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Tuesday Bolts – 11.15.11

An agent to Ken Berger of CBSSports.com: “This is honestly the last thing I would’ve done,” one moderate agent said of the union’s disclaimer. “I can’t imagine these [players] truly know what they’ve gotten themselves into. … I don’t know an agent, including the decert agents, who are happy with this move.”

Ian Thompson of SI.com: “But 20 years from now, when the emotions have boiled away and they can see this breakdown for what it is, the owners and players will also blame themselves. The wise people on each side of this argument will think about what they might have done differently, and they will realize the needless harm that was done. There was no natural disaster at play here. Nothing beyond the control of the owners and players forced them to push this season to the edge of cancellation. They did this together.”

The union didn’t ask all players what to do yesterday: “Rockets guard Kevin Martin, by text on Monday morning, said he didn’t care to be represented that way: “I think it’s fair for every player to have a vote, because we’re all grown men and its time for the players to control their career decisions, and not one player per team. If it comes down to a final decision, you got to be fair.”

KD says he’s going back to school.

The NBA’s new legal counsel David Boies: “I’m just saying, we’re going to go back, we’re going to assess this. Jeffrey probably has got decades more experience in this than I have. And we’re going to go back and we’re going to talk about what the right approach is. Maybe it’s filing a lawsuit. Maybe it’s not filing a lawsuit. We’ve got to figure out what the lawsuit would say if there is going to be a lawsuit. There’s a lot that has to be worked out. ”

Billy Hunter sent a letter to the players explaining the disclaimer of interest.

Matt Moore of CBSSports.com: “There was no vote yesterday, no consideration of the deal which a lot of rank-and-file players would have accepted. Those 30 reps didn’t speak with with all the players they were meant to. And something happened to scare the living bejeezus out of them into voting “unanimously” to disclaim interest. Maybe it was Jeffrey Kessler, who seems to be getting an awful lot of publicity out of this whole ordeal he wouldn’t have gotten if there was a deal. Maybe it was Billy Hunter, trying to steer the conversation away from this abject failure in leadership during these negotiations in order to reaffirm his position and save his salary once this ends. Maybe it was the agents, though that’s unlikely given their reaction to yesterday’s debacle.”

 

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JimboSlice 198 pts

Nick vs Nazr Twitter battle developing as we speak from KU vs UK game. Nick's winning right now

sammasaaron 60 pts

After following the NFL lockout and the many-times-more-contentious-stupid-and-childish NBA lockout, a sick, twisted little part of me is actually rooting for the NBA to miss a season. At least then, Stern's legacy would be utterly destroyed, likely with no one remembering any of the positives he accomplished. Likewise, Hunter will be one of the few sports union leaders anyone remembers, alone in his spot as the worst thing to ever happen to NBA players. I'd much rather have the season, but Stern and Hunter deserve to lose it.

RyanCostello 9 pts

Billy Hunter's letter — or G. William Hunter's letter — probably should have been opened, "Bad news, guys."

I mean, really? "Enhance off-court income?" Good luck with that. All of us here with a collegiate degree are now more qualified than the lion's share of the NBA Players Union-turned-trade-association's membership. Have to wonder if they're going to try the charity for millionaires basketball games again. Donate to the cause of keeping their G6's fueled up.

Emcee_Matt 5 pts

Royce... can you answer a few questions about Billy Hunter's letter to the players??

1. Does this mean that the NBPA must drop the NLRB case against the NBA? (lots of acronyms there)

2. Is this saying that teams can now contact and sign Free Agents?

3. Is this saying that teams' front offices can now contact players without penalty?

4. Does this mean that owners can force the players back to work under whatever stipulations they please?

Thanks

Old Man Game 192 pts

Emcee_Matt Keep in mind antitrust laws and what they do. Yes, the teams could technically sign players however, there could be no salary cap, no max contracts and no lockout to coerce the players into accepting those things. That sort of coordination between competitors is exactly what is prohibited. And that is why none of that will happen.

Keith00 42 pts

I love the looks on the faces of the players in that embedded video. Chauncey looks like he just got beat up, because he knows what is about to happen. It's just dawning on Lowry that his entire future might be over. Melo is bored, since he probably slept through the meetings and is only here to fake solidarity. Conley and Brown are still trying to hear what they decided to do, but are pretty sure it's not good. Kapono is ready to move overseas. Parker is dead on the inside, just like the outside. And then there's Fisher, fully aware of what has been done, what it means, and even more fully aware that he didn't have the clout to stop it.

GrandTheftWalrus 5 pts

I'm getting sick of all the "players don't understand what they're doing" line of argument. It reeks of the condescending attitude adopted by Stern and the league and parroted by many fans. Just because they're athletes doesn't mean they're all morons.

Keith00 42 pts

GrandTheftWalrus The players' negotiating to this point would disagree with your statement. The players are going to lose here, and lose bigger than even the hardline owners wanted if all continues along this course. The fact is, the players are fighting for something that they never inherently deserved, against a group of people who crush others under their boots every morning.

The players DON'T know what their doing. Not because they are athletes, not because athletes are dumb. They don't know what their doing because every decision and negotiating tactic they have done to this point has been an abject failure. You can't fail this epically if you know what you are doing.

JimboSlice 198 pts

Keith00GrandTheftWalrus you're spot on. The owners have been playing a chess match since before the lockout even began, while the players have been reacting the whole way through, playing into the owners' hands. They've proven they don't know what they're doing. Nobody's postulating about that.

f5alcon 273 pts

GrandTheftWalrus it is not because they are athletes or are not smart, they just have poor decision making. When Jeff green says that he did not read the proposal and just did what his agent told him, that is the complaint.

ThunderChick2010 207 pts

I can't understand why this "final" offer didn't get put to a vote of the full membership with or without some amendments. Only seems fair given that it was so late in the process and it was going to impact all 400+ players. Is anyone besides Kevin Martin speaking out about this?

JimboSlice 198 pts

ThunderChick2010 There's been so much that transpired in the last few days, it's hard to say. I do know that it wasn't put to a vote of full membership because those who haven't been involved in the talks likely have little to no knowledge of what's in the proposal. Even though it likely would have passed, that's no way to go about any type of large group negotiation. It's the same reason the vote of the electoral college is worth more than the popular vote in political races. However, I'm bothered because I was under the impression that like you suggested, some small amendments had been made and a proposal was going to be submitted back to the owners for their vote. It doesn't seem like this ended up being carried out, but it would've been by far the best PR move the players would have made all lockout. That part to me is a head scratcher.

ThunderChick2010 207 pts

JimboSlice From the sounds of the reports, not all the player reps had even seen, much less understood, the proposal either. Some came across as very well informed; others seemed to be clueless. Unfortunate!

f5alcon 273 pts

ThunderChick2010 The reason is that unions do not do it that way, usually they only put a full vote when they can get 90%+ support, to avoid in fighting. So while I think they should have as well, they are practicing standard practice for a union.

imb42 16 pts

If this was baseball, I would probably be done, at least for a while. But since it's basketball, I know I'll fall right back into it as soon as the season starts.

PNT 53 pts

NBA Players,

I hope you didn't have any plans for the money from that paycheck you are missing today. Because of your strange choices, you will be missing a lot more of them in the near future.

f5alcon 273 pts

PNT yeah, how long will they go before their "friends" start to get annoyed that they are not getting free handouts all the time. Plus eddy curry might starve/get into playing shape,lol.