NBA Players, Union Reject Latest Offer; Ask for More Talks

NEW YORK — The offer was on the table. The deal looked like ti was done and we were going to get basketball back. This was a sentiment not felt by the players in the NBA or the union. They have rejected the owners latest offer and are requesting one more bargaining session before the 5 p.m. deadline Wednesday.

This has turned into a game of chicken now with two insane drivers heading straight for each other. Chances are, neither of them will turn.

David Stern started this whole game of death Sunday when he placed an offer he felt the players couldn’t refuse on the table. He was so certain they wouldn’t refuse, he bet the farm on it stating that this would be the final offer that they players would deem as in their favor and after this proposal the offers will severely decrease in quality.

The players took the bait but countered in this game of chicken, not blinking and shoving the proposal right back at Stern in rejection. They feel they can get a better deal and that Stern is basically bluffing, huffing and tyring to threaten the players into folding their hand.

This isn’t as stupid a strategy as many are deeming it. Stern has huffed and puffed and waited to blow the house down for a few days. He said that if no deal was reached by October 4th that the first two weeks of the season would be immediately cancelled. This happened but happened some time after the stated deadline in the threat.

However this is a short term win for the players. The owners have been very adamant in not wanting to raise the percentage of the

players share of the BRI above a percentage in the mid to high forties. In this latest proposal the percentage the owners offered was 51 percent to the players.

The players don’t want to go below 52 percent and feel they can get the owners to go up a full percent.

That’s right folks. Basically one whole percent is keeping the NBA in limbo.

There are other factors to consider like the salary cap and luxury tax but the feeling is that if the players get the percentage of the BRI they want, they other issues will fall the way the United States though Southeast Asia would fall to Communism if we didn’t invade Vietnam.

We’re not in Vietnam yet, we’re still in the Cuban Missile Crisis stages of this lockout. But the tension is getting to a boiling point. Stern has said that if this proposal isn’t accepted then it will pose a serious threat to a full NBA season if one at all.

But the players and the union are convinced that the owners will buckle. Billy Hunter, union head and growing wild card, is so convinced that he blatantly stated in the press conference today announcing the rejection that the owners are indeed bluffing and will not pull the deal off the table at the Wednesday deadline.

This I take issue with. Remember that we are dealing with enormous egos here, and to try and pick a fight they Hunter is carelessly doing is not the way to resolve anything or get your way. I believe we all learned this lesson in middle school. The memo to Hunter must have gotten misplaced by the USPS.

David Stern has already countered this saying if the deal is rejected then a new one would include a 53-47 split in the owners favor. Some more hard-lined owners are actually in favor of the players rejecting this deal as they feel they can have leverage and a deal drawn up even more in their favor.

The leverage they speak of is a double edged sword taht surrounds the faction of players against Billy Hunter in the union. This faction of pro-desertification players that apparently number around 200 players, is led by the Boston Celtics Paul Pierce (who was not present at the presser today).

This leads to a whole sub-plot of desertification that has seen a resurgence in the past month thanks to the hard lobbying (or brainwashing depending on who you are) of the seven agents (or parasites depending on who you are) that were calling for it in October. The union would need to have 30 percent of the NBA workforce (roughly 130 players)  to sign a petition calling for desertification and then would take 45 days to ratify.

For you non-math majors out there, that takes us to Christmas to get that done and that’s if they petition for desertification tomorrow.

Just when it looked like the NBA lockout was going to come to an end, it got even more uglier then it was before. The players don’t like the deal proposed, the owners are getting comfortable making terroistic monetary threats to the players and half of the players want to desertify.

Thanksgiving is 13 days away and for fans of the NBA — well lets just say I hope they’re Packers or Lions fans because after that there isn’t too much to be thankful for in the world of sports.