NEW YORK — Here is an update from the lobby of the hotel where the players are meeting:
Kobe Bryant and Carmelo Anthony and Tyson Chandler are among the players meeting in a conference room, sitting nearby in the media workroom is Brian Mahoney of the AP, who is reporting some more of what commissioner David Stern told him Saturday night.
Incredibly, because of its timing — right smack dab in the middle of the players’ meeting, we are getting word of Stern’s strongest ultimatum yet.
In response to a question of whether he’d accept any tweaks to the deal that is currently on the table, Stern said no.
“I want to answer this diplomatically. The next time we meet to discuss anything, we’ll be discussing the 47 percent proposal. This is it,” Stern said. “We’ve been negotiating this for 2½ years. The owners authorized a revised proposal, and they said if it’s not acceptable and they want to keep negotiating, we present them with a 47 percent, flex cap proposal. They know it,” Stern told the AP.
Also, Stern gave an even more foreboding quote to Steve Aschburner of NBA.com: “It’s never a take it-or-leave it offer at 47 percent with a flex cap. It could still be 46.5 [percent].”
So the story, it appears, will evolve by the hour today.
Keep checking back here for updates, more of which are provided on my Twitter feed.
It’s too bad that the NBA is taking the stance that talk is done. I wondered if, giving into the looming deadline for a season worth having, if the two sides couldn’t just say, let’s go with what we’ve agreed on for this year, all non-agreed on system issues revert to last season and we’ll play this season out. Continue then to negotiate on the remaining issues for a nine-year contract for next season. If there are no future negotiations to come, then NBA 2010-11 is history. This assumes the 200+ the decertifiers claim to have is legit and that the great unheard masses of NBA journeyman don’t have enough numbers to accept the NBA deal through secret ballot. A pox on all their houses.
I can see that, they’ve already negotiated and tweeked proposals ad naseum and came up with this one. Basically the only compromise to be made is about issues that aren’t specifically in the proposal.