NBPA outside counsel Jeffrey Kessler revealed that one of the union's CBA proposals to "help the bottom lines of ailing teams is to give bad teams more draft picks," according to Henry Abbott of ESPN.com. Kessler on Wednesday was "complaining about how little the league's offers had changed over time, and was facing a tough question" about how much the NBPA's CBA proposal has changed since negotiations began. Kessler said, "We've put out proposals to change the split of revenue in the future, in their favor." He added, "We've put out proposals to improve the ability of teams who have not done so well to compete better on the court, for example by giving them an additional first-round draft choice" (ESPN.com, 6/9). After partaking in this week's labor negotiations with league officials and team owners, Knicks G and NBPA VP Roger Mason Jr. is "not certain that a new collective bargaining agreement with the league will be in place by July 1." Mason said, "I'm hopeful, but right now the gap is pretty wide as far as the league and the latest proposal that they gave us, and what we're willing to do as players." He pointed to "two major disagreements that the players' union has with the owners' recent proposal: The owners' desire for a hard salary cap and their proposed split of the league's basketball-related income between owners and players." Mason: "We understand the landscape has changed since the last deal, so we're willing to make concessions, but I think what the owners are asking right now is just way too much, and it's above and beyond (the money) they're losing" (ESPN.com, 6/9).
IT'S JUST TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE: SPORTING NEWS' David Steele writes either the NBA and union "have to keep their unproductive labor negotiations away from public view, or the league has to bury the game-by-game reports on ABC's Finals ratings." As long as both are "being revealed to the world at practically the same time, the NBA is going to look more foolish by the day" (SPORTING NEWS TODAY, 6/10). In a special to FOXSPORTS.com, Mitch Lawrence wrote a lockout after this NBA season "flies in the face of the game's popularity." The 11.1 overnight rating for Tuesday's Heat-Mavericks game was the "second-highest Game 4 rating in the last seven years." Overall, the Finals "have been getting the highest ratings since Lakers-Pistons in 2004" (FOXSPORTS.com, 6/9).
