With the NFL and its players ending their labor dispute with a new collective bargaining agreement last week, the NBA's labor stoppage will face more scrutiny.
By Neilson Barnard, Getty Images
NBA Commissioner David Stern and owners have proposed a 10-year labor deal that diminishes the players' percentage of basketball-related income.
By Neilson Barnard, Getty Images
NBA Commissioner David Stern and owners have proposed a 10-year labor deal that diminishes the players' percentage of basketball-related income.
NBA owners and the National Basketball Players Union (NBPA) will meet today in New York, the first time since the lockout began July 1 that key negotiators from both sides will be together. Normal activity, such as player-management contact and player drug testing, has been suspended during the lockout.
Monday's agenda will likely concentrate on non-economic issues ? such as guaranteed contracts, hard salary cap vs. soft cap and length of the collective bargaining agreement ? because the sides are so far apart on distribution of basketball-related income.
Here are some of the issues:
Question: What is the difference between the NFL and NBA labor situations?
The NFL and players bargained over profits; the NBA has said its clubs, collectively, lost roughly $340 million in 2009-10 and $300 million in 2010-11. It's much easier to reach a deal when two sides are dividing profits. Plus, NBA owners want to drastically change significant aspects of the old CBA by implementing a hard salary cap, claiming a bigger piece of basketball-related income (BRI) and potentially reducing salaries.
Q: Is there a main sticking point?
A: Yes, the split of BRI. Owners want profitability, or at least a chance of it "if well managed," NBA Deputy Commissioner Adam Silver says. They believe the best way to do that is by targeting for $2 billion in player salaries (roughly what players received last season) for at least the next six years, with the potential of higher salaries in the final four years of the deal. As revenues grow, which is expected, owners would receive a higher percentage of BRI each season.
Players see no reason why their salaries shouldn't increase as revenues grow and do not want salaries staying at $2 billion annually. They have proposed a 54.3%-45.7% split in their favor, taking them from $2.17 billion in overall salaries to $2.62 billion in 2016-17.
Q: Why are the big guns meeting today?
A: There is always room to give and new ideas to share. The sides go into negotiations with a list of pie-in-the-sky goals, understanding they might not get everything. Concessions are part of the game.
"The job of a negotiator on both sides is to sit down and figure out a way to reach a compromise that will get the players on the floor to start the season on time," veteran agent David Falk says.
Q: What's the status of the NBPA's unfair labor complaint with the National Labor Relations Board against the NBA?
A: The NLRB is at least a month from a decision, which the players hope will be the complaint has merit and should be tried before an administrative judge. An even better outcome for them would be if the NLRB takes the complaint to a federal district court for injunctive relief, says St. Louis University law professor Matt Bodie, who specializes in labor law and worked for the NLRB.
That would be similar to a 1995 ruling in favor of the baseball players by Judge Sonia Sotomayor, now a Supreme Court justice. She issued a temporary injunction and is credited with helping MLB and its players reach a deal. But "unless the NBPA has very specific allegations of misconduct, it would be a tough case for the Board to bring," Bodie says.
Q: Why hasn't the players union decertified, as did the NFL union?
A: Executive Director Billy Hunter and the players have chosen to collectively bargain while waiting for the NLRB's decision, but decertification remains an option. Some player-agents met with Hunter recently and advised that decertification might be the best way to force owners off their stance.
If players decertify, the league could try to void contracts; still, players might decide the best route would be through the courts.
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