Pierce, Allen leading group looking to decertify if things don't go well

[nickagneta]

As I've always said, the players should go for litigation if the owners aren't willing to move. Too little to lose. The owners can pay for much better wages than the ones they're proposing. I'm happy they're exploring this route.

Too little to lose?  What if their litigation fails, like in the NFL, and they end up without getting much better a deal than the owners are offering right now (like in the NHL), but lose a years worth of salary in the process?

I understand why they would do it, but there is a TON to lose.  If the litigation route was even close to a slam dunk, they would have gone that way months ago.  It is a huge risk, and there is a very good chance they won't gain any ground, and will lose all that salary for nothing.

There's also the fact that the players may lose the season's worth of salary anyway if the negotiating teams strike a deal and then Stern can't get his owners to approve the deal because they think he has given too much already.

So in the meantime, going the decertification route is probably good strategy in this negotiation process. The owners may have no reason to reach a middle ground now but with the threat of possibly having to pay triple damages in salary to players for lost wages could be a tipping point. Say what you want about the NFLPA decertification being thrown out but that was a sham of a case and the court knew it. This wouldn't be and in a more liberal court, the owners could lose.

Triple damages on $2 billion in salary a year is not something any owner would want to think about, even if they would only have to pick up 1/30th of it.

Let's face it, if something isn't reached by January 1st, the season is probably shot anyway. Its probably the right thing to do if you are the players and think that the extra $100 million a year for 10 years of a CBA is worth it.

Its easy for people to say the players should just settle or take the 50/50 and play but that 2.5% difference comes out to a billion dollars over 10 years. Maybe a whole lot more given a new network television contract will be negotiated during that time.

[BASS_THUMPER]

im kinda hoping it's not a season..

i rather get nothin then a lil..

[Chris]

As I've always said, the players should go for litigation if the owners aren't willing to move. Too little to lose. The owners can pay for much better wages than the ones they're proposing. I'm happy they're exploring this route.

Too little to lose?  What if their litigation fails, like in the NFL, and they end up without getting much better a deal than the owners are offering right now (like in the NHL), but lose a years worth of salary in the process?

I understand why they would do it, but there is a TON to lose.  If the litigation route was even close to a slam dunk, they would have gone that way months ago.  It is a huge risk, and there is a very good chance they won't gain any ground, and will lose all that salary for nothing.

There's also the fact that the players may lose the season's worth of salary anyway if the negotiating teams strike a deal and then Stern can't get his owners to approve the deal because they think he has given too much already.

So in the meantime, going the decertification route is probably good strategy in this negotiation process. The owners may have no reason to reach a middle ground now but with the threat of possibly having to pay triple damages in salary to players for lost wages could be a tipping point. Say what you want about the NFLPA decertification being thrown out but that was a sham of a case and the court knew it. This wouldn't be and in a more liberal court, the owners could lose.

Triple damages on $2 billion in salary a year is not something any owner would want to think about, even if they would only have to pick up 1/30th of it.

Let's face it, if something isn't reached by January 1st, the season is probably shot anyway. Its probably the right thing to do if you are the players and think that the extra $100 million a year for 10 years of a CBA is worth it.

Its easy for people to say the players should just settle or take the 50/50 and play but that 2.5% difference comes out to a billion dollars over 10 years. Maybe a whole lot more given a new network television contract will be negotiated during that time.

I agree that if the season gets cancelled, then it definitely makes sense for the players to give decertification a try.  All I am saying is that right now, where there are still a couple months left to save the season by negotiating, there is more to lose than there is to gain by doing it right now.

[snively]

Disagree, since an alternative basketball league just isn't viable and it's not going to happen. Both the players and the owners know that the brand is everything... a new "pro" basketball league would be mocked into oblivion just like the "XFL" was.

I don't think that's a good analogy.

The XFL had an incredible amount of interest when it first started. I'd have to go through a quick google search but I think for their first game they put in numbers that exceeded your typical Monday Night Football broadcast.

The problem was that the product was horrific. It was simply football (with a ball that was harder to throw) with worse players. And that's when people started dropping like flies.

Obviously. Nobody wants to see 2nd tier sportsmen. It's just the nature of the beast.

Anyone who believes that the NBA could make D-League players sports starts because of the "NBA brand", or "the legacy", or whatever is drastically wrong.

The most successful league in any sport will always be the one capable of attracting the best athletes by paying them more. The rest is irrelevant.

There's only one viable basketball league at the moment.  Nobody is even remotely close to putting together a package as desirable as the NBA can for the best players.

I like the owners' odds of breaking the union.  These guys are in the business for the long haul.  The majority of players in the union have a much shorter timeline: 3-4 years maybe.  Most of them aren't going to have much skin in the game when the possible long-term benefits of a better deal would be realized.