Knicks · Things are getting Bizarre, NBA disputes Paul Allen reports, digs deeper (page 1)
Posted on: October 22, 2011 4:41 pm
Edited on: October 22, 2011 4:52 pm
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When Thursday's labor negotiations between the NBA and its players broke down, Portland Trail Blazers owner Paul Allen emerged as an obvious villain. National Basketball Players Association executive director Billy Hunter said that Allen was sent into the negotiating room to deliver an ultimatum from the NBA's Board of Governors and the union's chief lawyer, Jeffrey Kessler, said the meeting was "hijacked" by Allen's presence.
On Friday, NBA deputy commissioner Adam Silver defended Allen, disputing these accounts of events in an interview with The Oregonian.
"I do not understand why his presence has taken on a life of its own as if he was sent in to deliver a message to the players," Silver said.
"Paul is in the same position as every other owner. He wants a system where every team is in a position to compete for a championship and every team, if managed properly, has a chance to make a profit.
"In no way was his presence intended to send a message."
The plot thickens, though, because a sportswriter for the paper noted that the NBA and the Portland Trail Blazers would only make Silver available for an interview with a specific reporter who usually does not cover the Blazers. The writer also said that the NBA and/or the Blazers threatened to have Silver interview with a competitor if they did not agree to those terms.Yes, you read that correctly. The NBA just allegedly disputed that one of their owners issued a "take it or leave it" ultimatum to the players by issuing a "take it our leave it" ultimatum to a newspaper. They allegedly decided to make it clear that Allen didn't issue a statement that pre-conditioned the negotiations by pre-conditioning their disputed account. They allegedly defended Allen from charges of a "my way or the highway" attitude by threatening the paper with the most basic "my way or the highway" tactic known to media.Well, the NBA is nothing if not consistent!
As Ken Berger of CBSSports.com eloquently put it, this is circus behavior.
The NBA is trying to fight what it feels are misrepresentations of its opinions and the behavior in these sessions. They’re faced with an uphill battle against a media that in their mind is unfairly taking the side of the players. They’re trying to do the best they can with limited resources while maintaining a general wall against transparency in order to keep negotiations confidential. That’s part of what was so stunning about Hunter’s revelations on Thursday. It pulled back the curtain, which neither side wants because in tense situations, people say things that aren’t going to look right in public without context. And so the NBA is trying to clear this up as quickly and quietly as possible. And that’s a reasonable position.It’s just that they kind of suck at it. Not really badly, and not as badly as I would suck at it, and not as badly as the players have sucked at getting their message across, but still. This comes across as bullying. It’s just trying to keep things in perspective and control the story as much as possible to avoid damage. But giving media outlets ultimatums? That’s a bad look. The media’s got no league to cover, so it’s jumping on everything (he said mid-jump). Talking to the Oregonian to clear up concerns about a possible sale and to lessen the damage of Allen looking like a bad guy? Good idea!
Doing it by demanding that only the business writer and none of the beat writers be involved? Bad idea.
This concludes your lockout “what the hell” story of the day. Join us tomorrow for what we’re sure will be the players’ turn!
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Very fair statement.
I thought Hunter was out of line but he has to gain some traction.
To me the "surprise" of the owners being calculating and the players feeling bullied is kind of interesting.
I think the owners prefer to not call out any players as when this is all said and done they are back to being partners.
Gilbert im sure would love to go off on Lebron as might some other owners on some players. Think Dolan has a bone to pick with Marbury and how that contract was "fair"? Sure the owners are "dumb" for signing these guys but what we don't see is when the agents are negotiating on the players behalf as to what the player will do, how he has matured, how he will lead the team, etc, and they in a few high profile instances mail it the players in effect have held huge power and the owners are in no legal position to do a damn thing about it. Eddy, Shawn Kemp, Marbles, Rashard, more injury related Arenas are some bad examples. Houston, McGrady and Grant Hill (combined over 300 million!) are hard luck injury contracts that while innocent in nature, still have an impact. Owners paid those contracts.
Dwight, Lebron, Melo, Bosh, and Wade are all high profile situations where they have or are exercise their powers and in some cases very much was about them and not the league or the team. Owners feel they have to make changes.
And also after his performance over the past few days, if Adam Silver becomes the next commissioner of the nba, it will be an absolute disaster for the league
Nalod wrote:
Very fair statement.I thought Hunter was out of line but he has to gain some traction.
To me the "surprise" of the owners being calculating and the players feeling bullied is kind of interesting.
I think the owners prefer to not call out any players as when this is all said and done they are back to being partners.
Gilbert im sure would love to go off on Lebron as might some other owners on some players. Think Dolan has a bone to pick with Marbury and how that contract was "fair"? Sure the owners are "dumb" for signing these guys but what we don't see is when the agents are negotiating on the players behalf as to what the player will do, how he has matured, how he will lead the team, etc, and they in a few high profile instances mail it the players in effect have held huge power and the owners are in no legal position to do a damn thing about it. Eddy, Shawn Kemp, Marbles, Rashard, more injury related Arenas are some bad examples. Houston, McGrady and Grant Hill (combined over 300 million!) are hard luck injury contracts that while innocent in nature, still have an impact. Owners paid those contracts.
Dwight, Lebron, Melo, Bosh, and Wade are all high profile situations where they have or are exercise their powers and in some cases very much was about them and not the league or the team. Owners feel they have to make changes.
There are more positive examples than the few bad cases you bring up. Also injury is a known risk all owners take. Sports is a high risk business. If you want less risk then you don't get into a business that like Horse racing or auto racing is fraught with risk at every turn. When you go at full speed in any sport you run the risk of injury.
Fans are in love with the game and the players took it to a high level last year. That's why viewership and attendance where up. The current financial state is the doing of the owners and the owners themselves. They compressed and spread the salaries from the top to the middle and that means that more of the teams are carrying the financial burden than in the past when more of the player salary was concentrated at the top. The OWNERS did this to themselves. When the elite make less and the large middles class in the NBA makes more, then you have teams that shouldn't be paying so much overextended for players that don't help their bottom line. I've been trying to get you to see this, but I don't know if you understand what i've been trying to say.
The players aren't responsible for the BUSINESS side of the sport. The Owners are! If there are financial problems that is 100% on the shoulders of the owners. The players are responsible for the show on the court and they did a great job as the fans support showed. If the owners did as well on the business end things would be in great shape.