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Decertification. A no-give ultimatum. A tired commissioner and a frustrated union leader.
The NBA lockout is no longer a game. And now there is a heavy price to pay for a 129-day work stoppage suddenly on the verge of going from bitter to bloody.
When league owners late Saturday offered players the most direct deal to date that could end the lockout, the union firmly rejected it. Now, the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) has until close of business Wednesday to either accept the deal or find itself staring at an even worse offer Thursday.
NBA commissioner David Stern sarcastically said Saturday that "hope springs eternal" after the union turned down an offer that included a 51-49 band on basketball-related income and several system-related victories for the league. But NBPA president Derek Fisher and union lawyer Jeffrey Kessler said the deal is so bad there is nothing to present to players.
The NBPA's stance is not expected to change by Wednesday's deadline.
"You would have to have been a real, real, real optimist to think that both sides were going to move enough at this point to get a deal done in a couple of days," Jazz guard Raja Bell told The Salt Lake Tribune.
He added: "I've [said] from the beginning that I really felt that was going to be the eventuality — it was going to be take it or leave it. And that's OK. But that's not negotiating in good faith. That's just giving someone an ultimatum. And we kind of felt like that was going to be their stance the whole time."
The owners' offensive attack produced immediate ramifications.
The Tribune learned Sunday that a pro-decertification movement within the union led by veteran All-Stars and super agents has begun an attempt to gather 150 player signatures — 20 more than required — that will begin the process of dissolving the NBPA.
A new collective bargaining agreement could still be reached during the 45-day window it would take the NBPA to decertify. However, Stern said the owners' offer will only become harsher, highlighted by a 53-47 BRI split favoring the league and a flexible salary cap similar to the NHL's. There is no guarantee hard-line owners will improve their post-ultimatum offer, or even be willing to negotiate if the union chooses to decertify.
"The owners have the leverage because they're going to be able to cancel games and paychecks will be irrevocably lost," said Michael McCann, director of the Vermont Sports Law Institute and legal analyst for NBA TV and SI.com. "If no deal's reached by Wednesday, we're going to see decertification become talked about more seriously and there'll be more support for it. But that's a route that escalates the tension. Maybe ultimately it helps [the union]. But the likelihood of having a season goes down."
The movement has already begun. And the season is quickly moving toward becoming significantly shorter, if not completely extinct.
Players and agents were in contact throughout Sunday, and Bell said he plans to be in New York City on Tuesday for a mandatory meeting that will include player representatives from all 30 teams.
Union leaders are expected to evaluate their options Monday during a conference call. By Tuesday, the push toward decertification could be in full force. And a 2011-12 season already dragged down by canceled games and fiery rhetoric from entrenched sides could soon look much worse.
"I'm sure our union will do what's in the best interest of us," Bell said. "And if it's decertification and they're signing off on that, then so be it. And if it's not, then we'll see what exactly they have in mind."
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