I find it hard to believe that a meeting would go 16 hours w/o any progress being made. I mean, what the hell were they doing for the entire time? Talking about the weather?
This is the same mediator who worked with the NFL & NFLPA. During those both sides agreed to a gag order and had several very long sessions. Not 16 hrs, but still ~10hrs. Not sure why those reporters and ya'll were expecting a full blown press conference/statement. 16 hours is a long time, but they could have broken down all of the small issues. Also remember that the mediator is attacking this from a different method. Instead of haggling negotiation ("here is my offer, no here is my offer. I'll give you this if you give me that.") He is trying to use value based negotiation...") Essentially the 2nd form requires that both sides put everything out on the table and actually trust that the other group is trying to do the best for both. To get all that information out there, and rebuild the trust that has disappeared can take time like a 16 hr meeting. Part of that time could be them going over all the financial info that is the NBA's basis for claiming 19 teams are losing money. Makes sense since the mediator was not previously privy to it, and apparently the players have not been able to locate it.
Personally.. I think they are watching the series of Lost trying to answer all the questions that were left unanswered.
Their previous meeting was fairly long too and nothing got settled. But I think there was some progress last night. They most likely still have 1-2 things left they still have not fully agreed upon to. But look for the season to start in mid-november. I'm more optimistic now. Hopefully I'm right.
He probably planted the seeds to the NFL deal, but the union still had to decertify to get the owners to properly negotiate. DD
I think they were all told to say that they are not close to a deal so people like KG, Lebron and Wade can't come in and sabotage any progress made.
Why do you say that? The news should be they have an agreement. This "no news" stuff has been bad news up to now. I'm not optimistic.
Regardless of how odious Stern is, the reality is that free agency forces owners to overpay, and that a cap is needed to keep big market teams from gobbling up all the superstars. So if a deal can't get done today then I hope the owners cancel the season, because the players are idiots, and the only thing that's going to wake them up is missing paychecks.
I tend to agree with you, except the 1-2 things left are most likely major and the most difficult to tackle.
As much as I agree that the players need a wake up call I'd hate to lose even a half season of development for our players. Not to mention the impact it would have on the 2012 Draft. I've been in favor of tanking a half season to get a top 5 pick. this draft has better talent than 2011.
If you have a hard cap and all other things are equal as far as money is concerned, the choice superstars still have no incentive to play in Milwuakee as opposed to New York. A harder cap would not have kept Melo in Denver. It won't keep Howard in Orlando.
Eventually you have to start asking if a franchise tag is necessary, if sign and trades are detrimental when players use them as leverage to force trades, and if the smaller market teams should really exist. Is this a 26 team league with 30 franchises?
Here's what I think are the key issues. Owners - should be allowed to have a profitable league. There needs to be some kind of sharing to allow smaller market teams to compete. Players - A hard salary cap isn't fair to the players if the league does start making money. Players should be able to share in those profits they helped create. The players can't demand to make money on profits that don't exist.
What's the Guinness record for the longest meeting in the World? Surely this would be in the top 5. Meeting for 17 hours straight? That's just insane. Even more insane if nothing was accomplished in that time span.
