immediately end its now illegal boycott and finally open the 2011-12 season," the letter said. "Individual teams are free to negotiate with free agents for your services. If the owners choose to continue their present course of action, it is our view that they subject themselves to significant antitrust liability."
But the union's leadership also outlined some tradeoffs as a result of the move. Should it succeed in disbanding, the union will no longer be able to assert labor law rights or take up grievances on behalf of players. It will no longer be able to regulate player agents. And it will withdraw its unfair labor practice charge before the National Labor Relations Board.
Stern was not impressed with his legal adversaries.
"The union decided in its infinite wisdom that the proposal would not be presented to membership," Stern said. "Obviously, Mr. Kessler got his way and we are about to go into the nuclear winter of the NBA.
"If I were a player ... I would be wondering what it is that Billy Hunter just did."
The sides still can negotiate during the legal process, so players didn't want to write off the season just yet.
"I don't want to make any assumptions," union VP Keyon Dooling said. "I believe we'll continue to try to get a deal done or let this process play out. I don't know what to expect from this process."
Hunter said the NBPA's "notice of disclaimer" was filed with Stern's office about an hour before the news conference announcing the move.
Hunter said the bargaining process had "completely broken down." Players and owners have been talking for some two years but couldn't reach a deal, with players feeling the league's desires to improve competitive balance would hurt their free agency options.
And beyond that, the owners' desire for a 50-50 split of basketball-related income, after players were guaranteed 57 percent under the old deal, meant players were shifting at least $280 million per year to the owners.
"This deal could have been done. It should have been done," Hunter said. "We've given and given and given, and they got to the place where they just reached for too much and the players decided to push back."
Over the weekend, Stern said he would not cancel the season this week.
Regardless, damage has already been done, in many ways.
Financially, both sides have lost hundreds of millions because of the games missed and the countless more that will be wiped out before play resumes. Team employees are losing money, and in some cases, jobs. And both the NBA and NBPA eventually must regain the loyalty of an angered fan base that wonders how the league reached this low point after such a strong 2010-11 season.
"It's horrible," said Ty Agee, president of the Beale Street Merchants Association in Memphis, Tenn. "This is bad. Personally, I don't believe they will be able to fix it. This is really, really bad."
And it was seemingly destined. Hunter said he believed years ago owners were going to lock out the players until they could force through the changes they sought. Given that, he has been criticized for not disbanding the union sooner in hopes of creating some leverage that the union never had.
The proposal players rejected Monday called for a 50-50 division of BRI and proposed a 72-game season beginning Dec. 15. Players are still unhappy with what they believe are too many restrictions for big-spending teams that would limit their free agent options, but Stern said the proposal is far better for players than the one player reps said they would reject last week.
Now likely awaiting the players, should bargaining resume, is a proposal that will call for a 53 percent to 47 percent split of BRI in the owners' favor, a flex cap with a hard ceiling and rollbacks for current salaries.
On Sunday, the league made a very public push on the positives of the deal -- hosting a 90-minute twitter chat to answer questions from players and fans, posting a YouTube video to explain the key points and sending a memo from Stern to players urging them to "study our proposal carefully, and to accept it as a fair compromise of the issues between us."
In the memo, posted on the league's website, Stern highlighted points of the deal and asked players to focus on the compromises the league made during negotiations, such as dropping its demands for a hard salary cap, non-guaranteed contracts and salary rollbacks.
Union officials repeatedly have said the system issues are perhaps more important to them than the split of basketball-related income, but owners say they need fundamental changes in both to allow for a chance to profit and to ensure more competitive balance throughout the league.
The previous CBA expired at the end of the day June 30. Despite a series of meetings in June, there was never much hope of a deal before that deadline, with owners wanting significant changes after saying they lost $300 million last season and hundreds of millions more in each year of the old agreement, which was ratified in 2005.
Owners wanted to keep more of the league's nearly $4 billion in basketball revenues. And they sought a system where even the smallest-market clubs could compete, believing the current system would always favor the teams who could spend the most.
The NBA's last work stoppage reduced the 1998-99 season to 50 games. Monday marked the 137th day of the lockout; the NFL lockout lasted 136 days.
In its labor battle, NFL players tried to get the courts to overturn the lockout and let players return to work. Although a Minnesota judge initially ruled in favor of the players, that ruling was put on hold by the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
"Given the rulings that came down in the NFL case, which are not binding in the 2nd circuit but would be influential, right now the owners are not in a bad spot," said antitrust attorney David Scupp of Constantine Cannon in New York City. "It could very well be that the players have an uphill battle toward getting that lockout enjoined. If they can do that, then it might swing things in their favor."
But time is not on anyone's side.
"If you look at what happened with the NFL case, that whole legal battle surrounding the temporary injunction was resolved relatively quickly, and it still took a few months," Scupp said. "There's not a few months to spare this time around."
Source: AP