The NBA players’ union has rejected the latest offer made by the owners and the season is now seriously at risk of cancellation.
After the start of the lockout, three months and a half ago, the negotiations between players and owners went on but without ever giving the impression that an agreement was close. During these months several NBA players have already signed for European clubs though most of them have a clause that allows them to exit their contract if the NBA season would start. At this point, possibly they’ll play at least this season entirely in Europe and that others will follow.
NBA Commissioner David Stern gave a sort of ultimatum to the players: if they didn’t accept the latest owners proposal some concessions would be withdrawn. Although about one month of the regular season had been canceled, if it had been accepted it would’ve been possible to play a near-normal season, with 72 games instead of the normal 82.
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The players however rejected the proposal and announced legal actions. Their union will be decertified and they’ll proceed with an antitrust lawsuit to declare the illegality of the lockout by the owners. At that point noone knows when and how negotiations will start again or on what basis.
These choices are reminiscent of those made at least in part in recent months during the controversy which took place in the NFL with the big difference that in football there’s a rich league earning money while there are NBA teams which claim to be losing money. There were a lot of money in the NFL to be split between owners and players, in the NBA the situation is more complicated and it’s no accident that this lockout has now become longer than in football. Ordinary people however also perceive the NBA dispute as a clash between millionaires and billionaires and as usual those who have a job with a normal salary thanks to the NBA games are the ones who lose the most.
Many fans are already resigned to the cancellation of the entire season, others are angry and even if the contenders were to reach a last-minute agreement that would allow them to play a reduced season as in 1999 they stated that they won’t watch it. Of course at this point the possibility of a cancellation has become high and the only hope is that players and owners get so frightened by this idea that they start making new concessions.
