One lockout down, one 2go NBA dont let us down

**Sweetlou** · August 1st, 2011, 10:53 AM

if you havent herd, the NBA has locked out there players also an the Owners are not playing nice like the NFL

we are looking at a full lockout this season, i do not see them coming to terms on a new CBA. damn that LBJ he cause it

my over/under games missed is 40

**Xzinum** · August 1st, 2011, 11:29 AM

Epic video.

**Yoshio** · November 15th, 2011, 07:11 PM

we might not get a season this year

**Sweetlou** · November 15th, 2011, 07:21 PM

yeah i think is a wash now. the players are playing super hard ball with the owners..
=(

**Xzinum** · November 15th, 2011, 08:50 PM

1% vs 0.1%

#OccupyNBAStadiums

**Yoshio** · November 16th, 2011, 12:53 AM

millionaires vs. billionaires

at least now the mavericks are guaranteed to defend their championship for another year <3

**Xzinum** · November 16th, 2011, 09:06 PM

Players file pair of antitrust lawsuits against NBA

NEW YORK (AP) -- NBA players kept offering economic concessions, and it was never enough to satisfy owners.
So with no labor deal and no place else to go, players decided to take their fight to the courtroom.
The locked-out players, including Carmelo Anthony and Kevin Durant, filed class-action antitrust lawsuits against the league on Tuesday in at least two states, saying David Stern's ultimatums left them no other choice.
Attorney David Boies put the blame squarely on the owners, saying players were willing to accept a lower percentage of revenues but owners insisted on more.
"By overplaying their hand, by pushing the players beyond any line of reasonableness, I think they caused this. You don't give up hundreds of millions of dollars unless you want to make a deal and that's what the players were doing," Boies said. "I think it was mistake to push it as far as they did."
And it could potentially cost them billions.
The players are seeking "treble damages" - meaning triple the amount of the more than $2 billion they would have made under a full 2011-12 season - for what they argue is irreparable harm by preventing them from playing in their "very short" NBA careers.
Boies, who represented the NFL during that sport's work stoppage and now has been brought aboard by basketball's players, said the NBA lockout violates antitrust laws by refusing to allow players to work.
He added that Stern's ultimatum to the now-disbanded union to accept the owners' last economic model or face a harsher proposal "turned out to be a mistake" that strengthens the players' case because it proves that the collective bargaining process had ended.
"If you're in a poker game, and you run a bluff, and the bluff works, you're a hero. If someone calls your bluff, you lose. I think the owners overplayed their hand," Boies said at the players' association headquarters. "They did a terrific job of taking a very hard line and pushing the players to make concession after concession after concession, but greed is not only a terrible thing - it's a dangerous thing."
Stern believed this was the preferred strategy of Jeffrey Kessler, another attorney for the players, all along.
"We haven't seen Mr. Boies' complaint yet, but it's a shame that the players have chosen to litigate instead of negotiate," NBA spokesman Tim Frank said in a statement. "They warned us from the early days of these negotiations that they would sue us if we didn't satisfy them at the bargaining table, and they appear to have followed through on their threats."
Boies acknowledged that the case could take months, but hoped there would be a settlement before too long.
"Nobody can tell you how long it's going to take. We all know it's possible to delay lawsuits for a while, but I think it is in everybody's interest to try to resolve this promptly," said Boies, speaking on behalf of the California filing. "The longer it goes on, the greater the damages that the teams will face, the greater the damages that the players will suffer, and perhaps most important of all, the longer basketball fans will be deprived of basketball. So we hope that this will move quickly."
He insisted the players have shown their willingness to negotiate throughout.
"You can't negotiate by yourself," he said. "You can only negotiate if you've got somebody who's willing to sit down and negotiate with you."
The two suits - one filed in conjunction with the players' association in the Northern District of California and another filed in Minnesota - likely were filed with favorable venues in mind.
The Minnesota district court has been favorable to the NFLPA during litigation dating to the 1980s. The federal court in San Francisco is under the jurisdiction of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, considered the most liberal of the 13 circuit courts.
