They maintain that league owners who have spent money irresponsibly on big contracts or new arenas are trying to dump their debt onto players who sell tickets and put fans in seats.
Despite the divide, the negotiations have been marked by uncommon civility. Both sides seem fearful of provoking the public through whining or stone-throwing.
The league registered increases in nearly every measure of interest this season, from television ratings to jersey sales, and both sides seem to understand that a work stoppage of any length would damage that relationship.
“You are going to teach fans to learn to live without the sport you are promoting,” said David Falk, a longtime Washington-based agent. “Anytime I hear that players are losing money and owners are losing money, I wonder how that sounds to a guy who’s out of a job. It probably makes him sick. He has zero sympathy. These are people who can’t even afford to go to games. We need to be more sensitive to that.”
Before the start of the NBA Finals, Silver said in late May that the league already had suffered from the stalled talks.
“Our business partners, both our marketing partners and our licensees who need to plan in the normal course of business, are unable to make their usual media buys,” Silver said. “And so the uncertainty is having a great impact on our business . . . . And while we’ve incurred some damage already, it will move to a new level once we’re in a work stoppage, if that were to occur.”
If there is an NBA lockout, it likely won’t look anything like the one that has brought the NFL to a halt. As soon as talks collapsed, NFL players ended their union so they could file an antitrust lawsuit against the league.
NBA players seem unlikely to leap from the negotiating table to federal court for two reasons: The federal appellate court assigned to the NFL’s case has so far sided with ownership and, according to some legal experts, dissolving the union could threaten the host of guaranteed contracts in the NBA.
Yet if the two sides can’t reach a deal before the collective bargaining agreement expires, it might be some time before they get back to the table.
“Once you go into a lockout, everyone knows the offers get worse, not better,” Stern said recently. “If we can make a deal, we’ll take care of all the issues.”
Staff writer Michael Lee contributed to this report.
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