Locking Out Ewing & Luthor

[Josh Ozersky <josh_ozersky@yahoo.com>]

I love it!  They had to lock out the Georgetown mafia out of the
negotiation.  Ewing and Lex Luthor would have rather trashed the
season than accept a high end cap.  Assholes.

NBA Deal a Real
Buzzer Beater
Cooler heads finally prevail 

By MITCH LAWRENCE 
Daily News Sports Writer

<Picture>BA owners and players finally agreed on one thing: getting
rid of David Falk.

That move paved the way for the NBA to reach its 11th-hour deal
yesterday at 5:30 a.m., averting certain catastrophe. By eliminating
the superagent's link to the negotiations — in the person of union
president Patrick Ewing — the Players Association removed the most
militant member of its bargaining group.

<Picture: billyhunter_deal.JPG (7386 bytes)><Picture>Billy Hunter
speaks with reporters after agreeing to a deal with David Stern. 

The other key move? Union chief Billy Hunter's call to David Stern on
Tuesday afternoon, suggesting the two sides try once more to hammer
out a deal before 200-odd players came to New York, ready to vote and,
even more so, ready to play.

Next on the schedule were the owners, who were ready to fly into town
to nuke their own league.

"We realized that with all the guys coming in, it was the best time to
try to reach a deal, so we could present something to the players,"
said Danny Schayes, a member of the players' negotiating committee.
"Earlier (Tuesday), several players suggested to Billy that we were
close enough to . . . a deal where we thought it would be good to try
to get back in the room with David one more time. It wasn't a
'now-or-never' deal."

But it was close. Hunter made the call rather than risk a potential
mutiny when the players arrived yesterday and assembled in the
25th-floor offices of a midtown Manhattan law firm.

"If there wasn't something to vote on, then there would have been big
problems," said the Magic's Nick Anderson. "There would have been an
earthquake on the 25th floor."

Instead, there was a landslide. The players overwhelmingly approved
the deal Hunter and the commissioner had worked eight hours to
complete. The pair started by having dinner, but that was after Hunter
left the union offices at 8:30 Tuesday night.

"Someone said Billy had a headache and he was just going out for some
air," said one union official. "But it was 10 degrees outside. We knew
he was going somewhere."

<Picture><Picture: stern_deal2.JPG (8588 bytes)>Stern is all smiles
yesterday after reaching a deal with the Players Association. 

Hunter walked briskly cross-town to the NBA offices, where Stern was
waiting. They were joined by deputy commissioner Russ Granik, league
attorney Jeffrey Mishkin and union lawyers John Quinn and Jeffrey
Kessler. The notable absentee was Ewing, who had been involved in
every other negotiating session.

This time, Ewing got locked out and so did Falk, who didn't approve of
a cap on the highest salaried players. After all, he represents a lot
of them. 

"If Patrick was in there, he would have fought on certain things and
there still might not be a deal," one source said. "But Billy made the
right call, because he knew he had to have a deal."

At the outset, both sides produced a list of priorities. For the
owners, the must-haves were the high-end salary limitations and a
five-year rookie contract. For the players, it was two midlevel salary
exceptions and increased minimum salary. Both sides bargained with a
sense of urgency. The mood to agree, lacking for six months, suddenly
was in the air.

"Did we blink?" Hunter said later. "I guess we both blinked."

"Stern didn't want to blow up the season," said an ownership source.
"His owners might have. But he really didn't."

Hunter knew the players had to get something out of it, too. Player
started arriving at the GM Building about 1 p.m. yesterday. Inside the
conference room, there were very few speeches before the vote. After
the players approved the deal, they were visited by Stern and other
league officials. The message was simple: The two warring sides had to
put aside their differences and work together to win back the fans.

A half-hour after going up to the 25th floor to see his players, Stern
emerged about 3 p.m. He now was wearing a blue union button on his
gray suit. It read, "Solid." Surrounded by a phalanx of security men,
the man who said Monday that he was through negotiating with the
players — and ready to bring in "replacement players" for the
1999-2000 season — left the building to cheers.

He was asked if he was happy with the deal.

"Yes," Stern said, looking like a man who hadn't slept all night, his
voice barely audible.





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