Re: lockout negotiations

[Josh Ozersky <josh_ozersky@yahoo.com>]

This is pretty goddamned funny.




---Alex Wang <awang@mit.edu> wrote:
>
> The union position mystifies me. It seems like Billy Hunter's 
> "negotiating technique" is to act clueless and set pro basketball
> on the path to ruin, in the hopes that the league will bail him out
> and settle the lockout favorably. I'm not sure if the players 
> understand this because they're going to be hurt more than the 
> owners by this sort of strategy. 
> 
> Hunter contends that the league's luxury tax proposal would force 
> 90-95% of the players to play for the minimum. If any of the media
> reports about that proposal are true, his statement is bizarre.
> The luxury tax supposedly only applies to contracts signed with the 
> Bird exemption over the league average salary. How does this lead
> to 95% of the players playing for the minimum? Or does he mean that
> this will happen if the hard cap kicks in after the trial period?
> 
> I would have thought that a reasonable negotiating stance would have
> been to counterpropose some compromise numbers for the luxury tax
> and get rid of the hard cap provision but he didn't even consider it. 
> The "negotiations" up to this point baffle me. If it were like
bargaining 
> for a car, it would be something like this:
>   STERN (the customer): I am buying a car for my wife (the owners).
> 	She wants a Ferrari but she tends to overspend because she wants 
> 	to impress her friends. The sticker price for the car is $300,000 
> 	which is too high. Let's negotiate. I offer $250,000.
>   HUNTER (the car dealer): Outrageous! I would starve to death on	
> 	that income. I won't accept less to $500,000! And your wife should
> 	have more self-control! 
>   (Stern walks out in a huff and returns a month later.)
>   STERN: Alright, I'm willing to negotiate. I offer $260,000.
>   HUNTER: OK, now I understand that $300,000 for a car is too
expensive for
> 	you so here is my reasonable counterproposal. I'll give you the car
> 	without air conditioning for $299,000. To discourage your wife 
> 	from spending more than $300K, I'll impose a luxury tax on air 
> 	conditioners of 50%. 
>   STERN: We can work with the luxury tax. How about a completely 
> 	unequipped car for $260,000 and a luxury tax of 50% on A/C,
> 	100% on a sunroof, 200% on the GPS navigator? And if she still 
> 	buys this car, next time we'll agree that the car should be $270K. 
>   HUNTER: What!? Under these conditions your wife will buy a Geo and
> 	I will starve to death! 
> 
> Alex
> 

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