Owners about to bend

["Nathan A." <nj13@navix.net>]

At critical juncture, NBA principals
descend on New York 

By Mike Kahn
CBS SportsLine Executive Editor
Oct. 26, 1998 

The 400-player stroll is coming to New York, and NBA owners are blinking. 

They should be. 

Threats and promises have been
blossoming as the NBA lockout of
its players amid acrimonious
collective bargaining approaches
its fifth month. We already know
the first two weeks of the regular
season have been canceled, and
the league is expected to
announce this week that the loss
of games will stretch through all of
November. 

The players met en masse
Thursday in Las Vegas with a
unified front, appearing stronger
than ever behind executive director
Billy Hunter. The prevailing
perspective is the next step is to
come to New York and confront the owners and the NBA front office. 

And all of that comes after Monday's ... double top-secret, Sergeant Schultz
knows nothing, Darryl Dawkins is still dunking, Dennis Rodman got two
more tattoos . . . meeting between the two sides. Word is thirtysomething
people were there, and progress was made. 

Maybe. 

This could be fun. 

THIS IS WAR OVER THE OWNERS' DESIRE to have a hard cap that will
limit the amount of salaries doled out every year rather than retaining the
soft cap and the Larry Bird exception, which allows for teams to pay as
much money as they can for their own free agents. 

Owners don't want to be paying out more than 57 percent of the basketball
related income as they did this season. They had expected it to be closer to
52 percent, a discrepancy that allowed them to terminate this agreement
with two years left. 

"If the NBA insists upon a hard cap, there very well may not be a season,"
Hunter said. "We're prepared to deal and be reasonable." 

You probably already knew that, however vague it may be. It has been
written and discussed enough. There is this matter of a luxury tax, which
the players seem to think is a means of negotiation, if only because it is
their answer to the owners. If there is a luxury tax payback to the league
and other teams when a salary exceeds a certain level, then it will coerce
owners to keep pay down. 

Yeah, right. And we've seen what it has done to baseball. The rich teams
get richer and the rest of the teams keep hoping exceptional managers can
get young players to play over their heads. Of course, the spectacular
season of seasons masked all those problems. Nevertheless, there remains
a huge disparity between big- and small-market teams in baseball -- and the
NBA already is struggling with that. 

The luxury tax would only serve to create a greater disproportion between
the haves and have-nots. And the original proposal from the players put only
two players -- Michael Jordan ($33 million) and Patrick Ewing ($20.5 million)
-- in the category of a luxury tax. The NBA countered with anyone who
made at least $2.6 million. 

And yet that appears to be the area in which the owners are bending. 

SO WITH THE BOARD OF GOVERNORS IN New York to meet Tuesday
and Wednesday -- beginning with the rendezvous of the owners' labor
committee from nine teams on Tuesday -- the players claimed up to 400
would show up Wednesday for a grand meeting of the minds. 

Does it really matter that Jordan is unifying with the rest of the players? Now
that Karl Malone and David Robinson have elected to join the rank-and-file
after entire careers of ignoring all of this, does that further galvanize these
players? 

The leadership is touching. That they are speaking on behalf of younger
players is good. But they can afford to. Those guys are millionaires. They
don't have to work ever again if they don't want to. The implication in recent
comments of this being comparable to slave labor is beyond belief.
Remember, the average salary last year was $2.6 million. Granted the
median was far below that. Still, you get the point. 

As the minimum salaries soar beyond $300,000 a year, we're not callous
enough to discount the limited number of years of income most players
have. We're also not denying the owners tend to be greedy, hogs seeking
only to feather their already opulent nests. Then again, they are the owners! 

Which brings us to the grandest point of all. Do owners of professional
sports teams have a different responsibility than those of other businesses?
Most accept that as a fact. Others just lie to the fans and the media, just as
they do to make their other ventures successful. 

WE ARE WATCHING CAPITALISM IN ITS purest form. That's what the
luxury tax will perpetuate, and the players don't care. If you have a salable
product -- even if it is your own body -- then it is your inalienable right
to get
as much money to perform as possible. 

The scariest term that had been sidestepped for the most part until last
week is decertification of the union. It's something the agents and union
attorneys began promoting in 1995 when both sides settled for the
agreement they just dumped. Now the move to decert is coming back loud
and clear. It would eliminate the collective bargaining laws because the
union would be gone. Lawsuits from players then would begin to come out of
the woodwork. 

It would get very ugly. There would be no 1998-99 NBA season. Make no
mistake, it is the worst thing that could happen to the NBA at this moment.
Perhaps it is that detestable d-word that is compelling the owners to get off
their high horse. 

They are on the brink of disaster. NBA commissioner David Stern has all but
said if the season doesn't begin by mid-January, it will be canceled. The
NBA All-Star Game, scheduled for Feb. 14 in Philadelphia, is obviously in
serious peril, too. 

Who would be the All-Stars if they've only played a dozen regular season
games -- out of shape and in disarray from last-minute free-agents signings?
Calling it an All-Star Game would be a misnomer. 

This is a mess, and it needs to be settled this week. Let's see ... if there are
400 players vs. 29 owners and some groupies on both sides for good
measure, it's tough not to go with the players when Wednesday's game
unfolds. 

We'll take the players and give you, uh, 12 points. 
___________________________________________________________
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