NBA Commissioner David Stern Gives Players Until Wednesday To Accept Offer

NBA Commissioner David Stern provided the league’s players union with an offer on Saturday, accept 51 percent of basketball-related income by Wednesday or you’ll be offered a far worse deal.

After the deal was offered players attorney Jeffrey Kessler released the following statement:

“The players will not be intimidated… “They want to play, they want a season, but they are not going to sacrifice the future of all NBA players under these types of threats of intimidation. It’s not happening on Derek Fisher’s watch; it’s not happening on Billy Hunter’s watch; it’s not happening on the watch of this executive committee.”

Kessler went on to note that the deal was really only worth 50.2 percent while giving his opinion that the idea of a 51 percent split was a “fraud” and “illusion” meant to trick players into signing a deal.

If a deal isn’t reached by Wednesday Stern is expected to drop that amount to just 47 percent BRI while calling for a flex salary cap.

Speaking to ESPN Union President Derek Fisher noted:

“Today was another sad day for our fans, for arena workers, our parking lot attendants, our vendors. Very frustrating, sad day,” and “We, for sure, unequivocally, made good faith efforts to try to get this deal done tonight. And we’re at a loss for why we could not close it out.”

While no deal has been reached 128 days into the lockout there could be a big win on the horizon for NBA team owners as some players began to hold conference calls to discuss decertifying the union and then going after team owners. In order to decertify the players would need 30% of their fellow NBA players to sign the deal, approximately 130 people.

Even if a decertification agreement is reached it would take nearly 45 days for the National Labor Relations Board to verify the petition and then a vote would need to be taken.

Tweeting his support for decertification Nets guard Deron Williams said:

“I’ve been ready to sign a decertification petition since July?” adding “Can’t believe we are just now going this route! SMH.”

I personally don’t believe a court room battle will end in favor of NBA players, could you imagine suing your boss as an employee and demanding that they pay you more than half of the profits for the company they own? It’s like that a federal judge would grant a 50/50 split rather than potentially hurting the profit structure of the overall business.

In the meantime the battle continues and the Wednesday deadline approached.

Do you think the player’s union should except the split? After all they aren’t assuming any of the business risk while already making millions of dollars.

[Image via ShutterStock.com]