NBA season in jeopardy
Tuesday, David Stern and the owners made a 50-50 split proposition to the players, which the
politely
declined.
The 50-50 split was 3 percent more than the owners originally wanted, but was 7 percent less than the players had last season (and 3 percent less than the players were willing to go).
And in turn, talks came to stop Tuesday while the pressure continues to grow on both sides to come to an agreement.
Preseason season has already been canceled, and if a deal isn’t reached on Monday regular season games will have to be taken off the schedule.
With talks not going anywhere, Ken Berger reported that seven of the most powerful agents (Arn Tellem, Billy Duffy, Mark Bartelstein, Dan Fegan, Jeff Schwartz, Leon Rose and Henry Thomas) are working on a conference call to discuss the CBA.
The agents told their players not to agree to a deal anywhere less than the 57 percent which was agreed upon with the last CBA.
NBA.com reported that Stern said that the owners had removed their demand for a hard salary cap, were no longer insisting on salary rollbacks, and would have given players the right to opt out of a 10-year agreement after seven years. But the money split was always going to be the biggest hurdle in these negotiations, with owners insistent on the ability to turn a profit after the league said 22 of its 30 teams lost money last season.
The way it looks right now, games will have to be missed and the biggest loser in this situation again will be the fans.