NBA players union director Bill Hunter sat down with Bill Simmons for an ESPN podcast.
Hunter didn’t break a lot of new ground, but you again get to see the players thinking — that the owners are trying to exploit them by driving down salaries so the ultra rich can get richer. Sure, the players will make a lot of money still but it’s an issue of fairness to them (and as long as it remains such they will not break).
Go listen to the whole thing, but here are a few highlights.
• Hunter: “I thought we were trying to reach compromise when we were there last week. I suspect it’s more about an internal battle that may be brewing or that’s occurring between the big and small markets over the proposals we’ve submitted. We don’t want to be totally exploited.”
(So, only partially exploited is okay?)
• Hunter: “I know there’s a struggle when we talk wealth, you’re going to say to me we’re talking about billionaires and millionaires. Well, a guy making a few dollars during his playing career, but most of our players when they end playing basketball, they’re going to be living for another 40 years or so. And I don’t know how long that money’s going to last, even if they’ve made every prudent investment they can possibly make, at what level they’re going to be able to live.
“But after a while it just become a principle. For a lot of these players, that’s what it’s about. They feel as though the owners have dug in.”
• Hunter talked about a “game changer” plan brought up by Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, a system that would not have had a salary cap. The players were open to whatever that idea was, but Hunter said the small market owners shot it down.
• Hunter didn’t say much about Bryant Gumbel’s comments, other than to say David Stern is nota racist.
• There was one ray of hope. Almost. Hunter hinted that the players would be willing to give on their call of 53 percent of basketball related income, but the players needed some give back on the “system issues” such as the luxury tax and contract lengths.
That’s usually how a negotiation works, give and take. It’s not what the owners are doing. They are going for the rout, demanding both a larger share of the revenue and changes to the existing system. Because there is no give and take from the owners, well, the players don’t think things are fair and they dig in.
And the NBA dies a little every day because of it.
