NBA players just committed a major blunder
Union chief Billy Hunter, flanked by Derek Fisher (left) and other players, has no leverage.
The NBA players can tell themselves that the owners created this mess. They would be right.
They can say it was the league’s owners who handed them the last collective bargaining agreement, the owners who gave them long and lucrative contracts, the owners who have done inexplicable things like give Joe Johnson a $119 million contract. And they would be right about all that, too.
But this was the bonehead move of all bonehead moves.
The NBA players decided Monday to reject the owners’ latest proposal for a new CBA. They plan to decertify the union and take the league to court for antitrust violations. This is what it looks like when an entire league of players commits suicide.
If the players are serious about all this, forget this season. At least.
Commissioner David Stern said Monday, “If I were a player, one of 450, I would wonder what it is [NBPA] Billy Hunter just did.”
Stern also referred to this as a “nuclear winter.”
Something tells me he has been practicing these soundbites for a while. My only hesitation in completely taking Stern’s side on this is, like the players, I don’t trust him, either.
But Stern and the owners really are holding all of the cards. The NBA is not the NFL in terms of stature or revenue streams. So it doesn’t really matter that the NBA owners are as wrong as the NFL owners were in their desire to change the rules of the game and take back what they’ve already given the players.
The NFL owners never were going to allow the cancellation of regular season games because there was too much money on the table. Everybody was winning, just not to the degree the NFL owners wanted to win.
That’s not the case in the NBA. The bottom line is . . . well, the bottom line. If close to half the NBA’s owners aren’t scared about shutting down the league for a year because they were projected to lose money anyway, does the union really believe the owners are going to blink?
There also are too many markets — Atlanta being one — where the NBA is simply off the radar right now. It’s about college football and the NFL. Soon, it will be about baseball trades and then spring training.
I’m not saying nobody cares because many do — just not so many that a firestorm from the fanbase is going to prompt the two sides to go back to the negotiating table.
Like all owner-player battles, this is being driven by high-powered agents who don’t want to see their commissions go down and the top 10 percent of the salary list who can afford to miss paychecks. But at some point, the players in the league who don’t have long-term security will grumble.
The players will have to give in, and this will not have been worth it.
By Jeff Schultz
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239 comments Add your comment
PMC
November 15th, 2011
9:34 am
chill Zeke, it’s freaking basketball, they aren’t building the railroads.
PMC
November 15th, 2011
9:36 am
Sorry Bob Cousey isn’t still selling shoes.
Treeofwoe
November 15th, 2011
9:47 am
I’ve watched and pulled for the hawks since the mid 70s when dad and I used to watch them together on TV. Loves me some Falcons and some Braves too. Here’s the problem I have with professional basketball…and it has nothing to do with the money. If your revenues are shrinking maybe its because the product is becoming unfair to the small market teams to have a chance and because the play has devolved into a sloppy butt-bumping-in-the-paint-fest. If you want to increase fan interest do these two things irrespective of the money situation.
(1) Use this time out to institute a salary cap. The NFL is successful for a reason. The cap is a BIG BIG reason. People start out on a level playing field money-wise so fans can at least HOPE for a fair shake at a good season. Coaching, drafting, and good front offices mean so much more then. I.e. quality goes up. This is another reason why baseball is also losing fan interest…salary cap. (not the only reason, but one reason).
(2) Call fouls consistently against the “elite” players. This fact alone has allowed me to check out and stop watching playoff basketball at all. They allow current big men to push defenders from their spot time after time after time after time. What we have now is WWF under the hoop instead of good passing, movement, and working on actually shooting the ball. They allow “stars” to travel more than actors in rehab. The fans see it. We know that it’s a farse and not consistent so why watch. You are killing the sport by being essentially uneven and dishonest with the fans with the sham on the courts.
(3) Distance yourselves from the hard core rap culture. Believe it or not it has harmed your brand image. Rap and hip hop aren’t bad per se, but there are good hip hop and rap culture statements and songs and there are bad ones. Parents make decisions for their kids on what they feel a brand represents. Anger, cursing, drug culture, violent behavior, and disrespect to women aren’t high on their list. College basketball doesn’t have this link, and they are doing JUST fine.
