The Lockout & the Raptors: Players approve CBA, Owners too! (1944)

[mcHAPPY]

Wait a second! So NBA players aren't doing the community work voluntarily?? You mean NBA cares is lying to me??
AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH my universe is maligned!

Exactly. They are certainly pushing all the correct sympathy buttons with J6P. I would expect players to be making these dumb comments without realizing what they sound like but the agents? I thought the agents had a little more sense - clearly not.

[Apollo]

That is a union mentality and the exact problem with the current guaranteed contracts in the NBA and in private and government professions in the western world. It is the attitude of entitlement. A part of being a professional is putting the time and effort in to growth and development as a professional. If they want to punch the clock, go work manual labour construction, an assembly line, or a check out (nothing against those jobs and hopefully the difference is seen between a job most people can do and the training and skills required to be a professional).

Simply put, if they don't like being employes then they should stop the whining and go build their own league.

Wait a second! So NBA players aren't doing the community work voluntarily?? You mean NBA cares is lying to me??
AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH my universe is maligned!

It's voluntary. They're just saying they're going to tell the kids to piss off because they can't stand living off 50% of the proceeds from a business generating $4.5B in revenues...

[Bendit]

but dont they see how that is detrimental to the competitiveness of the league?? I thought the players would like a more even playing field?

No, I dont believe they/most particularly care about balance. If that were so, Lebron & Bosh would have stayed with their previous teams and made more money. The way they would like it is that there is a choice to move wherever as a f/a while also retaining the ability to make the most possible money. That is of course the essence of a free market labour system. But what gets lost is that in fact with a sports league and a cba there are all manner of controls (like the draft) which negates the purity of the free concept. Simply put both owners & players cannot have the cake and all of the trimmings.

[TheGloveinRapsUniform]

I hope the players dont take the deal and then they'll feel the pain of not earning money, then the benchwarmers will blame the high salary players for being so greedy, then they start fighting and killing each other then there wont be any players left.

Then the Raptors open tryouts and ill hopefully make it in so i can say i played in the NBA before i die.

[mcHAPPY]

Sure they care about it... Just as long as it doesn't get in the way of them making as much money as possible.

.... or teaming up with their buddies to rule the playground.

[Apollo]

I hope the players dont take the deal and then they'll feel the pain of not earning money, then the benchwarmers will blame the high salary players for being so greedy, then they start fighting and killing each other then there wont be any players left.

Then the Raptors open tryouts and ill hopefully make it in so i can say i played in the NBA before i die.

Master P is still waiting in the wing. Based on Glen Silvestri's shenanigans earlier in the year he seems like a guy who might be willing to roll up his sleeves and help. If there is a basketball apocalypse the Raptors will be fine.

[blackjitsu]

No, I dont believe they/most particularly care about balance. If that were so, Lebron & Bosh would have stayed with their previous teams and made more money. The way they would like it is that there is a choice to move wherever as a f/a while also retaining the ability to make the most possible money. That is of course the essence of a free market labour system. But what gets lost is that in fact with a sports league and a cba there are all manner of controls (like the draft) which negates the purity of the free concept. Simply put both owners & players cannot have the cake and all of the trimmings.

Exactly. Player movement is the bigger issue for the nbpa (it appears). I'd also point out if Stern and the owners challenged the Heat for collusion, under the last agreement, we wouldn't be here today. Stern and the nba gained from the drama Lebron and Bosh moving created on TV, etc., but then, smaller markets realized they were not protected.

[SitnonDfence]

Officials from the players' union would like to arrange one more round of bargaining with the league before Wednesday's deadline to accept the owners' latest proposal or face a far worse one, sources confirmed to CBSSports.com Monday

^^ hoopshype^^

Take it as it reads i guess...sound like the owners have got the players by the acorns to me...

[Apollo]

MLSE not part of "hardliners"

"I think, at the end of the day, this group (of hard-line owners) said, 'OK, we will let you do it your way up until Wednesday,'" a person in contact with ownership told CBSSports.com Monday.

According to a person familiar with ownership dynamics, the so-called "original" hard-line teams were Atlanta, Charlotte, Cleveland, Milwaukee, Memphis, Philadelphia, Washington, Portland and Minnesota. There has been growing support in recent weeks for the hard-liners' position that Stern has given up too much in the negotiations -- thus, the ultimatum and subsequent shift to a more severe proposal if the players fail to accept the deal on the table by the close of business Wednesday.

Source: CBS Sports

[Bendit]

I think the time has come when the PA should roll out their new PR person....Kim Kardashian.

[mcHAPPY]

Exactly. Player movement is the bigger issue for the nbpa (it appears). I'd also point out if Stern and the owners challenged the Heat for collusion, under the last agreement, we wouldn't be here today. Stern and the nba gained from the drama Lebron and Bosh moving created on TV, etc., but then, smaller markets realized they were not protected.

Both players and owners agreed on easing the trade rules for teams over the soft cap. The difference in salary had been 125% plus $100K under the old agreement. The players were looking for 200% and the owners were offering 150%.

[TheGloveinRapsUniform]

Master P is still waiting in the wing. Based on Glen Silvestri's shenanigans earlier in the year he seems like a guy who might be willing to roll up his sleeves and help. If there is a basketball apocalypse the Raptors will be fine.

hahahaha lil romeo is willing to help too.

Does anybody have the raptor mopgirl's number? i have a job for her if the lockout continues.

[slaw]

Wait a second! So NBA players aren't doing the community work voluntarily?? You mean NBA cares is lying to me??
AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH my universe is maligned!

Yes, shocking isn't it. The whole NBACares thing doesn't sit well with me cause it's so transparently phoney and staged. Volunteer work and donations are about freely giving out of a sense of charity, the NBA/NFL stuff is just about making PR commercials for the leagues.

In any case, the whole point of getting rich is to get as far away as possible from poor people, not help them. This is especially true for most of these guys who were poor once.

[albertan_10]

it's getting ridiculous out there. I figure if the union doesn't accept this deal (the owners keep coming up and up and the union hasn't done anything) then I'm done looking at anything NBA until the deal is closed. It's getting pathetic and the threat to decertify when the league has come up and up for them just ticks me off.

[Bendit]

..............
In any case, the whole point of getting rich is to get as far away as possible from poor people, not help them. This is especially true for most of these guys who were poor once.

Sorry but that's a bit of a generalization isn't it? Not all rich people have a phobia about getting away from poor people (they may not exactly live with them) but there are many (incl. anonymous pro athletes) who have the ethos to help those less priveleged and in need. Growing up poor is not necessarily an impediment to help when you have "made it". Rather I would consider environmental and education (in a general sense) to be possibly more realistic reasons. And then of course you have agents like the ones cited above who try to use the whole public service thing and attitude in the workplace as leverage in this fight Not a particularly wise thing to do considering they need more supporters of their pov not less.