NBA Player's Union Wants Players To Prepare For Work Stoppage

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nba/salaries/2014/07/01/nbpa-union-players-18-month-contracts-prepare-for-lockout/11902881/



NBA union wants players to prepare for work stoppage
Sam Amick and  Jeff Zillgitt, USA TODAY Sports 2:42 p.m. EDT July 1, 2014





With NBA free agency tipping off on Tuesday, the players union issued a warning to its constituents in a recent memo obtained by USA TODAY Sports: stretch your salary payments out just in case there's a work stoppage.

Players and owners have the ability to opt out of the current collective bargaining agreement after the 2016-17 season, and the memo is the most telling sign yet that one or possibly both sides may exercise.

Specifically, the letter – which was written by interim executive director Ron Klempner – advised players from LeBron James on down who are free agents to use a provision which allows them to be paid over 18 months instead of 12 during the course of a season. The provision was negotiated into the current collective bargaining agreement during the negotiations that ended the 2011 lockout.

"We suggest that you consider including this provision in any multi-year contract you negotiate, specifically for the 2016-17 season," Klempner wrote. "An 18-month payment schedule for 2016-17 will allow a player to continue receiving paychecks throughout the 2017-18 season, even if the players are lockout that season."


The players, in essence, are being advised to learn from their mistakes of the past. In the 2011 lockout, as Klempner detailed, NBA owners utilized provisions such as these in their own revenue streams as a way of surviving the six-month-long standoff.

"As we have learned in the past, the owners have made provisions with the TV networks to continue to receive rights fees throughout a work stoppage," Klempner continued, "and there is no reason the players should not make every effort to take the same precaution."

According to the CBA, the default payment schedule is 12 months (24 paychecks) but players who make above the minimum salary can choose to be over 18 months (36 paychecks) or six months (12 paychecks). All checks are equal semi-monthly payments. That provision was made part of the collective bargaining agreement for that very purpose – to give players financial protection in case of a labor stoppage.

In the 2011 lockout, which resulted in the loss of regular-season games and a 66-game schedule, the owners were considered victorious in several key areas: the split of basketball-related income, a more punitive luxury tax and shorter player contracts.

The league was able to take a greater share of basketball-related income – it's now 50%-50% split of revenue whereas before the players used to get 57% and the league 43%. The NBA also instituted a far more punitive luxury tax with escalating fees depending on high over the luxury tax line a team goes and the maximum length of contracts decreased from six years to five years.

But players will enter the next collective bargaining talks with some leverage. NBA teams are selling at record prices – $550 million for the Milwaukee Bucks and possibly $2 billion for the Los Angeles Clippers – and the league will negotiate a new TV deal that will generate more money for the league and the players, too.



bob
MY NOTE:  Velly Intellesting.


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Sensible move by the players' association.

In the last CBA negotiation, the league tried to argue that 22 out of 30 teams were losing money. It will be difficult for the owners to plead poverty in the next CBA negotiation.