Fix at LEAST these three issues and you’ll see viewership and attendance increase. Make the product competitive, enforce the rules of play and enforce them fairly, and make the sport more family friendly = more fans. Just my two cents. Go Hawks!
Mark in ATL
November 15th, 2011
10:25 am
The NBA and the players overstepped their bounds here….we won’t miss the NBA like we would have missed football. We have other options for entertainment from November through June.
1. Football goes until Feb
2. College basketball plays March madness through the first of April
3. Then baseball starts
This is from a lifetime NBA fan but if you go away it doesn’t hurt me…just leaves more $ in my pocket and I get used to spending it on other things.
Bruce Mac
November 15th, 2011
10:31 am
Too dang funny. Overpaid idiots are striking for what? More money, like they aren’t already overpaid out the wazoo. What a bunch of spoiled out of touch morons. Strike forever, who the heck cares?
GwinnettDad
November 15th, 2011
10:42 am
Maybe, just maybe, if and when the strike ends, the NBA will begin the regular season and . . . . almost NOBODY except the player’s’ family, friends, and dependents will attend the game. Then, it would become clear just how much most players actually care about the people that have watched them in the past. Time for some franchises to fold, time for some stories about once million dollar babies in unemployment lines.
NewOrleansJazz
November 15th, 2011
10:52 am
It all started when Charlotte Hornets gave Larry Johnson
an undeserved big contract before he had proven himself as a bonafide NBA player. From that point on everyone sought a contract bigger and larger than Grand-mama’s. Can you image the Hornets paying Larry Johnson more than Magic and Jordan. Right now the Hornets is one of those teams that are suffering from bad business decisions of their past. The owners created this monster and now they are trying to re-construct, they are trying to right the ship. Good luck with that. Hate to see the season lost. It’s a shame you cant see the Lakers and Kobe do their thing.
RAY
November 15th, 2011
11:02 am
Ok people get this straight….”IT WAS A LOCKOUT”..the players are willing play this year with the agreement already in place….”IT’S THE OWNERS”…who do not want to live up to their agreement with the players……
down but not out
November 15th, 2011
11:11 am
YesSir GwinnettDad,
was just thinking that fans really need to wake up and reject any offer owners and players are giving regular people about any possiblity of saving their season and going to ‘work’. then without the financial support and loss of income, they could perform in a reality show about sensibility and being thankful. i love basketball, and am not mad about being unemployed nor envious of those who’ve achieved success and fortune. although having lost income, have gained much in perspective and learned what is really important. so much is wrong and needs to change, it won’t stop until folk think different and make some changes. just heard on the radio this morn how being really rich and broke is a matter of the heart.
Tim
November 15th, 2011
11:34 am
I actually agree with Jason Whitlock’s column:
http://msn.foxsports.com/nba/story/NBA-lockout-blame-David-Stern-media-mouthpieces-not-players-Derek-Fisher-Billy-Hunter-for-decision-to-disclaim-union-111411
The media has basically served as MOUTHPIECES for the owners. The coverage has been awful. But that is what happens when you have a corporate media, and a lack of independent journalists.
Whitlock:
“I know this labor battle is a self-serving mission, but at least these young athletes are standing up and taking a risk for something. This is a start.
As best I can tell, they capitulated on the financial issue and gave the owners a 7-percent ($1.1 billion) giveback on basketball-related income. They took the financial hit in order to gain some control over the system that governs them. That seems more than fair. But in this era of corporate greed that’s not nearly enough.”
So the players were willing to give back 1.1 BILLION in basketball-related income, and Jeff Schultz writes a blog about the players being the blame? THE OWNERSHIP HAS GOTTEN A COMPLETE PASS FROM THE MEDIA. This is why they are so stubborn and rigid. There has been no heat PLACED ON THEM to get the deal done. The corporate media acts as if the players are supposed to jump on any deal that is presented. The players made several concessions, it is the owners that would not budge. That is not how you negotiate. With David Stern’s patronizing tone throughout this ordeal, his time should really be up as NBA Commissioner.
61 year Braves Fan
November 15th, 2011
11:41 am
You could pay me and I wouldn’t go across the street to see this crap they call basketball.
