Players union rejected the owner's proposal and are now suing the owners.

Anyone else pissed by this?

Personally I want to figuratively punch Derek Fisher and the union straight in the face because what they want is far more then what the owners need. Most teams last year lost money and yet the players feel like they should get even more of the revenue. They also want to ruin the power balance in the league with they're opposition to hard cap rules and bird rights proposed by the owners. The thing is the owners are acting in the best interest of the league in terms of fairness and economic survival, but the players want more money, teams to ignore the salary cap, and rookies earning more because players like derrick rose are "stuck" for 1 more year only earning 5 million dollars.

As you can see I am very biased against the union, not because they didn't accept the latest deal but because they are greedy *******s

Derek Fisher does is serve as a figure head. Someone for the press to talk to and someone who basically gives the demands the players are asking for.

He's kinda like Obama. Though he may have a fancy job title it doesn't mean he just has all this power and does anything without a bunch of other people giving input.

I don't keep up with NBA, but what the players want is ridiculous, and the cost will be passed on to the fans. Along with the possible TA strike, this is just another reason why unions have lost their usefulness in society. (These players are all millionaires, what do they have to complain about?!)

^exactly. they make millions, are adored, have everything they need. just go play

Replace those that rejected with the top stars from college basketball! I am sure a lot of those people would love to continue into professional, even if they ONLY start at $1 million and many of them are really good

The owners haven't done anything to help negotiations either. They were determined to push the players to the edge and had no intention of playing a season. They also get huge money off television contracts and merch. Not to mention the NBA has seen huge growths in popularity in recent years. I'd like to see some proof for all these claims that teams are losing millions of dollars. Also owners are complaining about how players are overpaid, but who signed those contracts? How many contracts do we keep seeing where players are insanely overpaid? In recent memory there has been: Joe Johnson, and Rudy Gay. I've been seeing a lot of people blindly blaming players due to the propaganda pulled out by Stern and the league.

Don't get me wrong, I blame both parties. The Union should have decertified MUCH earlier and they might still have had leverage and we might have a NBA season by now. If not, then Billy Hunter and Derrick Fisher should have been hard at work getting a deal done before this whole mess.

The players are not the only greedy ones. The owners are as well. No one is doing anything for the greater good, they are both doing what is best for them. So players aren't the only greedy ones here.

In the end I'm just a NBA fan wanting to see some games.

Originally Posted by khaotic

The owners haven't done anything to help negotiations either. They were determined to push the players to the edge and had no intention of playing a season. They also get huge money off television contracts and merch. Not to mention the NBA has seen huge growths in popularity in recent years. I'd like to see some proof for all these claims that teams are losing millions of dollars.

That's the thing it would seem like the league makes a lot of money and they do, except the expenses overtake their share of the revenue. 22 of the 30 teams lost money, and the argument against that is the amortization of the purchase of the franchise which actually makes complete sense (it's common practice to do this, its like a mortgage where you don't go into hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt the moment you buy a house).

I wouldn't say that the owners are being greedy at all, they aren't asking for fatter paychecks like the players they are asking for the financial stability of the whole league.

About Joe Johnson and Rudy Gay players are overpaid in every sport it doesn't resemble anything about the league structure. Kaka, every nfl rookie, kovalchuk, all the players only the yankees can afford etc.

About the derek fisher thing, I agree and thats why I said both "figuratively" and "derek fisher and the union"