By Chris Sheridan
NEW YORK — NBA owners told nearly two dozen players Friday they plan to quadruple their revenue sharing by Year 4 of a new collective bargaining agreement, and commissioner David Stern went so far as to say that one of the three remaining items of contention has effectively been settled.
“The three big things are the system, the economics, and revenue sharing, and we’ve taken care of one,” Stern said after the sides met for 4 1/2 hours and agreed to sit down again Saturday to resume negotiations.
Several high-profile players were in attendance among the roughly two dozen players in the room, including LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Carmelo Anthony, Kevin Durant, Andre Iguodala, Ray Allen, Paul Pierce, Elton Brand and Baron Davis.
“Some of the guys standing here, their commitment has been questioned, and their presence here means a lot,” union president Derek Fisher said. “Today was about expressing ourselves, and the owners did, too. It was not a waste of time.”
One insider described the meeting as more or less a scene-setter for the more serious round of talks that will begin at some point during the weekend, possibly carrying into the early part of next week. Of the league’s 29 owners, 10 were in attendance.
Stern has said the owners were already sharing $54 million in revenues, and he previously promised to triple it in a new labor deal.
A quadrupling of that number would provide a pool of at least $216 million by the 2014-15 season.
But owners have resisted including an internal revenue-sharing plan as a part of the new collective bargaining agreement, and they have not moved off that stance. It was unclear if the players had acquiesced to the owners keeping revenue sharing out of the labor agreement, but Stern’s remarks seemed to indicate that they had.
“They know precisely as much as we know as to how it is going to work,” Stern said.
So if Stern is to be taken at his word, the two remaining big issues — finances and the operating system — will be the focus of the chess match over the next several days if the sides are to reach an agreement that will save the scheduled Nov. 1 start of the regular season.
Stern said he did not, and would not, issue a threat to cancel the entire season if an agreement is not reached in this round of discussions.
“It’s as ludicrous today as it was the day Marc Stein wrote it on ESPN.com,” Stern said, taking the unusual step of singling out a reporter for criticism by name and affiliation.
It’s disingenuous for Stern to claim that any of the three issues he mentioned is settled when there’s a dynamic balance between all three of them. It’s what the owners can give up to foster more balanced economics.
You can’t have revenue sharing settled when it’s part of an overall economic system that isn’t close to being settled.
I guess it’s too much to ask that he cut out the BS and be just a tiny bit forthcoming for once instead of this manipulative garbage.
Stupid #%@# lockout.
Owners better get what’s at Stake. US are the home of Basketball and the leverage in nba drafts and attracting international players are in stake if this loss the entire season. US and BBall will be like England and Soccer. China and European league are on standby to take the opportunity to make their league attractive. Even though the English Soccer league is better, the Italian, French, and Dutch have a high quality money making soccer league as well. A lot is at stake, the prestige of American NBA league is about to be challenged by China and Europe. China got the money and the people to get started to attract as much international players as America. Cancel the entire and see, NBA would never be the same again in America.
China is very pointedly NOT on standby to make their league more attractive. In a weird gesture of management solidarity (or maybe nationalism) they ruled that players under contract can’t sign contracts with CBA teams during the lockout.
The NBA isn’t going to lose out to other basketball leagues. Basketball is *generally* going to lose out to other popular sports. Die hards will wait, but most fans are casual fans who will walk away in disgust, villifying both owners and players.
Some poor sad souls will pretend to enjoy college ball, but they’re dead inside. They’re already dead inside…
Good Job Chris, keep the positive word coming mate. Get some sleep and lets do it again tomorrow.
There is still alot of negative stuff been reported, but I really think everyone involved is keeping tight lipped.
Don’t know if the agreement will come next week or not, but the level of laziness and sloppiness on the part of so many “NBA experts” in the media has been appalling. Kudos to Chris Sheridan for breaking the logjam a few weeks ago and actually bringing intelligent reporting and analysis to this issue. So many others seemed to be saying “The season will start in January at best.