USA – Players to mull over revised offer by owners

NEW YORK (NBA) - The owners of NBA teams have presented players with a revised proposal for a new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) in the hope of ending the lockout and starting a 72-game season on December 15.

Players are expected to vote on the proposal early next week.

The executive director of the NBPA, Billy Hunter, said: "It's not the greatest proposal in the world, but I have an obligation to at least present it to our membership.

"So that's what we're going to do."

The revised offer still has what is effectively a 50-50 split of Basketball Related Income (BRI) for the owners and players.

The latter had hoped to receive more favorable conditions on system issues related to player movement and the salary cap.

Players did get some concessions by the end of Thursday.

The minimum payroll for teams has historically been to pay 75% of the salary cap, but that percentage is to go up significantly.

The owners also offered a new exception worth $2.5million that teams at the salary cap could spend on acquiring a new player.

"We don't expect them to love every aspect of our revised proposal," NBA commissioner David Stern said.

"I would say that there are many teams that don't like every aspect of our revised proposal."

Should the offer not be accepted by the players next week, Stern said the owners will remove the offer and propose 47% of BRI for the players, a hard salary cap and less favorable proposal overall.

Should players reject the latest offer, however, there may the possibility of more negotiations.

Stern had previously set Wednesday as a deadline for the players to accept an offer which included the 50-50 BRI split but talks were allowed to continue on Thursday, which led to the revised proposal.

However, Stern said no one should expect continued talk this time if the players do not give a thumbs-up to the deal.

"There comes a time when you have to be through negotiating, and we are,” he said.

"I am optimistic owners will approve it if the players approve it and I await their response. We've done our best."

There is also the possibility of the NBPA being decertified.

Thirty percent of the players must sign a petition for there to be a vote on decertification of the union.

While that would allow for negotiations to continue between the owners and NBPA for 45 days, it would also increase the likelihood of the labor dispute going to the courtrooms.

Should the issue go to the courts, the season would almost certainly be cancelled.

The lockout started on July 1.

FIBA