The owners can't. control themselves, otherwise the wouldn't need a lot of the CBA rules. Like contracts for waived players counting against the cap... The players are a scarce commodity, and the elite players obviously more so. Supply and demand says they'll be even better paid than now. A guy like Pippen in his prime could have renegotiated his contract and demanded whatever working conditions. I do think the league is a monopoly and agree with Ed that many facets of the league would be downright illegal if not for collective bargaining. The ability to play overseas instead does not minimize the monopolistic nature of the league. Our courts only preside over our country, the rest of the world isn't relevant. The league restricts fair trade here in the USA.
Does it, though? It could also be argued that the players unionizing also restricts free trade. Decertification is a tactic, and unfortunately for the players, there are other professional leagues. Precedent says the players just made a huge blunder, and almost all of the current players will never make up their losses from this year. In 1990, I'd be on the players' side, In 2011, with the deal the NBA players just passed on, it's a no-brainer for me to see that the owners are being more than fair in this economy.
It's like the people who are representing the players (and maybe not necessarily the players themselves) are like the old school politicians who don't actually realize they're being recorded or that people know as much about stuff as they do. Does that make sense? In other words, they're the out of touch idiots who think because this tactic worked in the 1980's and early 90's, it'll work now! After all, it's how "I did it!"
It was obvious from the beginning of the Boies announcement by Hunter (as I posted, btw) that Boies would be arguing against the case he made just a few months ago while representing the NFL owners. What a bunch of fools. If some lowly internet poster can see the irony of Boies working for the NBA players, I have to wonder what the hell Derek Fisher and Billy Hunter are doing in these negotiations.
It's even more dumb that that, isn't it. Hey, the NFL won their case agains the players, and David Boies was the attorney who laid out their case. Let's hire him to win our case for us!! Clown Town
TO: ALL PLAYERS FROM: G. WILLIAM HUNTER, DEREK FISHER AND THE NBPA EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE DATE: November 14, 2011 RE: NBPA DISCLAIMER Today, by unanimous vote of the executive committee and player representatives, the National Basketball Players Association disclaimed its status as your collective bargaining representative. As a result, we will now function as a trade association to assist and support NBA players, but we will no longer engage in collective bargaining with the NBA owners. The Players Association will instead dedicate itself to supporting individual NBA players in the assertion of your non-labor rights to be free of any illegal restrictions on competition for your services. For two and a half years and through more than 50 collective bargaining sessions, we sat at the table and attempted to negotiate a fair labor agreement with the owners. Last week, with the issuance of yet another ultimatum - a take it or leave it final offer of a long-term agreement with unacceptable terms - Commissioner Stern and the owners left us with no other option. It has become clear to us that we have exhausted our rights under the labor laws, and continuing in that forum would not be in the best interests of the players. 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. 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. Today's decision was not made lightly and holds enormous consequences, including among other things, the following: • As mentioned, we cannot engage in collective bargaining with the owners. • We can no longer assert any labor law rights on behalf of players, and we will be withdrawing our unfair labor practice charge before the National Labor Relations Board. • We can no longer prosecute individual grievances on behalf of players. We will communicate in the future regarding the status of any pending grievances or appeals. • We can no longer regulate agents. Our status in regulating agents derives from our authority under the National Labor Relations Act as the players' bargaining representative. With that status ended, likewise our agent regulation program is terminated. The NBPA will always be here to assist individual players in asserting your rights outside of the labor laws and to improve business conditions of all professional basketball players in the NBA. So, for example, among other things, we will seek to: • Engage in group licensing activities; • Create opportunities for players to enhance off-court income; • Enable and encourage players to engage in charitable and civic activities to benefit both your fellow citizens and your communities; • Serve as a clearinghouse for information related to your services as NBA players; and • Otherwise do all we can to promote, protect, and enhance your careers as professional basketball players. We will continue to correspond with you on business matters on a regular basis, and our New York headquarters will remain open. Please feel free to contact Billy or the NBPA legal staff with any questions or concerns you may have. We urge you very strongly as a legal matter to please not make any public or private comments on these matters. You may refer any questions to the NBPA legal staff. As always, thank you for your support. Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/basketball/nba/11/14/nbpa.letter/index.html#ixzz1dkrrQxXt
I fear for the players winning in the courts. The NBA would be dead to me at that point. The last thing we need is the inmates running the asylum. I realize that it very unlikely to happen, but you never know. Remember, Brady vs the NFL, Brady won, but it was overturned in appeals court, and then the fake non union came to an agreement with the NFL shortly after that.
Economists tell CBS Miami that South Florida may suffer $200 million in losses if there is no pro basketball this year. Portland says no Blazers games translates to a $59 million hit, Oklahoma City claims it will lose $60 million if Kevin Durant doesn't play, and Tony Parker's Spurs are worth an astonishing $90 million to the businesses of San Antonio. Though Miami will feel it the worst, some feel the whole reason for the lockout itself is the Heat's ability to add James and Chris Bosh last year during free agency. Small market owners want to make sure that never happens again. Hey Miami . . . that is called Karma.
NBA players miss 1st paychecks today: Kobe ($1,051,832 lost), LeBron ($667,603 lost), Dirk ($795,535 lost).
Karma for what exactly? Three (free agent) guys decided they wanted to play together -- which is perfectly permissible under the rules -- and they even took a pay cut to do it. If I and 2 of my co-workers wanted to split off from our current company and form our own consulting firm, would that be unethical or immoral?
Major NBA Team Sponsor MillerCoors to Withhold Payments During Lockout Without NBA action around to promote its products, MillerCoors doesn’t see it fit to keep making sponsorship payments to NBA teams until they can figure out a way to end the labor dispute. From the Journal Sentinel: “It didn’t take long for at least one major business to react to the news that the NBA players had rejected the league’s contract offer. MillerCoors, which spends heavily on sports advertising and has sponsorship deals with many NBA teams, including the Milwaukee Bucks, announced Monday it was withholding all payments to its NBA partners until a resolution to the lockout is found. Peter Marino, a MillerCoors spokesman, said the decision was made after players rejected the NBA’s latest offer. He said the payments will be made in full upon resolution of the bitter dispute. MillerCoors has been a major sponsor of the Bucks for years. While it is not known what the deal is worth, SportsBusiness Journal reported that three-quarters of MillerCoors’ total TV advertising spending last year – about $214 million – was dedicated to sports.”
That's not a good comparison. That would mean that Wade, James, and Bosh left the NBA and started their own team, outside of the NBA.
I think K*be has a clause that gives him 80% of his paycheck on July 1. So he's already missed something like 20M in salary.
I don't think it's all that off. If I formed a consulting firm that competed directly with my former employer, how would that be different from James and Bosh competing directly against their former employers? The NBA can be viewed as a self-contained industry, with players existing simultaneously as the employees and the product.
The NBA is a league. While the teams are 'competitors', they are all under the same 'company'. Now, if you said you worked for Apple, for instance, and you and some buddies wanted to move from your various divisions to the iPad, it's a bit more comparable.
You can buy stock in the Celtics corporation, that doesn't give you ownership of any NBA team except the one in Boston.
you can't buy stock in any of the other 29 unless your "competitors" say so. I think that's a more valid point to make than bringing up a non-voting share of Celtics stock. If what you're proposing was "the way it was", Larry Ellison could just buy up all the Boston Celtics stock he wanted to until he owned 51% of the team. The NBA doesn't work that way.