Ken Stallings
November 15th, 2011
11:45 am
As someone who is from North Carolina, and remembers well the sordid details, the Charlotte Hornets tendered that contract and then Larry Johnson suffered a back injury and was never the same player he was before. Remember that with a healthy Johnson, Alonzo Mourning, and Tyrone Bogues, the Hornets upset the Boston Celtics in round one of the NBA playoffs and sent the city of Charlotte (and the area) into euphoria!
The problem is that after the Johnson contract, George Shinn (owner of the Hornets) played hard ball with Mourning, who was actually a better player than Johnson. Mourning left and the team was never as good again.
But, the move to New Orleans was not caused by those contracts (one signed for too much and the other stiff armed). It was caused by the sordid lifestyle of George Shinn and his marital infidelity, plus his constant lies to the Charlotte, NC government and community leaders. Shinn wanted a new arena despite the Charlotte Arena being relatively new and paid for by the community. Charlotte wanted assurances that Shinn was not shopping his team to the highest biddng city while it asked for more time to raise the funds in a responsible manner. Shinn told the city council and mayor that he was not interested in moving the team. Then, his personal jet was seen in another city with Shinn negotiating for a move of the team!
As a consequence, the city told Shinn there was no way they were going to spend multi-millions of dollars outright, fund bonds, and raise the lion’s share of the money for Shinn’s desired new stadium just so he could pocket revenue from luxury boxes that the existing arena did not have in numbers sufficient for Shinn. Then, once again, rather than realize the shaddy crook that Shinn really was, NBA Commissioner David Stern once again sided totally with the owner and orchestrated the move to New Orleans.
Shinn didn’t even have the decency to rename the team, which if you did not know, the name Hornets goes back to a Revolutionary War era military unit that helped defeat the British at the Battle of Kings Mountain. If Stern had any foresight, he would have pulled off a very simple plan to give the team in New Orleans back the Jazz name, give the team in Utah the Bobcats name (which was a homage to former team owner Bob Johnson), and give the team in Charlotte back the Hornets name. But, of course, Stern doesn’t care about any of that!
Charlotte should have never lost that team. For years the people of Charlotte packed the Charlotte Arena, setting NBA attendance records for an expansion team that lost horribly! All Shinn had to do was to be a reasonably honest man and he would have gotten his new stadium just as Bob Johnson did. But, the people of the area saw the ugly side of David Stern in defending the seedy George Shinn, and frankly have refused to put their full support behind any NBA team as they did with the Hornets. It was a love affair and a honeymoon that lasted years, and if you ask the players of that era they will tell you how special it was.
The NBA owners are some of the worst villians and thugs in the league, yet the players are the ones who get portrayed in the media that way. The way the owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers treated a man who simply offered his services as a free agent, the plantation metaphor that Bryant Gumble used was not entirely off the mark. Normally, I don’t agree with Gumble, whom I mostly find a disagreeable shill.
But, money doesn’t change the reality. The NBA owners think they are the game. They are not. Frankly, the wealth among the players is such that if they cared to, they could simply form a new professional basketball league and put the owners completely out of business! Imagine that! A league where the players are the owners! It used to be the case, and one who studies the history of American professional baseball teams can confirm it.
Perhaps that is what is really needed here: For the players to pool their money, negotiate directly with arena officials across the nation, buy their uniforms, hire the support staff, and put a schedule out for 2012-13. The NBA owners would quake in their boots, or would that be Gucchi loafers!
The truth is that people who pay their own hard earned money to be entertained for a few hours don’t care who the owners are! They pay to see the players! The owners should frankly be happy they had the money to purchase the team and make a pile of money watching skilled people perform their craft. Instead, they now want most of the revenue to split among a handful of billionares. Well, the players could freeze their plans stiff by forming their own league.
I’d frankly love to see it!
JSS
November 15th, 2011
11:46 am
And the message at 11:38AM is from the typical coward on the AJC blogs who have to hijack a username because they are unwilling to stand behind their own life… Yawn…
mrbiguns
November 15th, 2011
11:51 am
Thank God that I won’t have to flip throught the channels this winter and see all the back yard-street ball garbage called the NBA!
Just when I was beginning to think their wasn’t a God, he shows up and saves us all from this disgraceful, pathetic, thugg filled sport called basketball in the NBA!!!!!