The NBA already has filed a pre-emptive lawsuit in New York seeking to prove the lockout is legal and likely would push for cases to be moved there to gain the legal home court.
Though Stern has ridiculed the players' "losing" strategy, Boies said he believes NBA players have a stronger case than NFL players did. Their decertification, he said, could have been argued as a sham because they walked out on the bargaining process before it was technically over and brought litigation. He said Stern's actions left NBA players without options beyond seeking legal relief.
"Here you had an ultimatum from the owners that made absolutely clear that the collective bargaining process was over," he said, adding that Stern's threat is quoted in the lawsuit. "That's not collective bargaining, and so you have a very distinct set of facts here."
The California filing says that in 2007, Stern met with union negotiators and demanded the players reduce their revenue share from 57 percent to no more than 50 percent and "insisted on a much more restrictive salary cap, which would restrict the market for player services."
Stern threatened at that meeting, according to the lawsuit, that the league was "prepared to lock out the players for two years to get everything" that the NBA owners sought and that "the deal would only get worse after the lockout."
The league locked out its players on July 1. Tuesday marked the 138th day of the lockout and the players' first missed paycheck. The season was scheduled to start Nov. 1, but already games through Dec. 15 have been canceled - a total of 324 or 26 percent of the season.
The league's latest proposal, which was rejected by the players on Monday, called for a reduced 72-game season to start Dec. 15.
Although the NFL was able to get its recent labor dispute resolved quickly enough to lose only one preseason game, the NHL lost the entire 2004-05 season, and the NBA's last work stoppage led to a 50-game season in 1998-99.
Boies said players will not seek a preliminary injunction to lift the lockout. Because the lockout "arguably grew out of prior collective bargaining discussions," Boies said he believes it would be very difficult to get a court to immediately halt the lockout and such a path would delay the case.
Anthony and Chauncey Billups of the Knicks, NBA scoring leader Durant, rookie Kawhi Leonard and Grizzlies forward Leon Powe were listed as plaintiffs in the complaint filed in conjunction with the players' association in the Northern District of California against the NBA and the owners of its 30 teams. That case has been assigned for now to U.S. Magistrate Judge Donna M. Ryu in Oakland, Calif.
Timberwolves forward Anthony Tolliver, Pistons guard Ben Gordon, free agent forward Caron Butler and Derrick Williams - the second overall draft pick by Minnesota in June who has yet to sign a rookie contract because of the lockout - were listed as plaintiffs in another lawsuit filed against the league and owners in Minneapolis, where NFL players had some level of success in a similar court proceeding this summer.
Boies said there might be other, similar cases to those filed on behalf of NBA players in California and Minnesota. The ideal scenario, he said, would be to bring them all together in the Northern District of California.
The plaintiffs represent various types of players affected by the lockout - those under contract, free agents and rookies.
They argue in the Minnesota filing that the lockout "constitutes an illegal group boycott, price-fixing agreement, and/or restraint of trade in violation of the Sherman Act" and that the owners' final offer for a new CBA would have "wiped out the competitive market for most NBA players."
Boies said the lawsuit was an attempt to restore competitive free-market conditions
Players were willing to consent to the owners' demands of a 50-50 split of basketball-related income - a transfer of about $280 million annually from their guaranteed 57 percent under the old deal - but only if the owners met them on their system wishes.
And Boies said it was those owners who put the league in this position.
"If it were up to the players, there would be games being played right now," he said. "There is one reason and one reason only that the season is in jeopardy and that is because the owners have locked the players out and have maintained that lockout for several months.
"If there's not a basketball season, responsibility for that lies in one place and one place only, and that is the NBA and the NBA owners because they're the ones who are keeping the players from playing."

