On Saturday, David Stern gave the players an ultimatum. They were to either accept the offer from the owners by close of business today (Wednesday) or possibly be presented with a worse offer. Well, yesterday in New York a total of 43 players, representing 29 of the 30 teams (the Celtics were the only team not represented) met for about 5 hours and decided that the deal wasn’t acceptable:
The NBA Players Association has rejected the league’s latest labor proposal and asked for one more bargaining session before a 5 p.m. deadline Wednesday that, according to commissioner David Stern, will cause the offer to vanish if there’s no agreement.
Flanked by the player representatives from 29 teams and roughly 15 more players who showed up for Tuesday’s union meeting in New York, NBPA executive director Billy Hunter and president Derek Fisher announced that the player reps backed their recommendation to snub the NBA’s offer from the weekend, which Stern says will be replaced by a far less appetizing offer if the sides can’t reach an accord by the stated deadline.
“Our orders are clear,” Fisher said. “The current offer that is on the table from the NBA is not one that we can accept.”
Yet Hunter — after sources confirmed to ESPN.com that the union, for the first time since the lockout began, is prepared to accept a 50/50 split of annual revenue — expressed great confidence that the league and NBPA would resume negotiations one last time before Wednesday’s buzzer. Stern said in a subsequent interview on NBA TV on Tuesday night that he will take Hunter’s call and consider the prospect of further bargaining before the deadline, but otherwise said little to suggest that his owners are prepared to budge on the five or so remaining “system” issues that still separate the sides even if the union is now amenable to a 50/50 split.
“I always take Billy’s calls as a sign of respect and courtesy,” Stern said. “What my response will be will be guided to some degree by the labor relations committee.”
Source: ESPN.com
