Derek Fisher's Letter To NBA PLayers Leaked

This is a snippet from the letter:

The most recent meetings in New York were effective. What you have been told by your agents, representatives and the media is probably speculative and inaccurate.

What actually happened in those meetings was discussion, brainstorming and a sharing of options by both sides. The turning point this past Tuesday was not a disagreement between the players and the owners. It was actually a fundamental divide between the owners internally. They could not agree with each other on specific points of the deal and therefore it caused conflict within the league and its owners.

So it is our hope that today, Thursday, at the owners meeting in Dallas that they work out their differences, come up with a revenue sharing plan that will protect their teams and are then ready to come together and sign off on the agreement we as a smaller group deemed reasonable.



Read more: http://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/215600/Fisher_Sends_Letter_To_Fellow_Players#ixzz1Y7vqLMgL

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So, according to Fisher at least, it's the owners that have stalled negotiations as the big and small markets struggle to find a common ground.

How it's taken this long to proceed only this far is beyond me.

He also eludes to player's agents being lackluster about the entire affair, and basically calls them out for their lack of influential presence.

☆NBA forum thread, but that the pulse rate on that forum is flatlining.

CLEVELAND, Ohio ? Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert used his Twitter account last night to angrily respond to reports that he helped derail potential progress in the NBA labor negotiations.
In the process, it appears he also invented a word to describe his online detractors.

"Some of these NBA 'bloggissists' flat-out make stuff up and then try to dupe readers into believing their fiction is real. Sad & pathetic," Gilbert wrote.
An ESPN.com story, citing anonymous sources, stated that Gilbert and Phoenix's Robert Sarver expressed discontent with many points of a proposal from the players union during a meeting Tuesday in New York.

According to the report, owners were seriously considering "coming off their demands for a salary freeze and would allow players' future earnings to be tied into the league's revenue growth, a critical point for players. The owners also were willing to allow the players to maintain their current salaries without rollbacks," sources said.

Gilbert and Sarver aired their dissatisfaction in a three-hour owners-only meeting. Sources told ESPN that the New York Knicks' James Dolan and Los Angeles Lakers' Jerry Buss were unhappy with the hard-line stances of Gilbert and Sarver. The meeting ended Tuesday with no progress reported by either side.

Union President Derek Fisher wrote in an email to members, obtained by Sports Illustrated, that a rift existed between the owners. Fisher's email, coupled with the ESPN story, put Gilbert and Sarver in the spotlight, making them targets for pundits.

Following an NBA owners meeting in Dallas last night, NBA Commissioner David Stern denied there is a split among the owners.
"I don't know what the basis of Derek's belief is," Stern said. "But I can tell you, having just come out of the meeting, the vast majority of owners are indeed in favor of a 'hard-cap system,' as Derek refers to it. Having said that, they authorized the committee to be ready to negotiate on all points, and the committee is."

Gilbert has lashed out in the past, most famously in his letter to the team's fan base in July 2010, ripping LeBron James after his decision to join the Miami Heat.

The Cavs owner has remained quiet about the work stoppage that threatens the start of the season. The NBA had issued a memo before the lockout began July 1, warning that any team owner or employee who discussed the lockout or any player during the work stoppage could be fined up to $1 million.

And now this. Makes Fisher's statement seem likely. Who to believe? No one! They're all munchers.

Yea, I posted this in a thread a while back. This lockout is the owners who have vs the owners who don't have, and once that get's hashed out, it'll be owners vs players.

The NBA's revenue sharing model is piss poor, it allows big market teams to thrive, elevate, and tickle the luxury tax threshold (T-plush reference) which = talent pooled on those teams. So I have a hard time believing that salary cap and owner vs. player issues are the biggest factors in this lockout; they tie into it since technically they're parts of the revenue sharing system...but the system as a whole is broken...the parts aren't assembled right.

That's why I find it hard to believe that all the owners want a hard cap. Some owners (Dolan, Cuban, and Buss come to mind), have no issue hitting lux-tax to go ring chasing...they can afford it. It's the other owners who can't afford it for a variety of reasons (some legit, some not) that want to completely even the playing field with a hard cap. Someone's gonna have to compromise big time amongst the owners before anything with the players gets done.

I wish we had more details of the NBA's current revenue splitting model. I know the old NFL's model (dunno if it was changed in the new CBA) split proceeds from ticket sales 60% (home team) and 40% (away team). I have no idea if the NBA does this...but if not, teams like the T'Wolves and Kings are getting hosed nasty. In the NFL teams also got identical checks for their cut of the TV contracts (CBS, NBC, FOX, ESPN) so EVERYONE got theirs. Team's don't have their own private deals with networks, or even own their own network like in the NBA. Every team in the NFL benefitted equally from TV contracts. Pretty much anything sold with an NFL shield on it was proceeds for everyone.

We know in the NBA there are private tv contracts for teams if they can get them, and even privately owned networks. How is that money shared? Is it shared at all? I know all licensed NBA merchandise is shared revenue, and luxury tax money is shared among the teams...but what about parking fees, concessions, and other game related income?

All of that should be hammered out before they get to the owner vs player split, because right now there's a sizable rift in the owner vs owner split.

Maybe I end up being totally wrong about this and they hammer out a bandaid deal, but I called this weeks ago. I really really really think this needs to be solved before anything the players offer gets a serious look from the owners collectively.