HOOOOOOORRRRRRRAAAAAHHHHHH
Bring on the college basketball,, the bowl games and spring training!
Jimmy Crack
November 15th, 2011
11:51 am
Downtown is the problem with all the Atlanta teams. If they would build dedicated multi-lane roads that led DIRECTLY to and from the highway (and the cops let cars access them, duh) all of our stadiums would be filled to the brim. As it is now….Never. They make it difficult to get out of the venues and it is just not worth it anymore. So what did we all do? We all bought big HDTVs and stay home, while the national media calls us lousy fans. Sticks and stones.
lcdawg
November 15th, 2011
11:55 am
Really hard to believe the players won’t take the deal, where the heck are they gonna that kind of money other than in the NBA?
GwinnettDad
November 15th, 2011
11:56 am
“Corporate Media” favoring the owners? Ridiculous. Take ABC, CBS, MSNBC, CNN, NBC, LA Times, Washington Post, New York Times, the AJC, the AP, the UPI and CNN. In that list, if you find one Republican, they’re a token RINO (Yes, FOX is the exception, and look how demonized THEYH are) Someday, truth in packaging, just as there are ingredients on the labels of what you eat, you’ll find labels on what you read. The political affiliations of so-called impartial journalists should be public knowledge. This paper in 99% Democrat, you can count on it. Any newspaper that ever supported Cynthia McKinney? Good grief. I like neither the owners nor the players in this matter, but to read about the “Corporate Media” reminds me how stupid some NBA fans are.
GwinnettDad
November 15th, 2011
11:58 am
Yeah, as if this blog isn’t censored. “Corporate Media”? Try refuting that assertion here, and you’ll find you can’t. This liberal newspaper won’t allow it.
dawgballs00
November 15th, 2011
12:03 pm
Lebronze is going ringless again…Priceless. Sell the entire leauge to China. Who cares
RedandBlack
November 15th, 2011
12:12 pm
When are the Thrashers going to come back to Atlanta. We want NHL Hockey here in Atlanta. The Spirit Group sold the wrong team.
Who cares about the NBA. Bye-bye crybaby millionaires. Get a real job. Go Dogs!!
cdog
November 15th, 2011
12:19 pm
I AGREE JEFF. YOU KNOW, I WAS AT CHURCH ABOUT A YEAR AGO, I WAS LISTENING TO DEION SANDERS GIVE HIS TESTIMONY THAT DAY. HE SAID, MONEY WILL MAKE YOU MORE WHAT YOU ARE.EACH DAY I WATCH AND LISTEN TO THE NBA PLAYERS, OWNERS AND AGENTS, I SEE JUST HOW TRUE THAT IS.IF YOU’RE A SPOILED NUT LIKE SO MANY ARE, WITH MONEY, YOU BECOME MORE OF A SPOILED NUT. THEY DON’T HAVE THE MENTALITY TOSOLVE THIS SO FOR ALL YOU FANS, I WOULD ENJOY REAL BASKETBALL, WHICH IS PLAYED ON THE HIGH SCHOOL AND COLLEGE LEVEL.FORGET ABOUT THAT IMITATION SHOW TIME STYLE OF SO- CALLED BASKETBALL. LET THEM GO HOME, THEY WOULD BE DOING US A FAVOR.
Robert
November 15th, 2011
12:36 pm
“China keeping NBA players out is the only wrench in the players face”
I think the players would make more money taking a deal they think of as losing in the USA than they would playing overseas
Let them go overseas – if they demand a lose-lose situation then fork them
Quite frankly I dont even understand where they get the idea of being entitled to even anything near 50/50 on a revenue split. They are employees for chrissakes, not business partners
Mandrell Dawg
November 15th, 2011
12:37 pm
The NBA will without a doubt suffer for this fiasco. Owners are divided among themselves; some for feeling duped into paying outlandishly for an NBA franchise, with little chance of turning a profit anytime soon for that initial decision alone; while others lose money signing free agents at crazy prices because unfortunately they know that if they don’t, another owner will.
It’s just as hard for me to feel for the players. The league minium for a player with 0 years experience for the 2010-11 season was around $473,000. I’m sure players were warned of this possibility last season, and possibly before. This is an ideal situation for players who don’t know, to learn the concept of a budget.
