NEW YORK — NBA players have until Wednesday to accept commissioner David Stern’s latest offer, though the response already seems obvious.
“Right now, we’ve been given the ultimatum, and our answer is that’s not acceptable to us,” union president Derek Fisher said.
The next proposal promises to be worse, surely moving players and owners even further apart and threatening to destroy the 2011-12 season.
Early Sunday morning, the league said it offered players up to 51 percent of basketball-related income — a figure the union insists is fiction. Regardless, it will drop to 47 percent Wednesday if players don’t accept the current offer.
No agreement by the deadline likely will trigger more calls to disband the union and take on the league in court, a battle that would take months.
With the union unwilling to take the latest proposal to its members for a vote, both sides must be prepared to live with the real possibility of the loss of more games and possibly the season.