http://www.nba.com/2011/news/11/15/t....ap/index.html

**Xzinum** · November 26th, 2011, 01:55 PM

Sides reach tentative settlement agreement

NEW YORK (AP) -- After nearly two years of bickering, NBA players and owners are back on the same side.
"We want to play basketball," Commissioner David Stern said.
Come Christmas Day, they should be.
The sides reached a tentative agreement early Saturday to end the 149-day lockout and hope to begin the delayed season with a marquee tripleheader Dec. 25. Most of a season that seemed in jeopardy of being lost entirely will be salvaged if both sides approve the handshake deal.
Barring a change in scheduling, the 2011-12 season will open with the Boston Celtics at New York Knicks, followed by Miami at Dallas in an NBA finals rematch before MVP Derrick Rose and Chicago visiting Kobe Bryant and the Lakers.
Neither side provided many specifics about the deal, and there are still legal hurdles that must be cleared before gymnasiums are open again.
"We thought it was in both of our interest to try to reach a resolution and save the game," union executive director Billy Hunter said.
After a secret meeting earlier this week that got the broken process back on track, the sides met for more than 15 hours Friday, working to save the season. Stern said the agreement was "subject to a variety of approvals and very complex machinations, but we're optimistic that will all come to pass and that the NBA season will begin Dec. 25."
President Barack Obama gave a thumbs-up when told about the tentative settlement after he finished playing basketball at Fort McNair in Washington on Saturday morning.
The league plans a 66-game season and aims to open training camps Dec. 9, with free agency opening at the same time. Stern has said it would take about 30 days from an agreement to playing the first game.
"All I feel right now is `finally,"' Miami Heat star Dwyane Wade told The Associated Press.
Just 12 days after talks broke down and Stern declared the NBA could be headed to a "nuclear winter," he sat next to Hunter to announce the 10-year deal, with either side able to opt out after the sixth year.
"For myself, it's great to be a part of this particular moment in terms of giving our fans what they wanted and wanted to see," said Derek Fisher, the president of the players' association.
A majority on each side is needed to approve the agreement, first reported by CBSSports.com. The NBA needs votes from 15 of 29 owners. (The league owns the New Orleans Hornets.) Stern said the labor committee plans to discuss the agreement later Saturday and expects them to endorse it and recommend to the full board.
The union needs a simple majority of its 430-plus members. That process is a bit more complicated after the players dissolved the union Nov. 14. Now, they must drop their antitrust lawsuit in Minnesota and reform the union before voting on the deal.
Because the union disbanded, a new collective bargaining agreement can only be completed once the union has reformed. Drug testing and other issues still must be negotiated between the players and the league, which also must dismiss its lawsuit filed in New York.
"We're very pleased we've come this far," Stern said. "There's still a lot of work to be done."
The sides will quickly return to work later Saturday, speaking with attorneys and their own committees to keep the process moving.
When the NBA returns, owners hope to find the type of parity that exists in the NFL, where the small-market Green Bay Packers are the current champions. The NBA has been dominated in recent years by the biggest spenders, with Boston, Los Angeles and Dallas winning the last four titles.
"I think it will largely prevent the high-spending teams from competing in the free-agent market the way they've been able to in the past. It's not the system we sought out to get in terms of a harder cap, but the luxury tax is harsher than it was. We hope it's effective," deputy commissioner Adam Silver said.
"We feel ultimately it will give fans in every community hope that their team can compete for championships."
The league hopes fans come right back, despite their anger over a work stoppage that followed such a successful season. But owners wanted more of the league's $4 billion in annual revenues after players were guaranteed 57 percent of basketball-related income in the old deal.
Participating in the talks for the league were Stern, Silver, Spurs owner Peter Holt, the chairman of the labor relations committee, and attorneys Rick Buchanan and Dan Rube. The players were represented by executive director Billy Hunter, president Derek Fisher, vice president Maurice Evans, attorney Ron Klempner and economist Kevin Murphy.
Owners locked out the players July 1, and the sides spent most of the summer and fall battling over the division of revenues and other changes owners wanted in a new collective bargaining agreement. They said they lost hundreds of millions of dollars in each year of the former deal, ratified in 2005, and they wanted a system where the big-market teams wouldn't have the ability to outspend their smaller counterparts.
Players fought against those changes, not wanting to see any teams taken out of the market when they became free agents.
"This was not an easy agreement for anyone. The owners came in having suffered substantial losses and feeling the system wasn't working fairly across all teams," Silver said. "I certainly know the players had strong views about expectations in terms of what they should be getting from the system. It required a lot of compromise from both parties' part, and I think that's what we saw today."
Even the final day had turbulent patches. It required multiple calls with the owners' labor relations committee, all the while knowing another breakdown in talks would mean not only the loss of the Christmas schedule but possibly even the entire season.
"We resolved, despite some even bumps this evening, that the greater good required us to knock ourselves out and come to this tentative understanding," Stern said.
He denied the litigation was a factor in accelerating a deal, but things happened relatively quickly after the players filed a suit that could have won them some $6 billion in damages.
"For us the litigation is something that just has to be dealt with," Stern said. "It was not the reason for the settlement. The reason for the settlement was we've got fans, we've got players who would like to play and we've got others who are dependent on us. And it's always been our goal to reach a deal that was fair to both sides and get us playing as soon as possible, but that took a little time."
It finally yielded the second shortened season in NBA history, joining the 1998-99 lockout that reduced the schedule to 50 games. This time the league will miss 16 games off the normal schedule.
Though the deal's expected to be approved, it may not be unanimous as there are factions of hard-liners in both camps who will be unhappy with substantive portions of the deal.
"Let's all pray this turns out well," Pacers forward Danny Granger wrote on Twitter.
But getting what the owners wanted took a toll. Stern, after more than 27 years as the league's commissioner, hoped to close a deal much sooner but was committed for fighting for the owners' wishes even at the risk of damaging his legacy. Hunter dealt with anger from agents and even questions from his own players about his strategy, wondering why it could so long for the players to use the threat of litigation to give them leverage that had otherwise eluded them.
The sides met just twice in the first two months of the lockout before stepping up the pace in September, when it was already too late to open camps on time. The sides tried meeting in small groups, large groups and even mediation, but nothing sparked compromise.
Things changed this week with the entrance of Jim Quinn, a former NBPA counsel who had good relationships on both sides. The meeting Friday was held at the office of his law firm, though he did not take part.
Hunter said the terms of the deal would come out shortly, preferring to keep them private until they could be shared with the players. They might not like the deal, but it will be better than what many of them feared. Resigned to possibly missing the season, some had signed deals overseas so they would have some paycheck.
Instead, they're a step closer to returning home.

http://www.nba.com/2011/news/11/25/l....ap/index.html