GregP
November 15th, 2011
12:51 pm
I look at the possible loss of an NBA season, this way: If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it…
Boom-Boom
November 15th, 2011
12:52 pm
The owners won in these negotations. The money these fools were making makes no common sence to tha viewing public. It is about time every sport gets a wake up call. The fans can no longer afford the pay hikes put upon them. The cost of inflation has not gone up 1,000% in the last 30 years last I checked so why would the owners choose to pay these salaries. Let the players see how it is in the real world for a while and you can get them for pennies on the dollar like it should be.
builderdawg
November 15th, 2011
12:52 pm
who cares…….I mean who really cares? lets see some of those players that cant do anything else go to work for a living like everyone else does. Boy, I bet those tatts on their necks will translate real well in the business world huh?
DZ
November 15th, 2011
1:18 pm
LET’S ALL GO OCCUPY PHILIPS ARENA!!
LOL just kidding. Nobody cares about the NBA.
gcs
November 15th, 2011
1:23 pm
This reminds me of Will Ferrell in “Old School” when he is drunk & streaking and he thinks a bunch of people are behind him but there is nobody there.
Rodster
November 15th, 2011
1:28 pm
Doesn’t matter one bit. I won’t miss the NBA at all. Go get real jobs chumps.
KZGuy
November 15th, 2011
1:36 pm
What ? You mean the NBA season hasn’t already started? I thought it was time for all the teams except two to make the playoffs.
DawgDad
November 15th, 2011
1:45 pm
Trolling through here for mere bemusement. What, again, is the holdup on reaching an agreement? Does anybody know?
The Hawks broke my heart in my youth when they moved from St. Louis, where I grew up. The ASG broke my heart when they sold out on us Thrashers/NHL fans and then the city, lying their way through the entire process. The NBA officiating is horrific and very likely corrupt. No measure of sympathy is possible for the owners from this corner.
Third periods are time to chase a beer and channel surf. Millionaire players who bailed on their colleges and likely can’t pass eighth grade algebra, standing around watching isolation play. Agents. The ESPN celebrity culture. No sympathy for the players, either.
I agree, the whole mess is a cesspool in desparate need of draining.
DBALL
November 15th, 2011
1:56 pm
Who will really miss the NBA in Atlanta? The Hawks? C’MON MAN!!! At least we know that they will not lose in the payoffs again.
moboman
November 15th, 2011
1:56 pm
Ray,
Like most items of supply and demand, the price will rise until it reaches the point of “no one will pay this price”. This is whats happening in the NBA, especially the small markets. I used to attend Hawks games, until the ticket price got so absurd that I just said “its not worth that for two hours of entertainment (on a good night).” Reality has hit, its not 2007 any more when every one thought prices could rise forever. New economy. New reality. NEW AGREEMENT. Hard cap.
Sammy
November 15th, 2011
2:00 pm
I wish I was Joe Johnson with $20 million
Big Baller
November 15th, 2011
2:05 pm
betcha these guys now know who’s really doing the slam dunkin
anotherdawg
November 15th, 2011
2:13 pm
If we could somehow couple this news with an announcement that all politicians had to give up their pensions and free health insurance, I would be even more happy than I was this past weekend.
chris
November 15th, 2011
2:41 pm
Jeff…The NBA is off my radar and will stay off my Radar. Just like you said, Football will take me into February, I’d rather watch College Basketball and the race to March Madness will be under way and then it will be time for the Boys of Summer to hit the field. I personally don’t care if the players come back.
I said this about the NFL and I will say it about the NBA. It is sickening that Millionaires are fighting with other Millionaires over more money when so many people in this family are struggling just to eat.
Larry E
November 15th, 2011
2:43 pm
The mayor of Atlanta better not say one word about trying to save the Hawks or the NBA, when he would not lift a finger to help the Thrashers. And I don’t care if you don’t like hockey, it sure beats watching the NBA, there is actual skill involved.
Jeff Schultz
November 15th, 2011
3:45 pm
I’m not sure why so many idiots — and you know who you are — feel compelled to hurl racial slurs in an NBA lockout column. But we’ve had to delete too many comments and I’m closing this blog to commenting.